  We study the question whether the phenomenologically successful VMD approach
to weak radiative hyperon decays can be made consistent with Hara's theorem and
still yield the pattern of asymmetries exhibited by experimental data. It
appears that an essential ingredient which governs the pattern of asymmetries
is the off-shell behaviour of the input electromagnetic 1/2^- 1/2^+ \gamma
couplings. Although this behaviour can be chosen in such a way that the
experimentally observed pattern is obtained, and yet Hara's theorem satisfied,
at the same time the approach yields a definite prediction for the size of weak
meson-nucleon coupling constants. Comparison with experiment reveals then
another conflict.
