Kensington Palace is no longer considered a “trusted source” after the debacle of the doctored photo of Catherine, the princess of Wales, and her children, one top news chief says.

After the palace’s manipulation was spotted, Agence France-Presse and other top news agencies released a rare “kill notice” on the photo, a measure typically reserved for photos from authoritarian regimes that are determined to have been altered in violation of news agencies’ standards.

The global news director of AFP, Phil Chetwynd, told BBC Radio 4 that the agency would henceforth be “more vigilant” in reviewing content from Kensington Palace, the official arm of the palace that handles publicity for the William and Catherine, the prince and princess of Wales. Mr. Chetwynd said that the palace was “absolutely not” a trusted source anymore.

 “Like with anything, when you’re let down by a source the bar is raised,” Mr. Chetwynd said.

The “kill notice” came after the Palace released a photo of Princess Catherine and her children — Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis — for Britain’s Mothers Day. News agencies quickly realized that the photo, showing Kate embracing her three children, had been altered. Part of Princess Charlotte’s sleeve was missing and there was something off about the zipper on Princess Catherine’s chest, among other issues. The Telegraph reported, based on a forensic analysis, that the photo was likely a composite with Princess Catherine’s face from a different photo superimposed on the image.

The scandal only fed the speculation swirling surrounding the princess of Wales’s wellbeing that has run rampant since she vanished, after last being seen on Christmas Day, with the palace saying she was undergoing “abdominal surgery” and would not return to her royal duties until after Easter. Although the doctored photo appears to have been aimed at assuaging concerns about her health the altered image only fed the fire of speculation.

A day after the “kill notice,” Princess Catherine, via a statement from Kensington Palace, admitted to personally editing the photo and apologized, though the apology came too late to head off any public outrage over the attempted deception.

“One thing that’s really important is you cannot be distorting reality for the public. There’s a question of trust,” Mr. Chetwynd said. “It’s not even very well photoshopped, there was clearly a lot of problems with the photo.”

The original and unmodified photo has not been released.

“It’s a big deal for an agency to issue a kill [notice],” Mr. Chetwynd said. “The previous kills we’ve had have been from the North Korean news agency or the Iranian news agency.”