BBC to make on air Burma picture apology

The BBC is to make an on air apology after admitting that it broadcast a picture yesterday which it claimed was of dozens of people killed by the devastating Burmese cyclone, but which instead was taken in Sumatra during the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004.

Peter Horrocks, the head of the newly created BBC multimedia newsroom, said the corporation was now reviewing its processes for checking pictures it received following the incident. The still photograph in question was used to introduce a report from inside Burma by correspondent Natalia Antelava on last night's BBC1 10pm bulletin. "This was a mistake, and we will be correcting it on all BBC output where the still was used," Horrocks wrote today on the BBC news website editors' blog.

The BBC confirmed it would make the on-air apology about the use of the picture on this evening's 10pm BBC1 bulletin. The picture was shown prior to the report in an introduction by 10 O'Clock News presenter Huw Edwards and was used to represent dozens of bodies that Antelava had seen lying on the waterfront of the Irawaddy delta.

Antelava's eyewitness account was broadcast by the BBC after she had left Burma to protect her. The BBC said it had now discovered that the picture was actually taken in Aceh in Sumatra, Indonesia, following the Asian tsunami on Boxing Day, December 26, 2004.

"Last night the BBC broadcast a still which we said showed dozens of bodies lying in the waterfront of the Irrawaddy delta," Horrocks said. "We have since discovered that the picture was actually taken in Aceh, Sumatra following the tsunami of 2004. This was a mistake, and we will be correcting it on all BBC output where the still was used.

"The BBC has first-hand evidence from its correspondent Natalia Antelava, who recently travelled in the delta, that there were many bodies in the water a week after the cyclone.

"However the picture we used yesterday to illustrate that truth was itself inaccurate. BBC News apologises for that. We will be reviewing our processes for checking pictures we receive."