The vice-media group apologized on Sunday for publishing the works of an artist who edited photos of the victims of the Khmer Rouge genocide to make them look like they were smiling, calling it “a failure of the editorial process.”
Vice Asia published an interview with Matt Loughrey on April 9, detailing his work coloring photos of detainees in Tuol Sleng Prison, where they were tortured and interrogated before being sent to the death camps. Not only were they colorful, but the prisoners’ faces had been edited to look like they were smiling. Since then, the article has been removed.
Cambodia condemned the altered photos shortly after they were published. Cambodia’s Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts has said it believes the images “seriously affect the dignity of the victims” and called for them to be endangered by legal action, according to The Guardian.
“On Friday, April 9, VICE Asia published an interview with Matt Loughrey, an artist working on the restoration and coloring of images at 21 security prisons in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, which was used by the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 until its fall. from 1979. The article included photographs of Khmer Rouge victims that Loughrey manipulated beyond coloring. The story did not meet VICE’s editorial standards and was removed. We regret the error and will investigate how this failure of the editorial process occurred “, said the company he said in a statement.
In the interview, Loughrey said his photography work began after someone in Cambodia contacted him to restore three photos. Several requests soon followed. Although some prisoners were already smiling in their photos, Loughrey acknowledged that he had added smiles to others.
The Ministry of Fine Arts said Loughrey’s work violated the rights of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum as owners and legal custodians of the images, The Guardian reported.
“We urge researchers, artists and the public not to manipulate any historical source to respect the victims,” the ministry said.