AP Decides Against Distribution of White House Dalai Lama Photo

By Lido Vizzutti, 2-19-10

The Associated Press Director of Photography Santiago Lyon released a statement yesterday via Facebook explaining the AP's decision to not run a White House photograph of the Dalai Lama and President Barack Obama. The White House image was the only photo of the event available.

Read Lyon's full statement here.

Heres a couple quotes from the release:

We won't accept or use handout photos if we feel access would have been possible by the media, either as a group or through a pool photo arrangement. This position is particularly important to us when covering government activities in democratic nations where we believe an independent view is important.

Snip

Access to the public activities of the president of the United States, we believe, is a fundamental right of the media. Government-controlled coverage is not acceptable in societies that promote freedom and democracy. As a result, we don’t distribute official images of events we believe should be open to the press.

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