World Press Photo, the organization behind one of the most prestigious awards in photojournalism, has suspended the credit given to Nick Ut for the iconic 1972 photograph popularly known as “Napalm Girl”, citing unresolved doubts about its authorship. The haunting black-and-white image, officially titled “The Terror of War”, captures a nine-year-old girl, Kim Phuc, running naked down a road after a napalm attack during the Vietnam War. The photograph had earned Nick Ut, then an Associated Press (AP) staff photographer, the 1973 Pulitzer Prize and global recognition.
The renewed scrutiny comes after the release of “The Stringer”, a documentary film that investigates claims the photo may have been taken by another Vietnamese photographer present at the scene — either Nguyen Thanh Nghe or Huynh Cong Phuc, both lesser-known local freelancers. Following a five-month internal inquiry from January to May, World Press Photo concluded that based on camera positioning, angles, and evidence from the scene, other photographers might have been in a better location to capture the image than Ut.
Although AP reaffirmed its position that the photo will remain credited to Ut, it also admitted that its internal review revealed “real questions” that may never be conclusively answered due to the passage of time and lack of definitive proof. Nick Ut, defending his authorship, called the doubts raised “a slap in the face” in a social media post earlier this year.
While the authorship is in question, the authenticity of the photograph itself is not disputed, says World Press Photo executive director Joumana El Zein Khoury. The image remains a powerful symbol of the horrors of war and continues to resonate globally, decades after it was first published. Kim Phuc, the subject of the image, survived and is now a Canadian peace activist advocating for child victims of war.
World Press Photo stated the suspension would remain unless future evidence conclusively proves the rightful author of the historic image.
