HonestReporting first became intimately involved in the role of the wire services in photo choice when we exposed Reuters’ 2007 calendar gaffe, which followed the Fauxtography affair from the 2006 Lebanon War.

Since then, we have covered numerous instances of photo bias, including a blatantly staged photo of Hamas taken by Reuters photographer Mohammed Salem in 2008. Reuters continues to publish Salem’s photographs of the region, including another series of staged images we documented shortly after the Gaza flotilla in June.

Until now, however, nobody has commissioned a study to examine the imagery produced by the wire services to see whether there are any identifiable trends that may indicate bias.

To find out if Israel is being treated fairly by the wire services, we embarked on a three-month in-depth study of how Israel is portrayed by all three wires. This study covers the period that began with the Gaza flotilla on May 31, 2010 and ended with the murder of four Israelis at the hands of Palestinian terrorists on Aug. 31, 2010.

The study was carried out by David Katz, a professional photographer with 25 years experience working at the highest levels in the media together with HonestReporting. Over three months, some 13,500 photos from Israel and the Palestinian territories were reviewed.

The study revealed a pattern of double standards and bias that has become a norm in coverage of the region, particularly in regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Distortions of images mostly fell into the following categories:

1. Deliberate Staging
2. Use of wide-angle lenses and photographer positions to make photos appear more dramatic than the reality
3. Photographers choosing positions that effect the events they are shooting
4. Editorializing in photo captions.

The study did not reveal significant instances of photo manipulation through programs such as Photoshop. While dramatic examples of digital photo manipulation have been uncovered in the past, most notably during the Second Lebanon War, the study found that photo bias against Israel consisted largely of subtle techniques such as staging images.

To ensure objectivity in the study, HonestReporting used the wire services’ stated missions (Appendix 1) as its standard, comparing the missions to actual performance.

Over the coming weeks, we will be releasing the findings of our study, starting with an examination of the images produced during and after the Gaza Flotilla incident.

The Gaza FlotillaAn examination of some of the imagery produced during and after the Gaza Flotilla.

Reuters’ Biased Crops

The Gaza flotilla took place on the first day of HonestReporting’s study of the AP, Reuters, and AFP/Getty’s coverage of the region. Although the flotilla was undoubtedly the most covered and photographed event involving Israel since the 2008 Gaza War, this study will focus primarily on images originating from Israel and the Palestinian territories – with the exception of Reuters’ questionably cropped photos taken on board the flotilla vessel, Mavi Marmara, which could not be ignored in a study of photo bias against Israel by the wire services.

The pictures were published during a period of intense public dispute between Israel and flotilla organizers over which side was responsible for the violence that ended in the deaths of nine flotilla passengers and injuries to seven IDF commandos. Israeli officials produced video evidence of soldiers being attacked viciously as they boarded the Mavi Marmara ship. Weapons were found on board the ship despite flotilla activists claiming to be unarmed.

In the first picture, published in a Turkish newspaper, notice the flotilla activist holding a knife in the lower right corner:

The same photo, originally released by Reuters, has been cropped so that the knife, and potentially evidence of the intentions of those on board the ship, is removed:

Within days, blogger Charles Johnson identified another cropped Reuters photo:

The picture is a cropped version of this photo from the website of the IHH, the Turkish Islamist organization responsible for the flotilla:

Reuters has cropped out a large knife and a big pool of blood as well as another badly injured Israeli soldier lying on the ground:

Both photos were originally obtained by the Turkish national newspaper Hurryet from the IHH. After Hurryet published the unedited photos, it sent them to the international wire services for distribution across the world. An editor at Reuters, either deliberately or mistakenly, decided to crop them. The version released by Reuters conformed with IHH claims that they were unarmed. When the crops were exposed, Reuters replaced the cropped photos with the originals. By then, however, the cropped photos had already been published in numerous print publications.

The Reuters crops were deemed sufficiently serious to prompt a complaint from Israel’s Minister for Public Diplomacy Yuli Edelstein, who demanded an explanation from Tom Glocer, CEO of Thomson Reuters.

HonestReporting obtained Minister Edelstein’s letter, as well as the response from David Schlesinger, Reuters Editor-In-Chief, who claimed the crops were an honest error. A portion of Schlesinger’s response is worth noting in the study:

Minister Edelstein, I can assure you that Reuters 2,800 journalists subscribe to and believe in our Trust Principles which put as their highest value the provision of fair and unbiased news in all its forms – text, photo, and video.

I think if you look at the totality of our coverage of this incident as well, you will see how seriously we take our professional responsibilities.

From monitoring over 2,000 images from Reuters alone during the course of our three month study, the truth is that Reuters’ photo crops are only the tip of the iceberg of flawed and biased coverage of Israel.

Shooting for Dramatic Effect

The rest of this section will focus on images that originated in Israel and the Gaza Strip. One of the most striking features is the lack of balance. There are virtually no images expressing any pro-Israel perspective from the public, even those shot in parts of Israel. Images overwhelmingly portray Israel as the aggressor in the incident.

Few, if any, of these pictures appear worthy of inclusion in responsible coverage of the flotilla. In many cases, they appear to be little more than an opportunity to pour scorn on Israel. The picture below, together with its caption, is a case in point:

This photo from AFP/Getty in Gaza, taken more than a week after the initial confrontation aboard the Mavi Mamara, cynically exploits the suffering of a Palestinian child. The image bears no relationship to the flotilla, but the caption makes the tenuous link by accusing Israel of preventing the 10,000 tons of mainly medical supplies, hospital equipment and construction materials from reaching Gaza.

