Reuters axes photographer over doctored picture

A Reuters photographer has been suspended by the agency for apparently doctoring pictures of a bomb blast in Beirut. Several bloggers (most notably little green footballs) were quick to spot that an image by freelance photographer Adnan Hajj had been tampered with. It appeared that Photoshop software had been used to add substantially to the density of the smoke rising from above the city's buildings, and to increase the scale of the damage. Once alerted, the agency withdrew the picture, replaced it with the original, untouched version, and then announced that it would not be using more of Hajj's work. A Reuters spokeswoman in London, Moira Whittle, said: "This represents a serious breach of Reuters' standards, and we shall not be accepting or using pictures taken by him." Hajj, who has worked for the agency since 1993, is one of the photographers questioned over images of a dead child taken on July 30 in south Lebanon that also provoked controversy. Bloggers have also pointed to suspicions about a third Hajj image showing an Israeli fighter plane in the act of firing missiles (or maybe not). (Via heraldsun)