According to Mikko Koivumaa, director of communications at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the photographer hired by the ministry edited the picture “on his own”. Tavio’s hair had been added to the processed image.
27.4. 23:48•Updated 10:27
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs published an edited image in the message service X. Finland’s Minister of Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade From Ville Tavio (ps.).
On April 25, the minister Tavio was visiting In the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv.
On the same day, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs published a photo of the visit. In the picture, Tavio lays a flower wreath at the fallen soldiers’ memorial.
The same photo was also published by the Embassy of Finland in Kyiv on his Facebook page. The picture shared by the embassy shows a hairless area on the top of Tavio’s head, which is not visible in the picture published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Director of Communications at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mikko Koivumaa confirms that the ministry used a modified image in its publication. Koivumaa says that the photo comes from a photographer hired by the ministry.
– A photographer hired on the spot in Kiev edited the picture in his own way. We have not given instructions to edit Tavio’s picture.
How does the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ensure that the images are documentary?
– I don’t know exactly how he was instructed, but he was not instructed to edit the pictures. At least he has not acted in accordance with our own practices and rules, but I do not know what kind of discussions have taken place with him.
However, does UM have instructions for photographers that the images may not be edited?
– I can’t say now on Saturday night what our exact instructions are, especially for external photographers and especially at the representative offices, what those exact instructions are. I can’t say that at this point.
Koivumaa says that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also had an unedited version of the image, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ended up publishing the edited image in the end.
– For some reason, the wrong picture was chosen at the end of Helsinki. I can’t say why this has been done, but we will find out.
After contacting , the Ministry of Foreign Affairs removed the original publication from X by Koivumaa’s decision.
On Saturday evening, the ministry published the unedited image with the text “republished because we accidentally used the wrong image earlier”. The publication does not say that the previously published image was edited.
So you didn’t find it necessary to mention that such a processed image was published there?
– We thought that this wording indicates that it was a wrong picture. This was now the wording that was chosen, Koivumaa told after the publication was removed.
Story edited on 28.4. at 10:25 a.m. Information added to the subtitle, how the processed image was edited.