The Associated Press held town halls and issued multiple apologies after it cropped an African climate activist out of a photo, which led to questions about racism.
The problematic photo emerged late last week, when a photographer representing the outlet at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, took a photo of five climate activists, including both Swedish teen Greta Thunberg and Ugandan Vanessa Nakate. Prior to disseminating the photo, an editor cropped Nakate out, leaving four white women standing in front of a scenic mountain background.
Other photos including Nakate were also sent out, and the Associated Press withdrew the cropped photo after more than a day of backlash.
After the cropped photo emerged, Nakate posted a video on social media describing the pain she felt.
“This is the first time in my life that I understood the definition of the word racism … and they have the guts to change the photo without even giving an explanation or giving an apology. Does that mean that I have no value as an African activist? Or the people from Africa don’t have any value at all? I’m sorry — I really thought I would be … I just feel so upset right now,” she said.
The other activists in the photo came to Nakate’s defense.
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What it means to be removed from a photo! https://t.co/1dmcbyneYV— Vanessa Nakate (@vanessa_vash) January 24, 2020
The executive editor and senior vice president of the outlet’s news service, Sally Buzbee, released a statement on Friday expressing “regret” over the cropping mishap. She also tweeted a secondary apology over the weekend, writing, “Vanessa, on behalf of the AP, I want to say how sorry I am that we cropped that photo and removed you from it. It was a mistake that we realize silenced your voice, and we apologize. We will all work hard to learn from this.”
Concern over the issue led Buzbee to host three town halls on Monday so journalists worldwide could attend either in person or remotely.
“My hope is that we can learn from this and be a better news organization going forward,” Buzbee said Monday. “I realize I need to make clear from the very top, from me, that diversity and inclusion needs to be one of our highest priorities.”
