China red-faced after fake antelope pic
p2pnet news | Off Topic:- Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency, recently featured a pic of Tibetan wildlife “frolicking near a high-speed train”.
But all was not as it appeared to be, says the Wall Street Journal, going on:
“On July 1, 2006, in an event scheduled to coincide with the Communist Party’s 85th birthday, Chinese President Hu Jintao hosted the launch of China’s train to the ‘roof of the world.’ The $4 billion Qinghai-Xizang railway — a remarkable system that transports passengers to an altitude (16,000 feet) so high that ballpoint pens can explode en route from the air-pressure change — traverses 1,200 miles of rugged terrain to connect the rest of China to the remote Tibetan plateau.
“The train, which soon brought many visitors to the pristine homeland of Tibetan Buddhists, became a flash point for China’s long simmering tensions with Tibet. During construction, it drew fierce protests from environmentalists who said it would threaten the breeding grounds of the chiru, an endangered antelope species found mainly in China.”
Liu Weiqing, a 41-year-old photographer, “had been camped with his Jeep on the Tibetan plateau since March, as part of a highly publicized series by the Daqing Evening News, a regional newspaper, to raise awareness of the rare Tibetan antelope,” says the WSJ. “Mr. Liu was also under contract with Xinhua to provide photos for China’s largest government-run news service.
“One man, one car, one year…and a campaign to protect Tibetan antelope,” he wrote on his blog describing the project.
But, “Suspicions about the photo became public last week after Mr. Liu’s photograph was displayed in Beijing’s subway system,” says the story.
“An anonymous Chinese Internet user going by the screen name Dajiala raised questions about the photo’s authenticity on one of China’s largest photography Web sites. Dajiala, a photographer who claimed to idolize Mr. Liu, said he was studying a copy of the photo posted on Beijing’s Line 5 subway platform when he rubbed some dust off it and noticed something odd and finally, “Cornered by the mounting evidence, Mr. Liu admitted he had indeed used Photoshop to blend two pictures”.
Liu resigned from the Daqing Evening News and posted a statement on his blog. “I have no reason to continue my sacred career as a newsman,” he wrote. “I am not qualified for the job.”
His editor then resigned, too, and the newspaper posted an apology on its Web site.
Also See:
Wall Street Journal – China Eats Crow Over Faked Photo Of Rare Antelope, February 22, 2008
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