Reuters maintains silence on alleg ations of ‘staged images'

Reuters maintains dogged silence on

 

alleg  ations of ‘staged images’

After allegations surfaced that some of Reuters' freelance photographers have fabricated photographs of the Syrian conflict, the news wire organisation remains tight-lipped, refusing to answer any questions

Olivier Laurent 

“Reuters photographers, staff and freelancers must not stage or re-enact

 news events,” reads Reuters’ Handbook of Journalism. “They may not direct

 the subjects of their images, or add, remove or move objects on a news 

assignment. Our news photography must depict reality. Any attempt to alter 

that reality constitutes fabrication and can lead to disciplinary action, 

including dismissal.”

The integrity, professionalism and independence of the news-gathering process is paramount for 

organisations such as Reuters, Agence France-Presse and Associated Press. In January, when the

 latter learned that one of its employees had used Photoshop to remove an object from one of his 

images, the photographer, Narciso Contreras, was promptly and publicly dismissed, his reputation in 

tatters, and his archives of images withdrawn from the news agency’s database.

In 2006, Lebanese freelance photographer Adnan Hajj, who had worked with Reuters for more than 

10 years, was fired after he was found to have digitally altered some of his images while covering the

 Israel-Lebanon conflict. The agency removed Hajj’s 920 images from its archives and launched an 

nternal investigation that resulted in the dismissal of one of its photo editors.

Today, Reuters finds itself at the centre of another controversy, after allegations have surfaced that some

 of its freelance photographers in Syria have been staging images. The New York Times first raised the

 issue on 13 March.

Investigation

As the security situation in Syria has forced many news agencies and media organisations to scale back

 their operations in the conflict zone, Reuters has developed a network of local freelance photographers.

 Molhem Barakat was one of them. The 18-year-old Reuters freelance photographer was killed in Syria

 in December 2013, alongside his brother, Mustafa, who fought against the Syrian government for the 

Tawhid rebels.

As The New York Times investigated Molhem’s death, it quickly ran into troubling questions regarding

 “Reuters’ network of local photographers in Syria and their journalistic practices,” wrote

 the US newspaper.

“Interviews with numerous Syrian photographers, most requesting anonymity because they have worked

 as freelancers for Reuters, said many of the freelancers are activists — in one case a spokesman — who

 supported the rebels,” wrote James Estrin and Karam Shoumali for The New York Times. “Three of

 them also said that the freelancers had provided Reuters with images that were staged or improperly 

credited, sometimes under pseudonyms.”

In an internal memo, Reuters’ global editor at large, Jim Gaines, and global pictures editor, Reinhard 

Krause, expressed their disbelief at the reporting by The New York Times. “We know that some of 

you have seen – and were naturally infuriated by –yesterday’s New York Times Lens blog, which

 raised questions about Reuters’ use of freelance photographers in Syria. We frankly do not understand

 how the piece ran,” read the memo, which BJP has seen. “To be honest, it seems to be a case in which

 a prosecutorial approach lingered long after the solid evidence was gone.”

However, five days later, the National Press Photographers Association followed up on The New 

York Times‘s investigation, reporting that “a set of photographs by a Reuters freelancer in Syria [had]

 been brought into question for their authenticity in a picture story called ‘Boy Rebel Makes Weapons’.”

The photographs were credited to Hamid Khatib and distributed by Reuters on 07 September 2013. 

The images and captions present a 10-year-old boy named Issa working in a bomb factory, “fixing” 

a mortar launcher and assembling a “locally handmade mortar shell”. For many picture editors and wire

 service photographers, anonymously quoted by the National Press Photographers Association for fear 

of retribution, the images raised alarms. “Many questioned the credibility of the images at the time,” 

writes Donald Winslow, an editor at NPPA. “Reporters and photographers were sent out to find ‘Issa’. 

They came back saying they were unable to turn up the young boy.”

For Reuters, the images are authentic and weren’t staged. In a statement released to the National Press 

Photographers Association, as well as Bag News, a visual politics and media literacy blog that closely

 analysed Khatib’s images, Reuters explains the images’ context: “On September 4th, photographer 

Hamid Khatib was working on a story about factories making munitions and weapons. Hamid visited

 a number of factories and at one he spotted the child, Issa. Reuters thought the story of child worker 

Issa in a munitions factory was one that we could develop for our photography app and website Wider

 Image – which features Reuters images expanded into deeper, more contextual stories – so Hamid 

spent the day with the father and his child on September 7th.”

The images were not staged, says Reuters, which nevertheless declined to provide more details about 

the conditions in which these photographs were created.

Another set of images has also raised questions, as documented by Michael Shaw of Bag News. 

In the images, also shot by Khatib over several days, members of the Syrian Rebel Army are depicted 

with a “dysfunctional guitar” with distinctive and recognisable marks. Reuters dates these images as

 24 and 26 February 2014. The same guitar also appears in Khatib’s hand on his Facebook profile

 image, which is dated 22 February 2014. The find prompted Bag News to ask the following question:

 “Does Reuters deny that Khatib supplied the guitar as a prop in any of the photos?”

For Reuters, the guitar belongs to a 12-year-old singer identified as Nasma, who Khatib is said to have

 followed for three days. However, writes Shaw, Reuters only published one photo of “Nasma that 

was taken by Khatib” and “none of Khatib’s published Reuters photos including a guitar show Nasma”.

 He continues: “On top of that, I could find no image at all, still or video, that shows Nasma using, holding

 or even in the same frame as a guitar.” Reuters has so far refused to provide further evidence that the

 guitar belonged to Nasma.

Unanswered questions

When contacted by BJP, Reuters refused, numerous times, to share the specific details of the internal 

investigation it says it conducted after The New York Times first contacted the news agency three months

 ago. It also declined to clarify when that investigation took place and who took part in it. Instead, Reuters

 continues to say that “setting up pictures is a firing offense, strictly against policy. It is the responsibility

 of Reuters’ chief photographers, photo desks in the region, and the filing desk in Singapore to question

 every picture we serve to clients where a set-up is suspected. Reuters will not use any photographer,

 freelancer or staff who is found to have passed off a set up picture as a spontaneous one.”

When asked whether Khatib still worked for Reuters, the news agency refused to comment.

When asked whether the recent allegations had resulted in a change in Reuters’ news-gathering practices

 in Syria, the news agency refused to comment.

When asked whether Reuters would consider opening another investigation following the recent and 

specific allegations against its news operations in Syria, the news agency refused to comment.

And, more importantly, when asked why Reuters had been using Syrian activists as freelance

 photographers without informing its clients, the news agency again refused to comment.

http://www.bjp-online.com/2014/04/reuters-maintains-dogged-silence-on-allegations-of-staged-images/