Africa 

Solidarity for Ugandan climate activist over racist AP photo crop

A young Ugandan activist has been receiving solidarity on social media following a photo crop by American news outlet, Associated Press, AP.

Vanessa Nakate took to social media to hit out at AP over what she said was a racist decision by the agency. According to her, AP had actually eliminated an entire continent by their action. She was in Davos on the invitation of the WWF Arctic Base camp program.

The photo at the heart of the issue is of a number of climate activists at the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland. The photo had now famous Greta Thunberg posing with four other activists.

Greta was in the middle of the five-member photo flanked on each side by two fellow activists. Nakate was positioned at the far left of the photo.

She posted a video on Twitter titled: ‘What it means to be removed from a photo!’ sharing her experiences in Davos and expressing her reservation over the photo episode. She subsequently posted more tweets on the impropriety of AP’s actions.

Her story has been reported widely by the international press with most people slamming the AP via social media. Twenty-four hours after she posted her first video, solidarity messages continue to be shared.

The head of UNAIDS, Winnie Byanyima, was among those that expressed pride in Nakate’s protest whiles encouraging her to fight on.

AP statement on cropped photo: Jan. 24, 2020

We regret publishing a photo this morning that cropped out Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate, the only person of color in the photo.

As a news organization, we care deeply about accurately representing the world that we cover. We train our journalists to be sensitive to issues of inclusion and omission. We have spoken internally with our journalists and we will learn from this error in judgment.

Statement from Executive Editor Sally Buzbee

Some reactions on Twitter

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