By Nava Thakuria*
Guwahati: A city-based acclaimed Assamese newspaper has been trolled in social media for using a fake photo to narrate the ‘horrible’ story of Manipur violence on the front page of the June 19, 2023 issue. The social media users slammed the editor of Amar Asom for using a photograph, which has been lifted from Myanmar’s influential Mizzima newspaper, with completely different content.
Facing the heat, the editor of the daily admitted that the photograph was wrongly used in the news item depicting the troubled situation in Manipur and he also apologized.
The original news related to the announcement of the National Unity Government (of Burma) to take strict action against any member of the People’s Defence Force (PDF), who would be found guilty of killing the concerned lady in the photograph. The lady (later identified as a 24-year-old teacher named Aye Mar Tun) was beaten and finally killed for being a suspected military informant in November 2022.
Speaking to this correspondent from Yangon, Mizzima editor Soe Myint confirmed that the photograph was taken six months back by one of their scribes at the Tamu locality of the Sagaing region in northern Myanmar. He affirmed that the lady was a Myanmarese (not a Manipuri). The veteran Burmese editor also added that the concerned Assamese newspaper did not take prior permission to publish the photograph in any context.
Needless to mention that Manipur has been facing severe ethnic conflicts for more than a month now, where hundreds have lost their lives and thousands are being displaced. Lately, Dattatreya Hosabale (Sarkaryavah of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) has appealed for peace among various communities, who have been living in Manipur for centuries with harmony.
*Senior journalist
