Another Paper Hoaxed By 'Tsunami' Photo

By: E&P Staff More than two weeks after the Calgary (Alb.) Herald published a phony tsunami photo, The Citizen in Johannesburg, South Africa, fell for the same hoax and splashed the image on its front pages.

On Tuesday, Citizen Acting Editor Martin Williams said in a front-page article that the newspaper is investigating how the dramatic photo got published in Monday?s editions. "If appropriate, disciplinary steps will be taken," the editor said in the article.

The image of a wave of water surging over fleeing people was the same photo the Herald published on its front page on Dec. 30. The photo was not taken during the Indian Ocean tsunami last month, but in September 2002. It shows a wave from a tidal surge in the Qintangji River. The paper apologized the next day, saying it had received the photo from the head of a local charity.

In South Africa, the competing Mail & Guardian reported Tuesday that the image had been e-mailed to a Citizen staffer. Similar e-mails were sent to two employees of the Mail & Guardian, the newspaper said.

"A five-minute internet search yielded the same photographs," the newspaper article stated.