BBC Admits to Using Fake Photo in #IranElection Coverage
Friday, June 19, 2009 18:43In their June 19th post entitled “Obama refuses to ‘meddle’ in Iran,” the BBC used a photo from a pro-Ahmadinejad rally in Iran and passed it off as a pro-Mousavi rally photo.
The website WhatReallyHappened.com, one of the most visited blogs in the United States, was the first to break the story which shows that the same group of supporters had been used in an LA Times article photo which is complete with the Iranian President waving to his supporters.
The BBC issued the following correction in response the the article on WhatReallyHappened.com:
The crisis over the Iranian election has been our lead story for most of the week. As with all our coverage, we have been careful to report what both Ahmadinejad and Mousavi supporters are saying. Similarly, we have taken care to label the pictures we use, explaining what they are of.
However, on Wednesday 17 June we made a mistake in a picture caption published on BBC News online. In the story Obama refuses to ‘meddle’ in Iran, we mistakenly stated that a Getty agency picture of a pro-Ahmadinejad rally was a pro-Mousavi rally.
Some blogs, including WhatReallyhappened.com, are pointing out that the LA Times used a similar photograph which showed President Ahmadinejad waving to supporters. The Getty pictures we received did not show Mr Ahmadinejad.
When a reader contacted us about it, we checked our caption and corrected it. We’re sorry for the mistake and have added a note explaining the correction to the story.
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BARBBF says:
June 21st, 2009 at 1:44 pm
I started to get more than a little suspicious when I started seeing the same videos which had been shown 4 -5 days before, and were presented as new videos from Iran. An interesting site…which is one of the few which discounted the cries of a “Stolen election” was: http://www.Stratfor.com:
Perhaps the greatest factor in Ahmadinejad’s favor is that Mousavi spoke for the better districts of Tehran — something akin to running a U.S. presidential election as a spokesman for Georgetown and the Upper East Side. Such a base will get you hammered, and Mousavi got hammered. Fraud or not, Ahmadinejad won and he won significantly. That he won is not the mystery; the mystery is why others thought he wouldn’t win.
John Burris says:
June 21st, 2009 at 11:17 pm
My friend who is the senior editor of BBC confirmed that the photo of the Mousavi rally which now the same photograph has suddenly appeared with Ahmadinejad in one corner has been “montaged/modified”. The photo is in fact of the Mousavi rally and Ahamdinejad’s waiving has been added. Another live atendee who participated in both rally’s confirmed the exact location of the Ahmadinejad rally and reconfirmed that the photo on both left and right were from the Mousavi rally and unless Ahamdinejad attended the Mousavi rally, the photo on the left is modified. Validating your information is very simple in this age of technology and unlike Iran where information is supressed at all levels especially with foreign media coverage, the conclusions that can be made by distributing misinformation albiet unknowlingly you will agree can be quite damaging to reader’s confidence.
Shahriar says:
June 25th, 2009 at 7:27 am
The point is that Iranian people have found a historical opportunity to show their utter dislike of a regime that cares more for Hezbollah, Hamas and makes houses and ports for Hugo Chanvez and pluders this rich nation’s wealth on nonsensical projects to promote it’s own backward Shia doctrine policy! Khamenei and ahmadinejad and their cabal beleives wholeheartedly that Imam Zaman or the hidden Imam of all times, 12 Imam of shiates will appear shortly and there are crazy lot on the Christian and Jewish side who beleive in thier own versions!!! Please accpet this from an Iranian that we do not want their atomic bombs and we have no propblem with Israel, we just want to have a FREE country and a government that is accountable to its own people! for 30 years we have had nothing but repression and stoning and public hanging! Do you think Iranian people with 2500 of continoues existance as a nation and culture would continue with these criminals! I would say a resounding NO!
image hosting says:
July 10th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
just seen this on twitter cheers for the info.