Fact Check: The Economist did not alter photo on its front page, the Palestinian flag could not have been present while clicking the scene
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled to neighboring India after protesters stormed her official residence following weeks of deadly anti-government demonstrations.
During protests against the Sheikh Hasina-led government, over 1,000 people were killed, and more than 400 were blinded by police fire, with some losing sight in one or both eyes, according to a top adviser of the interim government. Health adviser Nurjahan Begum revealed this information during a visit to the Central Police Hospital in Rajarbagh, where she spoke with injured police personnel and inquired about their conditions at the surgical department.
Amid these events, a graphic image resembling a magazine cover with the title "Bangladesh Begins Again" is being circulated widely on the internet.
Social media users shared the pictures with the Caption "The Economist seems to have a problem with the Palestinian flag being displayed on its cover".
Another user shared: "The Economist magazine, the mouthpiece of the globalists, censored the Palestinian flag from the original photo on its latest cover on Bangladesh".
Fact Check: The claim is misleading. The Economist did not alter the photo when featuring it.
Upon investigation, we found that Getty Images posted a picture similar to the viral one, with the headline "anti-government protesters gather as they storm Prime Minister’s residence."
As Getty Images mentioned the photographer's name, K M Asad, we searched for it as the keyword. We found K M Asad's social media accounts, and in his bio, we found that he is an independent photographer."
We found on August 11, 2024, he shared a clarification regarding the altered image. In the post, he mentioned: “This is a statement from K M Asad regarding the misunderstanding about one of my photographs published in “The Economist.”
In the post, he also mentioned: “In this photograph, we can see the general public taking over the former prime minister’s office and raising the national flag of Bangladesh. When I arrived, I took multiple photographs, entered the office, came out, and took some images-there were many things happening simultaneously. During that time, so much was happening so quickly. People raised other flags too, as you can see in other photographs (which are widely shared with the claim) of the same place, where the Palestinian and communist flags are clearly visible. However, I was not there at that specific moment. I was taking photographs of other places".
I can assure you that when I was on the spot, no one was there with those two flags hanging and “The Economist” did not photoshop the image. They did not erase those two flags; they published the image as it is. The photograph they published is the exact one I provided, capturing the scene as I saw it.
While searching, we found on Aug 5, 2024, BBC News Bangla uploaded a video on their YouTube channel with the Title "বাংলাদেশে বিক্ষোভের মুখে প্রধানমন্ত্রী দেশ ছেড়ে পালানোর প্রথম নজির “
When we translated it to English, we found: “This is the first instance of a prime minister fleeing the country in the face of protests in Bangladesh”
Watching the video at the 11-second time stamp, we found that a Palestinian flag was indeed hoisted during the protest.
We also found that, The New York Times published the same picture in its August 6, 2024, issue. In the photograph, we did not find the Palestinian flag.
Hence, we found the claim is misleading. The Economist did not alter the image when featuring it. The Palestinian flag was hoisted during the protest, but it may not have been present when the photographer captured the scene.