In reality, much of the medication had expired and many of the medical supplies had been poorly packaged and were rendered unusable. The caption, however, reinforces the claim that the flotilla was a humanitarian mission, not a political one.

In addition, it is vital to remember that photographers do not operate freely in Gaza which remains under strict Hamas control. It is reasonable to conclude that Hamas played a role in creating the image, either active or passive.

In other cases, such as the photo below, provocative – and completely unrelated – images like Israel’s security barrier appear prominently alongside objects of peripheral relation, such as a discarded Turkish flag. The captions then focus attention on events not shown in the photos at all, turning the captions into mini-stories of their own.

The next sequence of images was taken in the aftermath of the initial incident aboard the Mavi Marmara.

This gentleman appears in a number of images throughout our three month study. The appearance of the photo is particularly questionable for an international news wire service that claims to be impartial and wants to “avoid any bias which may stem from control by specific individuals or interests.”

Not only does it serve its purpose by showing a demonstrator who allegedly needs to use a wheelchair wearing his gas mask in the event that the IDF will fire tear gas to disperse the crowd and attack a disabled man, it also manages to incorporate the flotilla together with what the caption describes as “the controversial Israeli barrier in the West Bank village of Bilin near Ramallah,” again making an artificial link that shows Israel in a bad light.

The two pictures below are actually the same image, one from the AP and the other from AFP/Getty. Here we have four particular elements – cancer, woman, child and crying – used to evoke an emotional response.

Only the AFP/Getty caption describes the woman as a cancer patient. However, the AP photo shows the child crying. No explanation is given for the child’s tears, which could have been caused by the rush of photographers trying to take the same picture. Regardless of the reason, the tears contribute to the message that the photo subjects are victims of Israeli aggression.

Questioning Israel’s Perspective

In addition to local coverage of reactions to the flotilla, the three wire services released photos taken from the IDF’s video footage filmed from an army helicopter as Israeli commandos tried to board the Mavi Mamara and were viciously beaten by the passengers. The videos served as Israel’s strongest evidence of aggression against its soldiers.

While it is common practice for wire services to indicate that the footage came from an outside source, the language of the captions casts some level of doubt about the contents of the video. Other images, including those supplied by the IHH that were later cropped by Reuters, do not contain the same language.

These are three of the pictures that highlight this example of bias. The first picture comes from Reuters and the second from AP. The third is from a pool photographer, released by the AP.

The first caption emphasizes the fact that the image is a frame grab “from an IDF video showing what the IDF says is a pro Palestinian activist hitting Israeli soldiers with a club-like object.”

AP picture states that it “shows what the IDF says is one of several commandos being dropped on to the Mavi Mamara ship.”

Even the third image emphasizes that the IDF reviewed this picture before it was cleared for publication. No pictures from the West Bank or Gaza indicate they were reviewed by Hamas or any Palestinian body.

In addition, AP uses all capital letters for emphasis to indicate it cannot independently verify the pictures. It is a standard disclaimer for images that weren’t produced by the wire service. However, no such disclaimer appears on photos filed by Palestinian stringers.

Soccer has recently been in the news as the rights to host the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups were awarded to Russia and Qatar respectively. All of the bidding nations emphasized how sport and soccer, in particular, could provide a setting for the breaking down of barriers.

HonestReporting’s photo study, which ran from May 31 to August 31, included the month from June 11 to July 11 of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, a sporting festival where images of different nations, cultures, colors and religions coming together to celebrate soccer dominated the international media.

Except in Israel and the Palestinian territories and despite a common love of soccer shared by Israelis and Palestinians alike. Here, wire service photographers set out to portray Israel in a negative light by deliberately abusing the sporting theme to do so.

The image below, using an editorialized caption, takes the football theme and talks about how:

“football fans escape the Gaza Strip’s dreary confinement to follow the WC2010 matches which are often interrupted by power cuts.”

The following images all incorporate Israel’s security barrier into the football theme. Indeed, for a number of these photos, there is no actual story other than an excuse to publish negative images of the security barrier. Where an identifiable event is taking place, as in the final photo taken at a Palestinian demonstration, it is clear how the Palestinians employ propaganda tools such as the goal post, which are snapped up by the photographers.

Shattered Lens: Part 3 – Putting Palestinians Behind BarsHow the wire services use bars in their images to promote the Palestinian narrative of suffering and the impression of Palestinians as “prisoners” of Israeli brutality.

Our Findings:

• Wire service photographers use clever photographic techniques to present a false impression that enhances images of Palestinian “suffering”.
• The use of bars in such images is a widespread method of portraying Palestinians as “prisoners” of Israeli occupation and brutality.

For example, The Independent chose to illustrate the story below with an image from AFP/Getty.  The caption:

Children join the protest in Gaza City yesterday as Palestinians demanded an end to the siege.

This is but one example of how wire agency photographers resort to using camera angles and staging techniques to present a distorted (and worse) picture of a given situation.

In the example above, it is clear that the photographer used this technique to project an image of Gazan children imprisoned.  However, the sequence of photos taken from the same scene at the time illustrates how the effect was achieved.

What we see above is a tiny group of Palestinian children arriving at what appears to be a pre-planned photo op outside the Gaza industrial area presumably organized by Hamas. The photographer either willingly colludes with Hamas or is used.

Next, the children have been positioned behind a gate to give the effect of a prison.

However, using a great deal of skill to get the right position with the right lens from the right angle, the photographer manages to create an impression of many more than the five or so children in the actual shot.

The same children appear in the remaining two images from the sequence, again highlighting how the entire event was staged.  The same technique of shooting from below and to the side is employed to give the impression that there are actually more people involved than the reality.

Bars and wires were a common theme during the course of this three-month study, some examples of which we have included below.