The who, what, when and where of pictures

[Behind the Aegis]

— Monday's Image of the Day in times2 brought us one of the dreaded write-ins, when a powerful lobby group exhorts its adherents via its website to bombard a newspaper with e-mails.

In this case it was the pro-Israeli media watchdog honestreporting.com, and it had a point. The photograph was captioned “A young Palestinian boy defends the rubble of his home in the Jenin refugee camp on the West Bank, razed by the Israeli Army during its assault on the town”, and the accompanying quote read: “Jenin camp area: one square kilometre. Registered refugee population: 15,496 - United Nations, 2005.”

What it failed to give was any context for the photograph, which was in fact taken in 2002 and, with its caption, forms part of an exhibition, Shattered Dreams, now showing at the Host Gallery in East London. On Tuesday times2 published a correction with the missing information.

It is always bad practice to publish an old photograph and allow readers to think it might be a recent one; against the background of the Middle East it is doubly so, and we were in error. Still, at one point on Monday afternoon the e-mails were landing in the letters inbox at the rate of almost 500 an hour, preventing anything else from getting through, so we had some comeuppance.

more...(but has nothing to do with I/P)

[ProgressiveMuslim]

1. 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008... different year, same story. nt

[Shaktimaan]

3. Not really.

The battle of Jenin refugee camp doesn't happen every year. It is an important part of the story. Critical even.

[azurnoir]

4. Agreed this year it was

Jabalya, during Operation Warm Winter

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Warm_Winter

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabalya

[azurnoir]

2. Thanx for the story of a

sucessful spamming type effort by pro Israel groups, the photo was dated for 3 years after it taken but was also 3 years ago, which is supposed to mean that it is all a lie, don't look here. More people need to be aware of just how this works and how much time and effort is put into undermining the "peace process" or any true negotiations except for what Israel chooses.

[Behind the Aegis]

5. Of course. Honesty in reporting *about* Israel shouldn't apply. n/t

[azurnoir]

6. I did not say it was not honest

in fact it is honest, desperately honest. However the purpose IMHO was to make the Palestinian side appear to be a lie.

[Behind the Aegis]

7. IMO...

...it was an example of lies about Israel being taken as fact.