Reuters admitting photo alteration
Reuters Group plc is a news service that provides reports from around the world to newspapers and broadcasters. In August 2006 they were accused of bias against Israel in its coverage of the Israel-Lebanon conflict because they used doctored photos taken by a Lebanese freelance photographer.
One of the photographs in question showed two very heavy plumes of black smoke billowing from buildings in Beirut after an Air Force attack on the Lebanese capital. American blogs immediately saw evidence of what can only be described as a really ugly photoshop job.
Why Reuters failed to notice any tampering I’m not sure but they eventually withdrew the photograph from their website, along a message admitting that the image was distorted, and an apology to editors. They also severed all ties with Adnan Hajj, the photographer responsible for the alterations.
I’m pretty sure that there wasn’t any intention of propaganda on Reuters part and perhaps the photographer was just trying to provide the best image he could in the fast paced, hyper-competitive world of freelance news photography.
There was obviously uproar over this whole situation with people demanding that we must be able to trust the images that we see in our news coverage otherwise the credibility of that coverage will suffer. But I think the way that the news is written can be open to just as much creative editing in my opinion. I guess what really suprised me the most about this image is just how bad a job the photographer made of it. What’s even more shocking is the potential that there could be a million more images out there that have gone undetected.
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