They need to pay the photographer. It’s not honorable for them to try and slither out of doing what’s right.
I think Wikipedia is engaging in monkeyshines! There would be no photograph without the photographer having his equipment there and the photos are his work-product. Ownership / copyright derives from mhos work-product.
Now if Wikipedia / Wikimedia can show spontaneous generation of photos without intelligent intervention, let them produce such as the counter-argument!