LONDON, 15 May 2004 — Britain’s Daily Mirror tabloid newspaper dumped its high-profile editor yesterday as it admitted that its photos of British soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners were fake, and apologized unconditionally for their publication.
In a statement, the Trinity Mirror publishing group said Piers Morgan, 39, who had repeatedly stated that the photos were authentic, was “stepping down” as editor with immediate effect.
It also apologized to the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment, whose troops were at the center of the allegations, just hours after its top commander demanded that it do so.
“There is now sufficient evidence to suggest that these pictures are fakes and that the Daily Mirror has been the subject of a calculated and malicious hoax,” Trinity Mirror said.
“The Daily Mirror therefore apologizes unreservedly for publishing the pictures and deeply regrets the reputational damage done to the QLR (Queen’s Lancashire Regiment) and the army in Iraq,” it said.
“The board of Trinity Mirror has decided that it would be inappropriate for Piers Morgan to continue in his role as editor of the Daily Mirror and he will therefore be stepping down with immediate effect,” Trinity Mirror added.
Trinity Mirror stopped short of saying whether it still stood by allegations of prisoner abuse from no less than six soldiers who had been quoted in the newspaper over the past fortnight.
Deputy editor Des Kelly is to become acting editor of the newspaper, Britain’s third largest daily with a circulation of 1.9 million.
Morgan’s departure from the Mirror, a vociferous opponent to the US-led war in Iraq, was seen as a moral victory for Prime Minister Tony Blair and his government, which argued in Parliament this week that it did not believe the photos were genuine.
It was also one of the biggest upsets in British journalism, rivaling the Sunday Times’ publication in 1983 of the so-called “diaries” of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler which later turned out to be fabrications.
The Daily Mirror’s pictures first appeared May 1, just days after the American television network CBS aired the first startling photos of US troops abusing and torturing Iraqis in Abu Ghraib prison — photos that were never called into question.
One of the British pictures showed a soldier urinating on a hooded man on the floor, another purported to show the same man, also hooded, being threatened with a blow of a rifle butt to his groin.
In none of pictures could a soldier’s face be seen — in contrast to the Abu Ghraib images, in which they were visible and identifiable.
Experts immediately questioned the photos, noting that the truck, assault rifle and floppy hat seen in them were not identical to those used by the 8,000 British troops who occupy southern Iraq.
