Last week, we reported on a picture that appeared on The Citizen’s front page. It was an image of the recent suicide attack in Kabul. Shortly after the paper came out, Johann “Slang” Hattingh alerted the rest of us to the fact that the image was actually Photoshopped – leading to questions regarding the ethics of the journalism.

Following his Tweet, Hattingh was called in for a disciplinary hearing. He was charged with “bringing the company name into disrepute by making defamatory comments on Twitter”, and with “irretrievably damaging the trust relationship between employer and employee.” Yesterday he was informed of his immediate dismissal.

The Citizen offered the following justification on their website:

Worldwide there are many examples of people being dismissed for inappropriate comments on social media. As top South African IT lawyer Warren Weertman has been quoted as saying, ‘if you are in an employer, employee relationship, not just Facebook but blogging, you have to remember to always act in the employer’s best interest, that is a common law compulsion’. An employer, company or institution has a responsibility to take action when it and its employees are defamed and false information about them is spread. In the matter of the ‘cloned’ photograph published on September 19, the company has dealt individually with all people who had a role in the serious error. The editor has publicly apologised and is satisfied that such a mistake will not recur.

The original image taken by an AFP freelance photographer was published in the Straits Times, and can be seen by following the link below.

WARNING: Graphic content.

Click HERE, to see the image.

This link shows a comparison between the two images: HERE.

[Source: The Citizen, M&G]