An Australian TV channel apologized
“unreservedly”
on Tuesday for having altered the photo of a regional parliamentarian in order to amplify the size of her breasts and shorten her dress, a sexist alteration of the original photo denounced by its victim.
Georgie Purcell, a member of the upper house of the Victorian state parliament, posted the original photo and its edited version by 9News Melbourne, owned by media group Nine Network Australia, side by side online.
In the edited version, which aired Monday night, her sleeveless white dress became a halter top and skirt exposing her midriff.
A light gray translucent square transposed on part of the photo seems to accentuate the MP's chest.
“I went through a lot yesterday.
But seeing my body and my outfit photoshopped by a media was not on the agenda
,” Purcell commented on X (ex-Twitter).
“Note the enlarged breasts and the outfit which reveals more of my body.
I can't imagine this happening to a male MP.
What is going on ?"
, she continued.
Photoshop
9News Melbourne director Hugh Nailon said the channel's image department found a photo of the MP online which was to be used to illustrate an article about duck hunting.
Purcell is an Animal Justice Party MP for Northern Victoria.
“As is customary, the image was resized to fit our specifications
,” Nailon said.
“During this process, Photoshop automation created an image that did not conform to the original shot
,” he added, referring to Adobe's U.S.-based photo editing software. .
“This did not meet the high editorial standards that we apply and we apologize unreservedly to Purcell
,” Nailon said, referring to a
“graphic error”
.
Adobe, however, contradicted this explanation.
“Any changes to this image would have required human intervention and approval
,” an Adobe spokesperson said in a statement to Australian media.