A Subtle and Not-So-Subtle Message
July 20, 2009 14:00 by BackSpin EditorIn recent days, Haredi residents of Jerusalem demonstrated against the controversial decision to open a parking lot on Saturday during the Jewish Sabbath, and against the way police handled the case of a haredi woman accused of starving her son.
On Thursday, AFP photographer Ahmad Gharabli snapped this photo of one such protester.
His caption is straightfoward enough:
An Ultra Orthodox Jewish man gestures during clashes with Israeli forces following demonstrations against the arrest of a woman accused of child abuse in Jerusalem on July 16, 2009. Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews clashed with police for a third day in protest at an ‘unjustified’ arrest of a religious woman and the opening of a parking lot on Saturdays, the Jewish holy day of rest. AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP/Getty Images
Fast forward to today, where the same photo appeared in The Australian‘s coverage of — the US-Israel disagreement over construction in eastern Jerusalem. The caption’s Down Under version doesn’t even say what the demonstration is about.
An Ultra Orthodox Jewish man gestures during clashes with Israeli forces following demonstrations in Jerusalem.
So Australian readers could assume this is an example of Israeli defiance of the US.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen problems of photos unrelated to news stories come up. Last year, for example, Sky News removed an unbalanced photo montage it said had been auto-generated.
Now why would an editor juxtapose a story about Jewish development in eastern Jerusalem with an unrelated image of a haredi demonstrator flipping the bird? What subtle message does The Australian convey here?
Dean
12:48 am
Jul 21, 2009
Here’s a radical idea. How about not burning cars, attacking fellow citizens, and flipping the bird to the police? Then you don’t have to worry about how your photo is used. Just a helpful suggestion…
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k
12:55 pm
Aug 04, 2009
Dean – I hope you realize who those Ultra-Orthodox groups protesting are. They wouldn’t care about their picture being used in this way; they live off of everyone’s tax money while refusing to have a job or go to the army. The majority are not exactly Zionists.
It is ridiculous to say that it is their fault though, since you could find pictures like this in every country. It’s the newspaper’s fault for lying in this way and taking a picture from a completely different protest.
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