More trouble than it's worth

Both agencies were subjected to widespread ridicule on the internet after deciding to pull the picture.

The photograph captured Hollande grinning gormlessly during a visit on Tuesday to a school in Denain, northern France, where he was presiding over a discussion on recent reforms that changed school hours.

AFP made the photograph available on its website for use by newspapers and media outlets, but later said it had made an editorial decision to withdraw it. “Please take it off your systems. We are sorry for any inconvenience and thank you for your co-operation,” it wrote in a “mandatory kill” that replaced the picture caption.

Reuters sent a “picture kill” notice asking its clients not to use the image. The picture was quickly picked up and re-posted on Twitter and Facebook, where both agencies were accused of bowing to pressure.

Philippe Massonnet, director of information at AFP, told Le Nouvel Observateur magazine: “AFP was not put under any pressure from the head of state: it was an editorial decision taken by our editorial team in Paris in all independence, after an internal debate,” adding: “The authorities never ask us to do this kind of thing.”

“It was decided to ‘kill’ the shot because we decided, in retrospect, that it brought nothing to the series [of images] in terms of information,” said Massonnet, who added that the decision to withdraw the photograph was part of the daily photo-editing process. “Choices have to be made. With war photographs, for example, we may decide not to distribute bloody or degrading images.

“Unlike certain media, when we make a mistake, we correct it. We modify our texts and we ‘kill’ our photographs.”

An AFP blog said that “with the benefit of hindsight we see that the decision to retract the photo was clearly an error”. The decision had created more problems than it had solved.

Thomson Reuters told The Guardian it was looking into the issue of the retraction and would respond shortly. ■