'Corpse photo' to keep award
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On August 5, when the picture was awarded the silver medal at the 23rd National Photographic Art Exhibition (NPAE), Li Yuquan, the press director of Yangtze University, said on his blog that the reporter had forged the story and misled the public.
In the picture, Wang is seen making a gesture with his right hand. Li wrote that Wang was gesturing to people on the bank to help pull the corpse out of the river.
The Golden Lens Award organizing committee launched an investigation, and said Monday that Wang's gesture actually indicated that he would not pull out the bodies unless he was paid.
"The incident of holding onto a corpse for money does exist and it is a fact," the committee said in a statement.
Zhang told the Global Times earlier that he was telling the truth. "I was present at the scene during the whole salvage procedure. The picture is just one of many I took to record their deliberate reluctance to retrieve the bodies before the boss received all the required payment," Zhang said.
Wang insisted that he was innocent and has already hired a lawyer to restore his reputation. "I got a total of 530 yuan from Chen after finishing the job. But after finding out that the three students died trying to save others, I returned all the money," he said.
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