A regional daily has apologised to readers for using a photograph of a woman holding a gun to accompany a story about refugees.
The Eastern Daily Press erroneously used the image to go with the piece, which reported on five Syrian refugee families due to arrive in Norfolk next month.
The picture shows a woman holding a gun, flanked by two children.
It was posted on the EDP’s official Twitter account yesterday, but the tweet was deleted once the mistake was realised.
An apology posted afterwards on the account reads: “Dear readers. A picture was used in error today to accompany a story about Syrian refugees. It shouldn’t have been.
“We apologise wholeheartedly for the offence caused. As soon as we became aware it was removed.”
Norfolk County Council voted in July last year to accept 50 vulnerable Syrian refugees through the government’s resettlement scheme, which set a target to offer sanctuary 20,000 people fleeing civil war over five years.
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P’raps Norwich Morrisons were doing a special on AK47s this week? Used ‘accidentally’ in error, or not? 😉 Still, gave us a good chuckle here in the Togbunker
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Aside from the obvious howler there’s another issue here is there not?
What happened to the convention when using pictures of children of asking the parents for permission.
One must assume that wasn’t done in this case (not surprisingly because the mother is brandishing an AK47) so where does that leave the EDP.
Some of the commenters on their twitter feed are outraged by the alleged racist connotations of using such a picture on their twitter feed and the apology does not address those issues.
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This is why any ‘right first time’ strategy, whether it is in print or digital is ultimately flawed. It is an honest mistake made by a human – not the first ever made in human history. Take away safety nets (subs, proof-reading etc) and this kind of thing will happen more and more.
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I’ll bet all of the 57 or so laid off by archant at year end and all the photographic staff similarly axed in the autumn will be quietly laughing at this.
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Yet another example of how far one of the ( once) big players in the uk regional press has fallen to slow this most schoolboy of errors to happen, I’m both embarsssrd for friends who still work there whilst sympathising with the Syrian families newly arrived in Norwich, this is the kind of unwelcome impression of them they can do without and one which will add credence to those who believe all refugees are terrorists.
Welcome to the sorry state of the regionals already being shown in 2017
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Ridiculed all over social media and all because standards have been allowed to drop to rock bottom due to severe staff cutbacks, lack of experienced and knowledgeabl time served staff and no time to check work before it’s thrown out to the reader.
We ever saw this type of cock up coning did we?
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Biter asks about the ‘convention’ of seeking permission from the parents of children before taking/using their picture.
That applies in Britain – and I’m fairly sure the picture was taken outside Britain.
In any event, I make a point of never angering a woman carrying an AK47. I suspect most photographers take the same view.
And if you take the ‘convention’ to ridiculous extremes, you’d never publish a crowd picture which is, of course, ridiculous.
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Words fail me
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Jeff jones
how about ‘careless’ and ‘unprofessional ‘?
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