This image was taken in December 2010 at an event staged by the Sri Lankan Army
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on February 10, 2020 at 07:00
- 2 min read
- By AFP Sri Lanka
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The photo was published on Facebook here on February 4, 2020, the day Sri Lanka celebrated its 72nd Independence Day.
Below is a screenshot of the misleading Facebook post:
The post’s Sinhala-language caption translates to English as: “Is this freedom?”
The post also includes superimposed text that reads: “The bigwigs are all under huts, on comfortable chairs / When I see the suffering the heroes undergo to make them happy, I think/ Is this freedom? Is this the celebration?”
The photo was published on Facebook here, here, here and here; and on Twitter here with a similar claim.
The claim is misleading; a reverse image search on Google found the picture was published on the Reuters website here on December 15, 2010.
The photo’s caption reads: “A solider [sic] grabs a colleague who fainted during a ceremony marking the 55th anniversary of the Sri Lanka Army Armored Corps (SLAC) in Colombo December 15, 2010. Sri Lanka's military in May last year ended the 25-year war against separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which killed over 100,000 people. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte (SRI LANKA - Tags: MILITARY)”
Here is an article published on the official Sri Lanka Army website about the 2010 event.
Below is a screenshot of the Reuters' photo:
Below is a screenshot comparison of the picture in the misleading post (L) and the Reuters image (R):
Reuters’ Asia desk Editor in Chief of Photography, Ahmad Masood, told AFP by email on February 5, 2020 that the photo was taken by Reuters in 2010.
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