The photo in question (Telegraph via Mumbrella)

Was an exclusive front-page photo of a man who police have labeled a person of interest in a child’s disappearance doctored by The Australian Daily Telegraph?

The Telegraph denies it Photoshopped the photo. A News Corp spokesperson told Australian media site Mumbrella in response to its questions about the photo  “The photograph, which was taken by a News Corp photographer, has not been altered in any way, either in print or online.”

News Corp Australia spokesperson Adam Suckling told iMediaEthics: “The Daily Telegraph did not photoshop that photograph.”

The photo shows Bill Spedding wearing sunglasses standing next to a VW van that says “PEDDO’S HIRE.” Three-year-old William Tyrell went missing in September. Spedding denies being involved. “Police say at the ‘very highest’ Mr Spedding is a person of interest but not the only person of interest,” Sky News reported.

The van is the car for his company SPEDDO’S HIRE.” The S was apparently “peeled off the van, leaving only the faint residue” where it used to be, Mumbrella reported.

But in the print version of the photo, the S wasn’t visible. See below.

Online you can see traces of the letter. See below Mumbrella’s screenshot with a red circle showing where the letter S was.

Instead of Photoshop, the News Corp spokesperson suggested to Mumbrella that readers couldn’t see the S in print because of bad quality printing.