FALSIFIED IMAGES TO HIDE CRIME OF COUP SUPPORTERS IN HONDURAS

09/07/2009 / HONDURAS
Honduran newspaper photoshops blood from crackdown victim
coup Honduras police brutality

Left, photo published in La Prensa, right, original photo.

http://observers.france24.com/en/content/20090709-honduran-daily-photoshop-blood-crackdown-victim-murillo-coup-zelaya

These photos seem to prove that a pro-coup newspaper digitally removed bloodstains from the image of a protester shot dead by soldiers.

Isis Obeth Murillo, 19, a young anti-coup protestor from ousted President Manuel Zelaya's home state of Olancho, died after being shot in the head at the airport during Zelaya's unsuccessful attempt to return to Tegucigalpa on Sunday. The image of his friends carrying him has become an iconic image for anti-coup protestors, who say that the army is enforcing a brutal crackdown in the country, largely covered up by the media.

Highlighted by Cuban website CubaDebate, these two images seem to prove the protesters right. The original image, on the right, shows the youth bleeding from the head and covered in blood, while in the same photo which appeared in La Prensa (on the left), the blood has all but disappeared. Not surprisingly, the newspaper in question is a right leaning anti-Zelaya publication...

CONTRIBUTORS

Team Observers

The original photo


Proof of the literal whitewash




FRANCE 24 graphic artists increased the saturation level of the image in the affected rectangular area, clearly showing that a cover-up tool has been used to cover over the stain.

As it appeared in La Prensa


Image posted by CubaDebate.