New disputes over authorship of the famous Napalm Girl photo

Photo group says it has 'suspended attribution' of historic Vietnam picture because of doubts.

An organization that honored The Associated Press' Nick Ut with its “photo of the year” in 1973 for a picture of a girl running from a napalm attack in the Vietnam War says it has “suspended its attribution” to Ut because of doubts over who actually took it.

World Press Photo's report Friday adds to the muddle over an issue that has split the photographic community since a movie earlier this year, “The Stringer,” questioned Ut's authorship. The photo of a naked and terrified Kim Phuc became an iconic symbol of the war's tragedy.

After two investigations, The Associated Press said it found no definitive evidence to warrant stripping Ut's photo credit. The AP said it was possible Ut took the picture, but the passage of time made it impossible to fully prove, and could find no evidence to prove anyone else did.

World Press Photo said its probe found that two other photographers — Nguyen Thanh Nghe, the man mentioned in “The Stringer,” and Huynh Cong Ut — “may have been better positioned” to take the shot.

“We conclude that the level of doubt is too significant to maintain the existing attribution,” said Joumana El Zein Khoury, executive director of World Press Photo. “At the same time, lacking conclusive evidence pointing definitively to another photographer, we cannot reassign authorship, either.”

World Press Photo, an organization whose awards are considered influential in photography, won't attempt to recover the cash award given to Ut, a spokeswoman said.

Ut's lawyer, James Hornstein, said his client hadn't spoken to World Press Photo after some initial contact before “The Stringer” was released. “It seems they had already made up their mind to punish Nick Ut from the start,” he said.

Gary Knight, a producer of “The Stringer,” is a four-time judge of the World Press Photo awards and was once a consultant to the World Press Photo Foundation.

The AP said Friday that its standards “require proof and certainty to remove a credit and we have found that it is impossible to prove exactly what happened that day on the road or in the (AP) bureau over 50 years ago.”

“We understand World Press Photo has taken different action based on the same available information, and that is their prerogative,” the statement said. “There is no question over AP's ownership of the photo.”

Meanwhile, the Pulitzer Prize that Ut won for the photo appears safe. The Pulitzers depend on news agencies who enter the awards to determine authorship, and administrator Marjorie Miller — a former AP senior editor — pointed to the AP’s study showing insufficient proof to withdraw credit. “The board does not anticipate future action at this time,” she said Friday.

Recently, Phan Thi Kim Phuc - the "Napalm Girl" - has stated in her letter: 

To whom it may concern,

I have been made aware that there is a film being produced by Gary Knight and his team, embracing Carl Robinson's mean and untrue claim that Nick Ut is not the man who took the Pulitzer photo known as "Napalm Girl". It is the photo of me, Phan Thi Kim Phuc, a naked nine-year-old girl, running towards the camera after a South Vietnamese napalm strike was dropped mistakenly on me in my village of Trang Bang, instead of nearby North Vietnamese troops on that day of June 8, 1972.I have refused to participate in this outrageous and false attack on Nick Ut raised by Mr.Robinson over the past years and never responded to his email requesting that I talk with him. I hope he finds peace in his life. I have no memory of those minutes but l would never participate in the Gary Knight film because I know it is false. All eyewitnesses on that horrific day including my uncle, have confirmed through the years that it was Nick Ut who was there, who ran towards me to take the photo and brought me to the closest hospital, Cu Chi Hospital. Those witnesses include foreign journalists, photographer and cameramen, David Burnett, Fox Butterfield, Chris Wain and Alan Downes (who tragically died from cancer few years ago) whom I have known through the years. Each has become a dear friend.While I was in shock and fainted after running away from napalm and upon accepting water, they have all verified to me they saw Nick, who was the only photojournalist who ran ahead towards me who took the photo. Additionally, my uncle was the person who begged Nick and his AP driver to take me to the nearest hospital, Cu Chi hospital. My uncle told me through the years that no one offered to take me and other burn victims since most wanted to head back to Saigon before dusk for fear of Vietcong ambush ano gunfire attacks on the road. It was only Nick who agreed to my uncle's pleas.I still do not have full memory of the June 8,1972 event, but only flitting images. Based on my uncle repeatedly telling me about that day and also my brother Phuoc (who was 5 years old at the time and is in the picture was also in the van that took us to Cu Chi hospital telling me of his memory of that day, I have no doubt that Nick Ut is the person who saved my life by bringing me to the Cu Chi hospital. For this I am eternally grateful.

I have been told by my parents that Nick along with Horst Faas (AP Head of Photography for Vietnam) and Peter Arnett (AP correspondent) came back the next day, on June gth to the napalm site in Trang Bang for further interviews with ARVNs commanders and villagers. It was there that my frantic parents found Nick and he told my parents that he had taken me to Cu Chi hospital which set their journey that day, to search for me first at Cu Chi hospital, not knowing that I was already transferred to the First Children's Hospital in Saigon and then finally to Barsky hospital in the burn unit. My parents loved Nick and were eternally grateful to him for saving my life.