nine-year-old Kim Phuc,<\/a> which was taken on 8 June 1972, shows her running down a street in Trang Bang, South Vietnam, as she flees an American napalm attack.<\/p>\nDebate over the photograph\u2019s origin began in January 2025, when The Stringer premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. While Ut had long been credited as the photographer, The Stringer suggested that the photo\u2019s actual creator was Nghe, a Vietnamese freelance photographer.<\/p>\n
Nghe claims he was working as a driver for an NBC news crew when he visited the town of Trang Bang and took the image. In the film, he said he sold the image to AP for $20 and was given a print of the photo in exchange. Nghe said the memento was later destroyed by his wife.<\/p>\n
The film, led by Gary Knight, a journalist and founder of the VII Foundation, which supports photojournalism, investigates these claims and later concludes that Ut did not take the photo \u2014 a claim both AP and Ut deny. <\/p>\n
Lawyers for Ut asked Netflix last fall not to distribute the film, according to the Times. The lawsuit claimed the film’s accusations \u201cgo far beyond the acceptable scope of journalistic investigation\u201d and suggest \u201cfraudulent and disloyal behavior\u201d by Ut. <\/p>\n
James Hornstein, a lawyer for Ut, said in a statement that his client brought the action \u201cto defend his reputation, and not for financial gain,\u201d adding that Ut plans to donate any award for damages to charity. <\/p>\n
![\"Vietnam](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-959476626.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
open image in gallery<\/p>\n
Vietnam war survivor Kim Phuc Phan Thi, also known as “Napalm Girl”, stands in front of her iconic 1972 Vietnam War photograph (ANP\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The World Press Photo Foundation conducted its own investigation and said in May that two other photojournalists \u201cmay have been better positioned to take the photograph than Nick Ut. Ut\u2019s credit for the image was suspended, but another photographer was not credited for the shot. <\/p>\n
The AP also ran its own investigation, but said it would continue to credit Ut for the photograph. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe left nothing uncovered that we’re aware of and we’ve done it with a great deal of respect to everybody involved,\u201d said Derl McCrudden, an AP vice president who heads global news production.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes no difference to us if we changed the credit, but it has to be based on facts and evidence. And there is no definitive evidence proving that Nick Ut did not take this picture.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the documentary, the photograph\u2019s main subject, Kim Phuc Phan Thi, has no memory of the moment that was captured. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe states that eyewitnesses, including her uncle, told her that it was Nick Ut who took the photo, and took her to the hospital,\u201d title cards at the end of the documentary read. \u201cShe still believes that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-458125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Media-Photograph-Challenged_58376.jpg\")
<\/p>\n