Manipulated photograph of Iraq crowd in London Evening Standard 9 April 2003

Compiled by Stephen Hewitt 20 August 2003

• Street of Shame Private Eye, 8-21 August 2003, page 4 - also mentions photographer Brian Walski, sacked from the LA Times.
• Doctored Photo from the London Evening Standard , The Memory hole - detailed pictures and analysis of the fake photograph.
• How the Evening Standard Doctored a Photo by un 9:24am Fri Apr 11 '03 (Modified on 7:53am Fri Jun 6 '03), UK Indymedia - detailed pictures and analysis.
• London Evening Standard admit adding people to Iraqi 'Liberation' Picture Heugh Spindleston Tuesday July 29, 2003 at 04:22 AM, Indymedia Includes an image of the Evening Standard's partial admission.
• Faking it Stephen Bates, Guardian, Monday May 5, 2003

  This article is worth reading mainly because of what it reveals about the Guardian, rather than what it reveals about the Evening Standard. Instead of mounting any kind of independent investigation into the Evening Standard's photograph, the Guardian has chosen to give a platform to an apologist for faked photographs ("The question is whether the degree of deception merits the condemnation"). The essence of his argument is first skilfully to imply that the photograph was not faked - while steadfastly refusing to confront the evidence - and then, as a sort of reserve apology, to say that in any case, historically war photographs have been faked for a long time.

  Footnote: Although the Guardian more usually describes him as its "religious affairs correspondent", for this article it instead claims: "Stephen Bates is author of a novel, The Photographer's Boy, about US civil war photographers". As with some war photographs, however, things are not quite all they seem. The Guardian omits to mention that the putative "Photographer's Boy" has yet to be published.

• WAR WITH IRAQ; Editor's Note:[HOME EDITION] The Los Angeles Times. 2 April 2003, page A.6 - The following abstract is available from the newspaper free of charge

  Abstract (Article Summary)

  The Actual Photos: [Brian Walski], a Los Angeles Times photographer who was dismissed for altering a news photo, was on the outskirts of Basra on Sunday when he took the top and middle shots. They show a British soldier telling residents fleeing the city to take cover from Iraqi fire.; PHOTOGRAPHER: Brian Walski Los Angeles Times; The Altered Photo: Walski then used his computer to ...

  Words in Document: 336

Background information: rejoicing Iraqis and faked photographs

It's interesting that two separate cases of falsified news photographs should come to light within days of each other, and both of them photographs (purportedly at least) of the interaction between the invading armies and Iraqi citizens. To put this into perspective, I personally cannot remember seeing such manipulation of news photographs reported before, not during the 1980s, the 1990s or more recently.

Related

• Not quite as it seems? 1994 BBC documentary's depiction of the removal of Lenin's statue in Russia Stephen Hewitt
• Private Eye on “doctoring” of Iraq crowd photo in London Evening Standard of 9 April 2003 Private Eye, 8-21 August 2003, page 4
• Daily Express misrepresented Taliban story of its own reporter “The copy bore no relation to the headlines” - reporter Yvonne Ridley