AMSTERDAM: The World Press Photo Foundation has suspended the author attribution for the iconic “Napalm Girl” photograph taken during the Vietnam War, citing doubts over who captured the photo, some 50 years on, German Press Agency (dpa) reported.
The photographer’s name will not be used until the matter has been clarified, the organisation announced in Amsterdam on Friday, following a thorough analysis of the photograph.
The 1972 photo, officially called “The Terror of War,” shows a 9-year-old girl running naked and screaming towards the camera lens after a napalm attack in Vietnam.
It was named 1973 World Press Photo of the Year and is now considered a global symbol of the atrocities of war.
The photograph has long been credited to Nick Ut, who was 21 at the time. He worked for the AP news agency and drove the injured girl, Phan Thi Kim Phuc, to the hospital in Saigon after the attack, where she received treatment for months.
However, a documentary released this year raised doubts about the photographer, suggesting that it was more likely that a freelance AP employee captured the scene.
He is said to have received US$20 for the picture.
The World Press Photo Foundation launched an investigation in response. After analysing the location, the distance of the photographer and the camera used, it concluded that there was a strong possibility that one of two other employees, Nguyễn Thành Nghệ or Huỳnh Công Phúc, had pressed the shutter button instead.
The foundation’s director, Joumana El Zein Khoury, stressed that the authenticity of the photograph was undisputed.
