This image from Jakarta has been doctored to include Shinzo Abe instead of Indonesia's president

This article is more than one year old.
Published on June 2, 2020 at 05:00
2 min read
By AFP Philippines

An image of a purported billboard bearing the portraits of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been shared repeatedly in multiple Facebook posts alongside a claim it was taken in Tokyo. The claim is false; the image has been doctored from a photo that showed portraits of Duterte and Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in Jakarta in 2016.

The image was shared in this Facebook post on May 26, 2020.

A screenshot of the misleading post taken on June 1, 2020

The post’s Tagalog-language caption states in part: “While I was walking earlier here along the stretch of Shibuya, Japan. I noticed this portrait of Japan's prime minister Shinzo Uzumaki Jotaro Abe next to the president of the Philippines president Duterte. Displayed in front of one of the national museums here in Japan."

Shibuya is a district in Tokyo, Japan’s sprawling capital.

This profile on the official website for the Japanese prime minister indicates his name is actually "Shinzo Abe", not "Shinzo Uzumaki Jotaro Abe".

The same photo was shared alongside a similar claim on Facebook here, here and here.

The claim is false.

A combined reverse image and keyword search on Google found the image was digitally manipulated to include Abe’s portrait. The original photo was taken in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta.

The original photo, which clearly shows portraits of Duterte and Jokowi, was published on September 8, 2016 on Twitter here by a reporter for GMA News Online, a Philippine media organisation. The tweet was embedded in this GMA article on the same day.

A screenshot of the original photo taken on June 1, 2020

“A portrait of President Rodrigo Duterte has been displayed at the National Monument in Central Jakarta, Indonesia as the country awaits his arrival,” the GMA report states. “[Duterte’s photo] was placed beside the portrait of Indonesian President Joko Widodo.”

The article adds that “Indonesia is Duterte's second stop in his tour of neighboring Southeast Asian countries for his first international travel as head of state.”

Below is a screenshot comparison of the doctored photo (L) and the original photo which shows Jokowi (R):

Screenshot comparison

The photo showing the portraits of Duterte and Jokowi also appeared in this report published by Indonesian news site IDN Times on September 9, 2016.

The location where the portraits were displayed in Jakarta in 2016 can be viewed here on Google Street View.

A screenshot of the location on Google street view, taken on June 1, 2020

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