A photograph of the President of Sri Lanka, Gotabhaya Rajapakse, watching his own speech telecasted on 25.06.2021 went viral on social media after the telecast of the President’s speech. Some of the posts that carried these photographs are as follows;
https://cutt.ly/bmoivkh
https://cutt.ly/Pmoi3ma
A technical investigation into the photograph revealed that it was manipulated invoking sarcasm and humour. The original photograph was from when the President was watching a program where he made a speech as a candidate contesting in the Presidential Election of 2020.
(Link for the original Image – https://cutt.ly/Omp7AUp)
Meanwhile, “The Sunday Times” printed newspaper had published the same photograph on the front page on 27.06.2021 with a caption reading; “President watching President”.
However, the online newspaper of “The Sunday Times”, issued on the same day (27.06.2021) had not carried the same news but carried an image about fertilizer.
(Link to the e-paper: https://bit.ly/361ECD8)
Accordingly, the photograph circulating on social media and the image published on the front page of the printed paper of “The Sunday Times” are confirmed as manipulated.
