Doctored Syria Photo Elicits Apology from Austrian Publisher

(Photo credit: Claus Rebler)

Austria's largest daily newspaper, Kronen Zeitung ("Krone"), has apologized for running a photo on page 4 of its July 28, 2012, edition depicting a family seemingly escaping from the rubble of war-battered Aleppo in Syria that proved to be a photo-shopped manipulation of two separate images, iMediaEthics.org reports.

Three days after the fake photo appeared, the daily printed a letter of apology from Publisher Christophe Dichand to the  Krone's 2.7 million readers, according to the iMediaEthics post. Apparently, a photo that initially appeared July 26 on the European Pressphoto Agency Web site depicting a family in which a father, accompanied by a woman wearing a hijab, carried a child down a street was made to appear as if the family were fleeing from battle-ravaged Aleppo, where the Syrian army and insurgents have engaged in bloody clashes

Social news Web site Reddit was credited for uncovering the altered dramatic photo.