Egyptian paper doctors peace talks photo in favor of Mubarak

Al-Ahram has hard time coming to terms with fact that Egyptian president seen walking on sidelines of red carpet during peace talks launch ceremony, decides to edit photo of event to present Mubarak at forefront

Roee Nahmias|Published: 09.15.10 , 20:03

If they're not changing world order, at least they are changing the order in which world leaders walk. The official newspaper of the Egyptian government Al-Ahram was caught on Tuesday tampering with pictures from the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians in which both the US and Egypt are mediating.

The original photo showing the leaders walking the red carpet at the launch ceremony depicts US President Barack Obama leading the other four leaders with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak walking on the far-left of the line.

The fabricated photo published in Al-Ahram

However, the Egyptian newspaper's website chose to use a graphically edited picture that placed Mubarak at the helm instead of Obama.

Not everyone in Egypt was content with the tampered photography. On the contrary. Many competitor websites celebrated Al-Ahram's misfortune at being caught in the act. A Facebook group criticizing the doctored photo was even started and has garnered hundreds of members.

The original picture (Photo: Reuters)

"The government always embarrasses itself," wrote one of the group's members. "We hope to receive a response from Al-Ahram regarding the fake," wrote another member.

Yet another of the Facebook group's members wrote, "Everything in the press is forgery and a lie."

However, it as of yet remains unclear whether the picture was part of a deliberate policy move to paint Mubarak in a more influential light than reflected in reality, or if the picture was published by an editor unaware of the alterations made.

Al-Ahram has not yet published an official response to the allegations, however, other sites reported that the newspaper site was quick to remove the edited photograph. As of the publication of this article, the picture remained posted on the article.