Questions about Syria pictures go unanswered

Specifically, it refuses to say whether freelance photographer Hamid Khatib still works for the organisation, whether the recent allegations had resulted in a change in Reuters’ news-gathering practices in Syria, whether it would consider opening another investigation following the recent and specific allegations against its news operations in Syria, and why it had been using Syrian activists as freelance photographers without informing its clients, the Journal said.

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.”

The New York Times first raised the issue of alleged “staged images” on 13 March as part of an investigation into news organisations’ operations and use of local freelance photographers in the conflict zone. One of them, Molhem Barakat aged 18, 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 Barakat’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 the Journal 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 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, including the one shown here, were credited to Hamid Khatib and distributed by Reuters on 7 September 2013. The images and captions presented 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.

The Journal said another set of images also shot by Khatib over several days had also raised questions. Members of the Syrian Rebel Army were 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 photography blog 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.

The Journal said that, 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." ■