Reuters Quietly Fired Top Editor During Photoshop Scandal

Thu, Jan 18, 2007 at 6:23:28 pm PST

A very interesting report at Photo District News has new information about the Reuters Photoshop scandal: Reuters Investigation Leads To Dismissal Of Editor. (Hat tip: Mark.)

Reuters fired a top photo editor for the Middle East during an internal investigation of two doctored photos from the Israel-Lebanon war that were published last summer.

The editor was the second casualty of the photo manipulation controversy surrounding Reuters freelancer Adnan Hajj. Two of Hajj’s photographs showed obvious signs of digital alterations. Facing a storm of criticism last August, Reuters terminated its relationship with Hajj and pulled more than 900 of his photos from its archive. A Reuters spokesperson said Thursday that the company would not release the name of the editor who was dismissed.

In all of Reuters’ statements and reports on the incident, they’ve never mentioned that a “top photo editor” was also fired. Why were they secretive about this, and why won’t they release the editor’s name?