BBC mistakenly runs dated Iraq photo to illustrate the syrian massacre

BBC mistakenly runs dated Iraq photo to illustrate the syrian massacre

Somebody have been using illegaly one of my images for anti syrian propaganda on the BBC web site front page

On Sunday May 27 at 0700 am London time on of my image which I took in Al Mussayyib in Iraq on March 27, 2003 which caption is below was front page on BBC web site illustrating the massacre that happen in Houla the Syrian town and the caption and the web site was stating that the images was showing the bodies of all the people that have been killed in the massacre and that the image was received by the BBC by an unknown activist. Somebody is using my images as a propaganda against the Syrian government to prove the massacre.

Al Musayyib, Iraq – May 27, 2003. An Iraqi child jumps over a line of hundreds of bodies, in a school where they have been transported from a mass grave, to be identified. They were discovered in the desert in the outskirts of Al Musayyib, 40 km south of Baghdad. It has been estimated that between 10,000 and 15,000 Iraqis had been reported missing in the region south of Baghdad. People have been searching for days for identity cards or other clues among the skeletons to try to find the remains of brothers, fathers, mothers, sisters and even children who disappeared when Saddam’s government crushed a Shi’ite uprising following the 1991 Gulf War.

“I was surprised to see my image, which was captured in Iraq in 2003, used by the BBC in their recent article around the Syria massacre in Houla. It was reported that the image was captured and sent in by an activist; however this is not the case. I took the image in 2003, when working on a story titled Iraq, the Aftermath of Saddam, which can be viewed on my website:

https://www.marcodilauro.com/features/iraq-war/#num=content-413&id=album-16.

Below are all the links of different media which have been talking about the issue.

www.presstv.com/detail/2012/06/06/244933/bbc-iraq-photo-massacre/

www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2012/05/houla_massacre_picture_mistake.html

www.petapixel.com/2012/06/01/bbc-mistakenly-runs-dated-iraq-photo-to-illustrate-the-syrian-massacre/

www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/05/a-false-photo-from-a-real-massacre/257733/#.T8UyhCoHkcA.facebook

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9293620/BBC-News-uses-Iraq-photo-to-illustrate-Syrian-massacre.html

http://photobusinessforum.blogspot.it/2012/05/citizen-journalism-fails-viewers-at-bbc.html

Thanks and best regards

Marco Di Lauro

Photographer

Reportage by Getty Images

2 Responses on “BBC mistakenly runs dated Iraq photo to illustrate the syrian massacre
  1. hello, I wanna ask you whether BBC has done this “accidentally” or no. Mr. Di Lauro, surely you know this media (BBC) more…so what do you think? Are they honest about Syria’s News? or …? tell me more about it please.

  2. This is so bad the BBC doing this, it is a shame the work you documented to show the truth of what happened in Iraq almost a decade ago is now being used for lies. Leave it for the government controled media to pull this kind of deceit. I guess who can you trust these days as everything is an illusion.

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