The China Photographers' Association (CPA) announced on Tuesday that the Golden Mendel Awards given to two photographers, have been cancelled after it was discovered that they had used computer software to alter their original images.

The two photographers, Yang Xiaoning and Ouyang Xingkai, won the Mendel, the highest award for Chinese photographers, last year.

Yang Xiaoning’s series of photos, called Chronicle of New Countryside Construction, including three photos titled Spring inserted season, Vegetable base and Rice drying yard had been modified in such a way as to “affect the objective reality”. The same was found to apply to Ouyang Xingkai’s The old man in the grocery store, where Ouyang ticked off a shoulder pole in the original photo by software.

Ouyang Xingkai, a freelance photogrpaher who also holds the position of vice president of Xiangtan City Photography Association, reacted to the news about the cancellation of the award in a telephone interview, "There are no explicit rules for this award that forbid us to modify the photos. However, it is correct that the digital manipulation altered the true visual record, and I thus accept the decision made by the CPA.”

Ouyang Xingkai was born in October 1950, in Xiangtan, Hunan Province and is also a member of Hunan Province Photographers Association. During the second half of 2003, Ouyang began a journey from Changsha to Hongjiang, Jiangxi Province, aiming to capture images of the more traditional lifestyle that he witnessed. He was particularly struck by the city of Hong Jiang, which he visited up to ten times a year. Ouyang’s series of photos gained widespread attention and competed in the annual Sony World Photography Awards 2010. Last month, The Times of London published a series of four photos of the Hongjiang series.

Ouyang’s The old man in the grocery store, which won him the Golden Mendel Award in 2009, was also shot in Hongjiang. The photo was selected as a true representation of the daily existence of ordinary people in the city, and shows a man in his 70s in a grocery store, weighing produts for his customers. Referring to the use of computer software to modify the original image, Ouyang called it a "curious coincidence", adding that he used computer software to modify what he thought was an “unusual” feature.

The CPA Golden Mendel Award is given out every two years. About 332 photographers took part in last year's competition, with 12 of them winning awards. But this is not the first scandal to have hit professional photographers in China.

In 2007, the winner of the first International News Photo Award in China was suspected of having used computer software to duplicate a pigeon in his winning photo. The following year, Zhou Zhenglong, a farmer in Shaanxi Province, falsely claimed that he had captured the image of a South China tiger.

And in 2009, Golden Mendel Award winner and vice-president of the photographer association with Jilin Artists' Association, Sang Yuzhu was found to have plagiarized four photos

A CPA representative said that the selection process for the Golden Medal Award is continuously improving. But the judges face new challenges amid the ongoing development of new technologies. In the future, the judges will also seek the opinion of technical experts; the Association will pursue its commitment to fairness and impartiality and be even more vigilant concerning matters of ethics.