Nick Ut Plans Defamation Lawsuit Against ‘Napalm Girl’ Documentary Makers

Photographer Nick Ut is reportedly planning to file a defamation lawsuit against the filmmakers of The Stringer — a movie which casts aspersions on his authorship of the Napalm Girl photograph.

The Stringer premiered at Sundance Film Festival on Saturday. The documentary asserts that Ut did not take The Terror of War, better known as Napalm Girl, and named Vietnamese stringer, Thanh Nghe, as the photographer instead.

Following the screening of The Stringer, Nghe further claimed authorship of the photo — which has been credited to Ut for five decades and won him the Pulitzer Prize — during a Q&A with journalists.

“I took the photo,” Nghe, who was a freelancer and a driver for an NBC news crew during the Vietnam War, told reporters at the event.

Napalm Girl was taken in Trang Bang, South Vietnam, on June 8, 1972, and shows Phan Thi Kim Phuc running toward the camera away from a napalm strike. It is arguably the most iconic image from the Vietnam War and one of the most famous photos of all time.

‘Outrageous and False’

According to The Wrap, a lawyer representing Ut says that the photographer is now planning to file a defamation lawsuit against the filmmakers of The Stringer.

James Hornstein, who is representing Ut pro bono, says a third-party law firm is prepping the case against VII Foundation, the organization behind the documentary.

The claims in The Stringer originate from former Associated Press (AP) photo editor Carl Robinson who was working at the Saigon bureau the day when the image was taken.

The established story of Napalm Girl goes that upon seeing the photo, Robinson believed the full-frontal nudity in the image rendered it unusable. But he was overruled; first by his boss, chief of photos in Saigon Horst Faas, and then by AP’s photo chief Hal Buell in New York City.

Hornstein argues that Robinson has held a long-standing resentment toward the AP for over five decades due to his forced relocation and eventual firing by the news collective. He also provided testimony from other eyewitnesses — many of whom are now deceased — who confirmed that Ut took the photograph.

“A defamation action will soon be filed against the filmmakers to correct this outrageous decision by VII Foundation to provide Carl Robinson a platform for his 50-year vendetta,” Hornstein says.

“Having waited 52 years to come forward, after the passing of virtually all the eyewitnesses who would have disputed his claim, is the claim entitled to be believed? Our response is NO.”

Hornstein also provided a statement from Kim Phuc, the still-living girl in the photo, who says Ut took the picture and also transported her and her then-five-year-old brother to a hospital that day when no one else would. Phuc calls the documentary an “outrageous and false attack on Nick Ut.”

Earlier this month, the Associated Press released a 23-page report outlining its investigation into the photo’s provenance and re-asserting that Ut was indeed the photographer of Napalm Girl.

On Sunday, the Associated Press issued a statement to The Wrap stating it is “ready to review any and all evidence and new information” regarding the photo.

The photo agency complained that it had been denied access to the full materials in the documentary, and said it was seeking full access. An AP representative was reportedly at the screening of the The Stringer at Sundance Film Festival.

Image credits: Header photo “The Terror of War” is in the public domain.