**World Press Photo Under Fire for Awarding Russian Photographer**
A group of Georgian photojournalists and documentary photographers are speaking out against World Press Photo’s decision to award a photo story by Mikhail Tereshchenko, a reporter for the Kremlin-controlled TASS agency. They say it is “disturbed” and “outraged” by this move.
Tereshchenko’s photos show the first tense days of protests in Tbilisi last year against the suspension of EU accession talks. The local photographers object to honoring a journalist who works for a pro-Russian propaganda outlet like TASS. They say it is a contradiction to honor someone who supports Russia‘s aggression in Ukraine and has called it an act of “liberation”.
The Georgian photographers note that the protesters in Tereshchenko’s photos are opposing forces that TASS consistently defends. They say that having their story told through an agency complicit in their oppression is not just contradictory, but a betrayal of fundamental journalistic principles.
**Georgian Photographers Speak Out**
By awarding the TASS photographer, World Press Photo is legitimizing the agency notorious for spreading disinformation, according to the Georgian photographers. They say this decision undermines independent media and amplifies propaganda, allowing false narratives to gain broader acceptance.
The statement concludes: “To be absolutely clear, the story of Georgia‘s resistance, suffering, and hope should never be conveyed through the lens of its colonizers’ propaganda news agencies – by those who seek to distort, manipulate, and silence it to serve oppression.”
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