The spokesman for the United Nations-backed Khmer Rouge Tribunal said the “colourised and smiling” images of S-21 prison victims is “immoral and an “insult”, calling for a public apology. The reaction was made after news outlet Vice Asia published an article that showed colourised photos made by Irish artist Matt Loughrey of victims of the Khmer Rouge genocide regime from the S-21 archives in Tuol Sleng museum.

 

In an interview with Khmer Times, Neth Pheaktra, spokesman for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), known as the Khmer Rouge tribunal, said that altered images are shocking. “What the Irish artist has done to alter the images of Khmer Rouge victims from S-21 prison (Tuol Sleng Prison) is immoral and an insult to the victims’ souls and has also been creating confusion and suspicion on crimes committed during the Khmer Rouge regime,” he said. “The real images of those altered photos are full of shock, fear, sadness, pain, which nothing can comparable.”

 

Pheaktra added that the crimes committed at the Tuol Sleng Prison were against humanity, war crimes and that those who are highly responsible and senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime responsible for this secret prison were also found guilty by the ECCC, convicted and sentenced to life in prison, and even called S-21 prison as the Khmer Rouge’s ‘killing factory.’

 

https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50837240/khmer-rouge-tribunal-colourised-and-smiling-images-of-s-21-prison-victims-are-immoral-and-an-insult/

I'm often disappointed with what my fellow members of the human race do, but it's not often that I'm disgusted. 

 

This is way beyond shaking my head; I'm speechless.

 

Like an idiot I searched this man's name and there it was.  It is one of the most sickening things I've ever seen, and it's something I'll never be able to unsee.  Without doubt he's talented, but he stuck a big happy smile on the face of some poor man being admitted to S-21, who within days of this photo being taken was likely tortured and murdered.  Don't be tempted to search for it people.

 

(And thank you @geovalin for sparing the feelings of forum members by not adding the photo itself to the post.)

 

Vice took the article down

 

twitter responses

 

petition to seek the site be taken down and for the "artist " to apologize::

https://www.change.org/p/all-cambodians-in-diaspora-we-need-your-help-support-us-in-letting-vice-and-matt-loughrey-know-that-we-will-not?recruiter=975567794&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_abi&recruited_by_id=6c8ad8e0-96fa-11e9-8d83-9f4f55104298&utm_content=fht-28305570-en-us%3A0

 

and the ministry of culture made a post

 

30 minutes ago, zzzzz said:

Vice took the article down

 

petition to seek the site be taken down and for the "artist " to apologize

 

and the ministry of culture made a post

 

 

Pleased about this.  How he seeks to justify himself is beyond belief.

 

If any of the families requested a smile along with the restoration, fair enough - it

may be the only photo they have.  It would be a private matter for the family, none of us could even start to imagine what the surviving family members went through and if having a photo with their relative smiling brings comfort to them, it's a good thing.  But it's a private thing; these photo's should never have been published.  There are more than 140 of them, and as well as cheeky grins being added, one has a handprint in blood on the wall next to the victim which wasn't on the original.  I think that might be worse than the smiles.

 

(I can't believe how angry this has made me.)

To be fair, these alterations are no more deceptive or immoral than the text of most Vice articles, or their horribly slanted videos.

Vice has been a straightforward propaganda outlet for years now.

 

please stop mixing Cambo news with Thai, i didn't subscribed to those

1 hour ago, MasterBaker said:

please stop mixing Cambo news with Thai, i didn't subscribed to those

Forum Home 

Regional Forums 

Cambodia Forum 

Cambodia News 

we are ON the Cambodian section> dont read, dont post here if you are not interested.

Just now, zzzzz said:

Forum Home 

Regional Forums 

Cambodia Forum 

Cambodia News 

we are ON the Cambodian section> dont read, dont post here if you are not interested.

Nazis took many photos of concentration camp victims. Their descendants are, in some cases, still alive today. Can you picture a starving Jew with a smiling face. Sorry, this is just wrong.

 

An OP posted that Vice is nothing more than a propaganda tool. Of what, exactly? There's cutting edge report on far out subjects there you'd never see anywhere else. I'm pleased to be a subscriber. (Have you been cloned ???? ?!?)

5 hours ago, MasterBaker said:

please stop mixing Cambo news with Thai, i didn't subscribed to those

This is far more important than the Thai news of car crashes, bike crashes and husband stabs wife. Thai news is just dribble !

7 hours ago, MasterBaker said:

please stop mixing Cambo news with Thai, i didn't subscribed to those

 With respect, I presume you also do not want relevant news from Laos, Burma, Vietnam, Malaysia and many other International news media outlets (eg Reuters) to be mixed with the Thai news in TVF as currently happens??