AP journalist may lose rights to famous Vietnam War photo

Photographer for the Associated Press (AP) Nick Ut may lose the rights to his most famous photograph, "Napalm girl," which depicts the horrors of the Vietnam War. This was reported on May 16 by The Guardian newspaper with reference to the World Press Photo (WWP) organization.

"World Press Photo has suspended the attribution of one of the most famous photographs ever taken for the press, after a new documentary challenged 50 years of generally accepted journalism history," the newspaper said in a statement.

It is clarified that for more than 50 years, since its publication in June 1972, the author of "Napalm Girl" was considered to be Ut, who received the Pulitzer Prize for this photo. However, after the release of the 2025 film "Stringer" by Vietnamese-American director Bao Nguyen, which claims the authorship of another photographer, Vietnamese NBC stringer Nguyen Thanh, WWP suspended the rights of Uta. The film claims that Thanh sold his photographs to the Associated Press.

It is indicated that this month the AP conducted an internal investigation, as a result of which it found no evidence of the authorship of another photographer.

"We didn't ignore anything that we knew about, and we did it with great respect for all involved," Derl McCrudden, AP's vice president of global news production, was quoted as saying by the Guardian.

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Earlier, on February 22, it was reported that AP had filed a lawsuit against the assistants of the US president for the fact that the editorial staff had been denied access to the head of state. The reason for the restrictions was the agency's refusal to name the Gulf of Mexico by its new toponym, the Gulf of America. The AP believes that Trump's decision violates the country's constitution, including the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech.