Doctored image of 'man reacting to S.Korea president's speech defending martial law' spreads online
- Published on December 20, 2024 at 03:35
- 4 min read
- By Hailey JO, AFP South Korea
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"The public's reaction to Yoon Suk Yeol's fourth address," read the Korean-language caption to an image shared on social media site X on December 12, 2024.
The image shows a man winding up to hurl a glass bottle at a television that appears to be broadcasting South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's defiant speech defending his short-lived declaration of martial law, which threw the country into some of its deepest political turmoil in years (archived link).
The TV screen displays a chyron reading, "The opposition party is an anti-state force destroying the country".
Yoon was stripped of his duties by parliament in an impeachment vote on December 14. The Constitutional Court then commenced proceedings against him and has about six months to determine whether to uphold his impeachment or reinstate him (archived link).
Yoon is also under investigation by a joint team of police, the defence ministry and anti-corruption investigators for allegations of insurrection and abuse of power.
Similar claims were circulated on various platforms, including Instagram, Threads and YouTube, as well as on South Korean online forums such as Clien, Ppompu and MLB Park.
Some social media users appeared to believe the picture was genuine.
"That scene says everything about how the people feel," one user wrote.
Another said, "That's exactly how I feel right now! How can he be so shameless, making excuses and blaming the media!"
The image, however, has been altered.
2017 photo
A reverse image search on Google led to the original photo published by South Korean news agency Newsis on March 10, 2017 (archived link).
The photo shows a man reacting to a television news broadcast about former president Park Geun-hye's removal from office (archived link).
Park became South Korea's first democratically elected leader to be thrown out of office in March 2017 when the Constitutional Court upheld a parliament vote to impeach her over a graft scandal that sparked huge street protests (archived link).
The photo is captioned: "A man throws a fit after watching news of Park Geun-hye's removal from office at the reception area in Gyeonggi province's Suwon station on the morning of the 10th."
Below is a screenshot comparison between the doctored image (left) and the photo published by Newsis in 2017 (right):
The photo was also included in Korean-language news reports on Money Today and Herald Business (archived here and here).
Newsis published another, similar photo of the same man holding the bottle, as did the Yonhap news agency (archived here and here).
South Korean daily Kyeonggi Ilbo photographed the same man held by police, reporting that he was restrained by bystanders as he attempted to hit the television with a glass bottle (archived link).
A separate keyword search on YouTube found the screenshot of Yoon used in the altered image corresponds to the 7:24 mark of an MBC report on the president's December 12 speech (archived link).
AFP has debunked other false claims about Yoon's ill-fated martial law declaration here, here, here and here.
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