The legend of the little girl with napalm is being questioned.

In January, a film screened at the Sundance Festival in the United States, titled The Stranger, sparked significant controversy regarding one of the most famous photos in the world: The Terror of War, infamously known as “the little girl in napalm.” The film suggested that this iconic image was not taken by Nick Ut of the Associated Press (AP) as previously believed, but rather by another Vietnamese photographer, Nguyen Thanh Nghe. Following the film’s release, AP initiated its own investigation and reaffirmed Nick Ut’s authorship of the photograph. However, the World Press Photo organization took an opposite stance, withdrawing the attribution from Ut while refraining from outright crediting Nghe. Joumana El Zein Khoury, the general manager of World Press Photo, sheds light on this decision.

Why Did the WPP Want to Take a Stand on “The Little Girl in Napalm”?

Our organization has been in existence for seventy years. We are closely committed to matters of **transparency** and **accuracy**. When questions arise concerning a prize-winning photograph, we initiate an investigative process. When the documentary The Stranger was screened at Sundance, we decided to conduct an inquiry. We awaited the results of the Associated Press’s investigation before publicly announcing our findings. Ultimately, we found valid concerns regarding the image in question. Consequently, we chose to maintain the original 1973 award tied to this photograph, but we suspended any **attribution** until more definitive evidence becomes available.

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