April27,2022 (ENA) The American photojournalist Jemal Countess has blamed "The Guardian" newspaper for misuse and repurpose of his photographs taken from the Sekota refugee camp in Amhara region to support the TPLF’s merits.

“The Guardian” had used one of the photographs captured by Countess in Sekota of the Amhara regional state in Ethiopia to illustrate an alleged "ethnic cleansing" story in Tigray region and based on Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch that the Ethiopian government categorically rejected.

 

The photograph was taken by the American photojournalist in March 30, 2022 and  portrayed  a group of internally displaced women from the Wag Hemra zone sitting together in a shelter at the Meberat Hayl IDP camp.

Approached by ENA, Countess said "The Guardian" misrepresented the location and time of the photograph at the Sekota refugee camp for Amhara fleeing TPLF when he had taken it during his visit in the area.

By changing the photo caption in its recent publication, he pointed out that this media outlet used the photo as a joint report for Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

According to him, the changes to the caption in recent publications are dishonest.

“But ethically speaking you are supposed to use the photo and context and include the caption or at least make mention of the caption of the context of the photo. They basically ignored everything.”

The journalist note that this happens so frequently with "The Guardian" that it is just kind of lost. "I don't know how to say it without really, you know, the publication down so to speak. But I mean it does cast its credibility and its ethical standards into doubt.”  

He stated that this media sticks a photo on to an article that favors Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International’s report. 

“It basically is a stab at the suffering of the people in the photo. It is a kind of a big middle finger to everybody else. You know, because this is just the other aspect of it is just like they are basically working with the TPLF and may have a couple of staff members that are affiliated with the TPLF.”

The photo misused  and repurposed to support the TPLF merits has to really look at the fact that this network that TPLF leaders built, owned and ran the media operations of the whole time when they were in power, Countess underscored.