Minutes after Stephen Harper finished his now-famous rendition of With a Little Help from My Friends , the Prime Minister's Office e-mailed Canadian media an arresting close-up shot of what it described as the gala piano performance.
Only it wasn't.
The picture, which featured Mr. Harper framed by dazzling theatre lights, was actually snapped by a PMO photographer at a private rehearsal hours before the Oct. 3 evening concert.
The shot – used by media outlets including The Globe and Mail's website – is cited by photojournalists who cover Mr. Harper when they discuss what they see as recent PMO efforts to exert more influence over images of the Conservative Prime Minister.
Since the spring, the PMO has effectively set up its own picture service, e-mailing photos to Canadian media almost daily in an effort to find a market for publicity shots of Mr. Harper's activities. It's a service that ultimately competes with the work of photojournalists, but one, they argue, that should not be relied upon as a record of events.
The mislabelled Harper picture is evidence of that, photojournalists say.
“That's why you rely on independent journalists to gather news,” said Graeme Roy, The Canadian Press's director of news photography.
Contacted about the photo, the Prime Minister's Office acknowledged that it erred in distributing a rehearsal picture that was captioned as the gala performance and said it should have sent out a correction. “We strive to make no errors on stuff that we put out. Unfortunately, sometimes, we're human and we do make a mistake,” PMO spokesman Andrew MacDougall said.
This photo was distributed Oct. 3 by the Prime Minister's Office shortly after Mr. Harper finished his famous piano rendition of With a Little Help from My Friends at the National Arts Centre Gala. It was erroneously captioned: "Prime Minister Stephen Harper performs "With A Little Help From My Friends" at the 2009 National Arts Centre Gala." In fact, the photo had been taken by a PMO photographer hours earlier during a private rehearsal. The caption was not corrected.
Photojournalists say that while they don't begrudge the PMO for distributing pictures – the Obama White House has a Web page dedicated to the same end – they're concerned about instances in which they are losing access to Mr. Harper and then being asked to accept the Conservative government's own photographic record of an event as a substitute.
Although that is not the case with the gala performance, where The Canadian Press was on hand to snap its own shots, it is what happened during Mr. Harper's August trip to the Arctic. There, the Prime Minister's Office publicized that he and cabinet ministers ate seal meat, but didn't let journalists witness the meal.
After Governor-General Michaëlle Jean's headline-grabbing consumption of seal heart last May, dining on this slightly fishy-tasting flesh has become a de rigueur gesture of respect toward Inuit people. Ms. Jean's meal, however, was consumed in full view of reporters and their cameras.
Not in Mr. Harper's case. His personal photographer was the only one to record the snack, even though close to two dozen journalists had travelled north with his entourage. The resulting PMO “handout” picture, distributed to media and widely published, showed the Prime Minister and colleagues reaching for pieces of seal as proof they ate the meat.
“There were no journalists present to verify that this in fact took place,” Mr. Roy noted.
The national news service filed a complaint with the PMO after his Arctic visit, stemming from incidents on the trip as well as other difficulties in covering Mr. Harper.
“We don't feel that we are getting the access we need in order to tell the story of the Prime Minister properly,” Mr. Roy said. He said he remains hopeful that ensuing discussions with the PMO will bear fruit and lead to changes.
The Prime Minister's Office says the Iqaluit seal-meat picture was left to the PMO photographer because most journalists were heading to another event and officials didn't think it would be fair to invite only those who stayed behind.
