A doctored photograph showing President Hosni Mubarak leading Mideast peace talks, published in a state-run paper continues to stir up international reactions. The editor of Al-Ahram newspaper defended the digital manipulation of the photo by saying it was meant to show Mubarak's key role in the peace process. The original picture shows US President Barack Obama front and center as he leads Mubarak and three other world leaders on the red carpet as talks got under way on 1 September in Washington. But Al-Ahram altered the photograph to show Mubarak taking the lead, with Obama slightly behind him and to his right, in a photo published earlier this week. “The picture was meant to be expressive… as it puts President Mubarak in a leadership position in the new negotiations following the opening round in Washington,” Ossama al-Saraya, editor of Al-Ahram wrote on Friday. “[The picture] is a lively expression of the precise political position of President Mubarak in the Palestinian issue.” The incident has stirred up a series of reactions from opposition activists and groups who considered the manipulation of the photograph as poor journalistic practice by the state-run daily. “What happened is a continuation of the state-run institutions' practice of falsifying [information about] the elections, prizes and positions,” Omar Afifi, head of the Egyptian NGOs Coalition in Washington told Al-Masry Al-Youm. The photographs also stirred some mockery from internet activists, who were the first to reveal the discrepancy between the original photograph and the manipulated one.
