Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Honduran daily airbrushed blood from protester

Nineteen-year-old Isis Obed Murillo was killed by the Honduran military on Sunday during confrontations between police and backers of deposed president Manuel Zelaya. The gruesome, Not Safe For Work video of a bloody Murillo has circulated worldwide.

Now it has emerged that one of Honduras’ main newspapers has decided to hide the truth by airbrushing Murillo’s bloody shirt:
CubaDebate has an illuminating find regarding the coverage of the crisis in Honduras by the pro-coup newspaper, La Prensa.

The now-iconic photograph of the late 19-year-old Isis Obed Murillo, being carried by his friends to seek medical help moments after his shooting by gunmen during Sunday’s demonstrations in Tegucigalpa, was also published by the Honduran daily… Except that La Prensa chose to airbrush the young man’s blood out of the photo.

Media that literally whitewashes the story to this extreme, of course, is not shut down, destroyed or attacked by the coup regime. That treatment is reserved only for real journalists.
Regardless of what one opines of the political situation in Honduras, La Prensa’s actions are reprehensible and unethical. As ugly and heart-wrenching as the original photo is, there is no excuse for erasing the truth. Sadly, La Prensa’s editors have opted to censor the death of a protester though luckily their deception has been caught for others to see.

(Hat tip: The Daily Dish).

Image- CubaDebate
Online Sources- CubaDebate, The Daily Dish, Narconews, YouTube

1 comment:

Pablo said...

Hi. I agree that it is unethical that they altered the photo. However, they censored the blood, not the death, since they mention in their article that one person died. As it is to be expected, they blame it on Zelaya.