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A BBC spokesman said the image has now been taken down. Mr di Lauro, who works for Getty Images picture agency and has been published
by newspapers across the US and Europe, said: “I went home at 3am and I
opened the BBC page which had a front page story about what happened in
Syria and I almost felt off from my chair. “One of my pictures from Iraq was used by the BBC web site as a front page
illustration claiming that those were the bodies of yesterday's massacre in
Syria and that the picture was sent by an activist. “Instead the picture was taken by me and it's
on my web site, on the feature section regarding a story I did In
Iraq during the war called Iraq, the aftermath of Saddam.
“What I am really astonished by is that a news organization like the BBC
doesn't check the sources and it's willing to publish any picture sent it by
anyone: activist, citizen journalist or whatever. That's all. He added he was less concerned about an apology or the use of image without
consent, adding: “What is amazing it's that a news organization has a
picture proving a massacre that happened yesterday in Syria and instead it's
a picture that was taken in 2003 of a totally different massacre. “Someone is using someone else's picture for propaganda on purpose.” A spokesman for the BBC said: “We were aware of this image being widely
circulated on the internet in the early hours of this morning following the
most recent atrocities in Syria.
“We used it with a clear disclaimer saying it could not be independently verified.
“Efforts were made overnight to track down the original source of the image and when it was established the picture was inaccurate we removed it immediately.”
Pakistan Cyber Force“We used it with a clear disclaimer saying it could not be independently verified.
“Efforts were made overnight to track down the original source of the image and when it was established the picture was inaccurate we removed it immediately.”