BBC Uses False Photo on NK Explosion

The Korea Times ^ | 4/25/2004 | Park Song-wu

[yonif]

The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) made an erroneous reporting over the train explosion in North Korea by posting an incorrect satellite photo showing huge clouds of black smoke billowing from the alleged blast site on its Website.

The BBC explained Friday that the photo was taken 18 hours after the explosion in the northwest North Korean town of Ryongchon, but the black-and-white satellite image was later found to be taken after an air raid in Iraq.

Due to the superb timing of the mistaken photo Web-posting, many newspapers, including The Korea Times, printed the same photo in error in their early Saturday editions. South Korean media spared an important portion of their space and airtime Friday for the coverage of the tragic accident in the North.

Fortunately most of the newspapers replaced the photo in their late editions, but readers could still find the false image in a number of morning papers.

The BBC got the wrong satellite photo from the Government Communications Headquarters, an intelligence and security organization in Britain, according to Yonhap News Agency.

[Psycho_Bunny]

It was pretty obviously a mistake. I didn't mention it at the time but, nothing about the photo looked right.

[yonif]

Ping.

[GeronL]

More media 'mistakes'

[BigSkyFreeper]

I thought the photo looked rather different. I didn't think it was so desertlike in the north of NK. I saw that photo in question used earlier today on MSNBC as well.

[eno_]

Yeah, something does not smell right about that NK explosion.

[Erik Latranyi]

More media 'mistakes'

Media mistakes caused by the collusion of too many media organizations. If businesses cooperated to the extend that the media shares information, there would be an outcry for a stop to monopolistic, predatory practices.

[Diogenesis]

Jayson Blair?

Good to see BBC is temporarily out of the "extreme-prejudice-against-witnesses" biz.

[elli1]

An eagle-eyed Freeper spotted the fake early on. (Can't remember who it was or I'd give credit.)

[NaughtiusMaximus]

One of our sharp-eyed Freepers picked up the fake image on a very early post! I thought he had his tinfoil hat on too tight. It just goes to show you, trust a Freeper before you trust the British Baathist Communists (BBC).

[John Lenin]

You should see the blood and gore they have on Yahoo. Every story about Iraq has a picture of someone dead, dieing, or laying on a table with red swollen faces. I just called Reuters to complain about it.