From a reader: "Furthermore, news media that re-publish images from photo agencies
habitually obscure their origins by ignoring mandatory credit guidelines. Thus,
the credits for unverified images that were picked up by photo
agencies from anonymous activists are abbreviated, scrubbed of the original
source and re-packaged, misleading viewers into believing the agencies
themselves or official contractees supplied the image.
Verification requires time and effort, but it mitigates
uncertainty.
A further murky element in the process of distributing images from
Syria entails the widespread practice by western photo agencies of attributing
photos to generic pseudonyms, without mentioning that these names aren’t real.
While consumers might presume the practice a legitimate measure to protect the
identities of local photographers, this is unlikely as the photographers’ names
are obviously fake, as is the case with “Yazan al-Homsi” (Yazan of Homs) and
“Thaer al-Khalidiya” (Revolutionary of al-Khalidiya) whose photos Reuters
distributes. These names are credited in the standardized fashion
(Agency/photographer’s name), without any indication that these pseudonyms are
as generic as say, Michael
of Jersey City or Revolutionary of Brooklyn."
