AN ORTHODOX JEWISH newspaper in New York has apologised to the White House after digitally altering a photograph in order to remove the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The photograph, released by the White House, shows US President Barack Obama and his staff watching the fatal raid on Osama bin Laden in Pakistan on 1 May. The image appeared in the Brooklyn newspaperDi Tzeitung – but was digitally altered to remove Hillary Clinton and counterterrorism director Audrey Tomason.

The weekly newspaper, which says that it has a “long standing editorial policy” of not printing pictures of women, apologised to the White House saying that the photo editor had not read the fine print which stated that the photograph could not be “manipulated in any way”, Reuters reports.

Di Tzeitung said that the newspaper’s readers “believe that women should be appreciated for who they are and what they do, not for what they look like, and the Jewish laws of modesty are an expression of respect for women, not the opposite”.

The paper said that it had sent its “regrets and apologies” to both the White House and the US department of state, the Guardian reports.

The White House has issued no comment on the issue.