Vanessa Nakate, the Ugandan climate activist who had previously called out alleged racism in journalism, pointed out that the apology she received from the news agency did not mention her name and referred to her as an ‘African climate activist’.
Responding to the Associated Press’ apology tweet, Nakate pointed out the omission. “Anyway my name is Vanessa Nakate,” she tweeted in response. Thought I would add that.”
The Controversy
Nakate was part of a climate activism news conference at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, with other campaigners including Greta Thunberg. The event had been covered by various news agencies, including the Associated Press (AP).
Later, Nakate took to Twitter to point out that she had been cropped out from the AP photo, that had originally featured her with four other white climate change campaigners including Thunberg. The photo uploaded by AP removed Nakate but included the others, and was met with widespread outrage on social media.
While Nakate tweeted that AP had later replaced the image with another that featured her prominently in the center, she rejected the change, saying it had been made “without any explanation,” and that AP had “already caused the damage.”
The Nameless ‘Apology’
On 28 January, AP released an apology article, titled ‘Photo cropping mistake leads to AP soul-searching on race.’ The tweet referred to Nakate as ‘African climate activist,’ and the accompanying article did not mention her name for the first three paragraphs.
Immediately, Twitter users including Nakate herself, pointed out the omission of her name, in both the tweet and the title of the article, which referred to the cropping as a “terrible mistake.” The apology mentioned AP’s account of the incident, and focused on their efforts at diversity and inclusion.
“This is a very important issue for the AP, and it’s bigger than a bad mistake on one photo,” said Gary Pruitt, president and CEO of the AP, as quoted in AP’s article. “Our values are to cover the world — not the white world, but the whole world. And we need to do it.”
Twitter Reacts With Outrage
While the apology quoted various heads and editors of AP acknowledging the issue, Twitter users pointed out the hypocrisy in not naming Nakate openly, and the gross generalisation committed by calling her ‘African climate activist.’
People pointed out that the inclusion of Nakate’s name would not have violated Twitter’s character limit, or otherwise impact any logistical aspects of the tweet.
In what appeared to be an oblique reference to the incident, Greta Thunberg also tweeted about the importance of recognising diverse voices in climate activism. She had previously also expressed her support for Nakate.
While some detractors accused Nakate of trying to seize her fifteen minutes of fame, she responded saying that all she wanted was to be mentioned with respect. “Thank you. Next,” she signed off.
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