Posted on 08/07/2006 7:48:55 AM PDT by PajamaTruthMafia
LONDON, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Reuters withdrew all 920 photographs by a freelance Lebanese photographer from its database on Monday after an urgent review of his work showed he had altered two images from the conflict between Israel and the armed group Hizbollah.
Global Picture Editor Tom Szlukovenyi called the measure precautionary but said the fact that two of the images by photographer Adnan Hajj had been manipulated undermined trust in his entire body of work.
"There is no graver breach of Reuters standards for our photographers than the deliberate manipulation of an image," Szlukovenyi said in a statement.
"Reuters has zero tolerance for any doctoring of pictures and constantly reminds its photographers, both staff and freelance, of this strict and unalterable policy."
The news and information agency announced the decision in an advisory note to its photo service subscribers. The note also said Reuters had tightened editing procedures for photographs from the conflict and apologised for the case.
Removing the images from the Reuters database excludes them from future sale.
Reuters ended its relationship with Hajj on Sunday after it found that a photograph he had taken of the aftermath of an Israeli air strike on suburban Beirut had been manipulated using Photoshop software to show more and darker smoke rising from buildings.
An immediate enquiry began into Hajj's other work.
It established on Monday that a photograph of an Israeli F-16 fighter over Nabatiyeh, southern Lebanon and dated Aug 2, had also been doctored to increase the number of flares dropped by the plane from one to three.
"Manipulating photographs in this way is entirely unacceptable and contrary to all the principles consistently held by Reuters throughout its long and distinguished history. It undermines not only our reputation but also the good name of all our photographers," Szlukovenyi said.
"This doesn't mean that every one of his 920 photographs in our database was altered. We know that not to be the case from the majority of images we have looked at so far but we need to act swiftly and in a precautionary manner."
The two altered photographs were among 43 that Hajj filed directly to the Reuters Global Pictures Desk since the start of the conflict on July 12 rather than through an editor in Beirut, as was the case with the great majority of his images.
Filing drills have been tightened in Lebanon and only senior staff will now edit pictures from the Middle East on the Global Pictures Desk, with the final check undertaken by the Editor-in-Charge, Reuters said.
Hajj worked for Reuters as a non-staff contributing photographer from 1993 until 2003 and again since April 2005. Most of his work was in sports photography, much of it outside Lebanon.
Hajj was not in Beirut on Monday and was not responding to calls. He told Reuters on Sunday that the image of the Israeli air strike on Beirut had dust marks which he had wanted to remove.
Questions about the accuracy of the photograph arose after it appeared on news Web sites on Saturday.
Several blogs, including a number which accuse the media of distorted coverage of the Middle East conflict, said the photograph had been doctored.
Doctoring pictures is one thing but theres no excuse for doing it poorly.
Re. the unlucky woman. Almost every scene shown of the bombing that comes out of Lebanon is somehow staged or set up to melodramatically highten the effect. Arabs love that stuff. Anyone ever watch Egyptian soap operas? They are hilarious.
Well there were two other guys from Reuters in Qana taking pictures. Their names are Ali Hashisho and Zohra Bensemra Maybe we should check them out too. You know--birds of a feather...
Nice! Thanks, I'll use that elsewhere.
Merely corroborative detail, intended to give artistic versimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative.
....And yah wonder why this part of the World has conspiracy "issues;" they need to see proof that somebody's dead; or they run scared and back the wrong side because that side appears to be winning and they don't want to die after that side finds out they weren't backing them in the end?
We need to cut the good people of this region a break (i.e. Iraq and Lebanon). They've been living under pretty weird conditions--looking over their shoulders to keep their famiilies safe--for over 30 years, and we expect them to act rationally (under a system of laws) in a heartbeat. NOT gonna happen.
All the while, we need to be kicking butt and showing these good people that WE ARE THE STRONGER AND WE WILL BE THE GROUP LAST STANDING. That's when everything will really begin to change toward/for the better.
NordP
Why, so we couldn't look at them and see just how long he's been altering his photos???
On the same basis of known falsifications (Walter Duranty, Herbert Matthews, Jayson Blair et al), all New York Times stories for the last 75 years should be withdrawn and burned. All "news" from CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, AP, WaPo, LATimes, TIME, Newsweek and their satellite media should be added to the bonfire (Jack Kelley, Stephen Glass). For good measure, we should consign all Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism (Janet Cooke and Duranty [again]) to the flames.
LOL, too late, they are already out for all the world to see. Once something is online it can NEVER be "withdrawn".
FR, LGF, and bloggers of the world have outted the MSM dirty little secret. WE.ARE.ON.TO.YOU.
Their printed coverage makes their photos seem truly genuine.
There are lots of threads over the past couple of days. I'd say search for "any of": reuters photo photos adnan hajj doctored.
Two that come to mind immediately are the one (also officially pulled by Reuters) with the Israeli jet and the three flares, and one that's a composite of a guy in a baseball hat trudging through a pile of rubble pasted in front of a bombed building that's obviously taken from a different angle.
I thought he was merely suspended.
That is a good first half step by Rooters.
When they remove all of the staged photos by The Green Helmet Islamo thug and other staged events, that will be another good half step.
That one I've seen. I was referring to the 2nd picture of an Israeli F-16 fighter over Nabatiyeh, southern Lebanon and dated Aug 2.
Just trying to prevent further scrutiny.
I thought he was merely suspended.
It doesnt matter, he'll just start using a different name. Does anyone REALLY think this guy has been canned? I guarantee youll still see similar pictures coming out. This does not change anything; we still have to be on watch for this stuff.
> Say what you will, it took CBS two weeks to admit Ratherlied.
That's my whole point. I fault CBS a lot more for what they did during those two weeks than for what happened that Wednesday night.
If Danny had jumped up and down on Thursday, screaming that this was a Rovian dirty trick, he would have come out of it a hero.
We are at war with Eurasia. We have always been at war with Eurasia.
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