try using a bytestream

screenless/bureau/publicrelations/publicrelations.py

@@ -303,7 +303,7 @@ class PublicRelations(Bureau):
                     #filename = "/tmp/" + filename
                     #print("fetching", img.remote_url, filename)
                     req_data = requests.get(img.url)
-                    im = PIL.Image.open(io.StringIO(req_data.content))
+                    im = PIL.Image.open(io.BytesIO(req_data.content))
                     if im.mode in ("L", "RGB", "P"):
                         im = PIL.ImageOps.equalize(im)
                     im.thumbnail((576, 576), PIL.Image.ANTIALIAS)