PHNOM PENH (Reuters) – Cambodia has called on US media group VICE to withdraw an article with freshly colored photos of Khmer Rouge victims ‘killing victims’, saying the images are an insult to dead because some mugshots were changed to add smiles.
On Sunday at 1200 GMT, the article was no longer available on the VICE.com website.
In the article published on Friday, artist Matt Loughrey said that his project to color images from the infamous Tuol Sleng prison, or S-21, is aimed at rescuing the 14,000 Cambodians who were executed and tortured there. humanized.
However, the article caused a backlash on social media after comparisons to the original black-and-white photos showed that some subjects just smiled at Loughrey’s color images. The VICE article does not contain the original images.
“Playing around using technology to make up the victims of S21 … is a very serious insult to the souls of the victims of #murder,” exiled Cambodian politician Mu Sochua wrote on Twitter.
The Ministry of Culture of Cambodia has issued a statement requesting Loughrey and VICE to remove the images.
“We urge researchers, artists and the public not to manipulate any historical source to respect the victims,” the ministry said.
Loughrey, who said in the VICE interview that he worked with the families of victims to recover the photos, declined to comment.
VICE also did not respond to a request for comment, but added an editorial note on Sunday before the article later disappeared from the site.
‘It has been brought to our attention that the restored portraits published in this article could not be altered. We are reviewing the article and considering further steps to correct the record, ”he said.
Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, compared the changes to the rewriting of history. An online petition demanding that the article be removed has received thousands of signatures.
At least 1.7 million Cambodians died during the Khmer Rouge extremist regime in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979.
Reporting by Prak Chan Thul; Written by Kay Johnson; Edited by Raissa Kasolowsky