Misleading: This picture does not show a protester in Kalay, Myanmar, being shot with his hands raised
A photo showing a person with both hands up moving away from a uniformed individual holding a raised gun in Myanmar appeared in numerous social media posts on March 4.
It circulated on Twitter, Facebook and Reddit with a claim that the photo shows a protester named “Zin Myo Maung” (“ko” is an honorific for men in Burmese) being shot in the town of Kalay (also known as Kale) on March 2.
All these posts are misleading. The image is actually a cropped version of a photo taken in Yangon on Feb. 27, not in Kalay or on March 2. Online image search shows the original photo was taken by European Photo Agency (EPA) photographer Lynn Bo Bo.
According to the caption accompanying the original photo, as well as two other EPA photos taken in the same place by the same photographer, the images were taken while the police were firing teargas at protesters.
A Facebook post by the Irrawaddy Burmese Edition and a report from the local news site Khonumthung News said that a protester named Zin Myo Maung was shot on March 2 and a person named Zin Myo Maung is included in a fatality list combined by a Myanmar human rights organization, Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
The same post from the Irrawaddy included photos of his funeral on March 5 in Kalay as well.
Annie Lab compared a photo of Zin Myo Maung that was seen in the video of his funeral (at 1:39) by another local media Chin World with the person who appeared in the photo taken in Yangon on Feb. 27.
While the face masks make definitive identification difficult, the photos do not appear to show the same person.
Our investigation was unable to determine the gender or identity of the person seen in the original photo.
