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Category: Media analysis

  • How Indian media reported Adani group’s US indictment

    On November 20, billionaire Gautam Adani, along with seven other Adani group executives, was indicted by a United States court on charges of fraud and bribery.

    The Adani group chairperson, once Asia’s richest businessman, was named alongside his nephew Sagar R Adani, the executive director of the group’s renewables arm Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL) and Vneet S. Jaain, managing director and CEO of AGEL for wire and securities fraud and allegedly agreeing to pay bribes worth $250 million to Indian government officials to secure solar energy deals. American prosecutors stepped in because the ports-to-power conglomerate had tried to obtain financing from US investors for their renewable energy projects (including those for which bribes were paid) based on reportedly false and misleading statements about the firm’s anti-corruption and anti-bribery efforts.

    This is not the first time that the Adani group’s allegedly shady dealings have come to light. In January last year, US-based short seller Hindenburg Research had published a report accusing the group of accounting irregularities, round-tripping of funds and stock-price manipulation, wiping off over $150 billion in the group’s market value.

    At that time, Alt News had done a deep dive into how the news was reported by major Indian news outlets and found a serious gap in publication and reportage on the issue. In this report, we attempt a similar analysis of how (and to what extent) several mainstream media outlets covered the news.

    There are two reasons why such analyses are crucial. One, the Adani group is a massive enterprise with presence across most sectors including construction, ports, energy, airport infrastructure, FMCG, media and commodities. So, the reporting of such allegations can result in a major plunge in stock prices and lead to losses for investors and the company as it is an index heavyweight. For instance, the latest news sent stocks of Adani group’s flagship firm Adani Enterprises falling over 20% in two days. On November 21, shares of Adani Green opened nearly 20% down and by November 27 they had hit a 52-week low. Conversely, when such major incidents are underplayed or underreported by the media, the magnitude of losses can be checked. Two, Adani has majority stakes in three major news outlets, leaving one wondering about its role in shaping the country’s perception of major news events. Opposition leaders and several others have also questioned the alleged closeness between the business tycoon and the country’s Prime Minister, which they believe is the reason the group has been in the clear, from a regulatory and media scrutiny standpoint, despite many red flags.

    How The News Unfolded In The Digital Sphere

    The US Securities and Exchange Committee’s press release on the indictment was published on its website at around 2:18 hours IST on November 21. It is possible that the SEC statement and the ruling was issued to media houses slightly ahead of being made publicly available. The following morning, just around the time Indian markets began trading, the Adani group notified stock exchanges that it was cancelling a proposed bond offering considering the latest US ruling. Then by afternoon, it issued a statement denying the charges.

    “The allegations made by the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission against directors of Adani Green are baseless and denied. As stated by the US Department of Justice itself, ‘the charges in the indictment are allegations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.’ All possible legal recourse will be sought,” the spokesperson’s statement read.

    While the indictment and the following developments were likely too late for Indian print media to carry in their newspapers the following day, let’s look at how digital media fared in their reporting of the matter.

    The earliest post on X (formerly Twitter) on the ruling was by Beijing-headquartered China Global Television Network (CGTN) Europe at 2:14 hours IST on November 21 (or 20:44 hours GMT, November 20). Most major international news outlets and agencies such as CNBC, Bloomberg, The Guardian, and Reuters caught up soon. Wires were issued, reports quickly written up and posts on X followed suit.

    Bloomberg and Reuters had their reports and X updates published within the first half and hour of the breaking of the news.

    Click to view slideshow.

    Meanwhile, on X, there was hardly any mention of this by most major news outlets until morning. At 5:54 hours IST on November 21, X user Sanjay Dutt (@thesanjaydutt) posted about the Adani indictment, sharing a report by The Hindu on it.

    On looking at the HTML code for the article, Alt News was able to determine that The Hindu had published the news by around 3:00 hours IST, roughly an hour after the SEC made it public.

    Bengaluru-based news Deccan Herald’s report was up on its site at 2:29 am. Similarly, Telangana Today published its report at 4:26 hours IST. The daily’s editor Srinivas Reddy K shared it on X at 4:31 am. Subsequently, The Times of India published their report at 6:24 hours IST and Hindustan Times at 8:12 hours IST.

    Business publications, such as Moneycontrol—part of Reliance-owned Network18—and Mint published the news at 6:44 hours IST and 10:39 hours IST, respectively.

    India Today, News18, and Zee News shared the latest developments on X around 8:30 hours IST on November 21, while Times Now and its Hindi counterpart Times Now Navbharat followed at 9:45 hours IST and 11:15 hours IST, respectively. Among news outlets Aaj Tak, Republic, ABP News and India TV, the issue was largely underplayed. The first post on X from Aaj Tak’s handle was on the dip in Adani stocks. An hour after this, it shared a post detailing Adani group’s cancellation of its upcoming bond issuance. Likewise, ABP News posted about Adani stocks plunging at 10:30 hours IST and got into the reasons for this plunge two hours later.

    The first post from Republic’s official X account on the incident was at 14:25 hours IST, an hour after the business group issued a statement denying the charges.

    Quiet since the news broke, news channel NDTV posted its first report on the matter only at 14:39 hours IST, citing the group’s official statement denying the claims. Meanwhile, the first X post from the channel’s business news arm, NDTV profit, was at 11:07 hours, IST but this too was centered around AGEL’s decision to cancel its bond issuance following the indictment. The report only briefly mentions the charges levelled against the group in the US.

    It’s important to mention here that the Adani group wrested control of NDTV from Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy in December 2022. Since then, the channel has undergone several changes with many key faces including news presenters, editors and reporters quitting. This was the group’s second major acquisition after buying 49% stake in Quintillion Media, which operates the news outlet BQ Prime that was previously Bloomberg Quint, in May 2022.

    Among Indian wire agencies Asian News International (ANI), Press Trust of India (PTI) and Indo-Asian News Service (IANS)—that many Indian news organisations subscribe to and are dependent on for news reports—we noticed an interesting pattern. While PTI’s wire went out around 4:30 am on November 21, their first post on X  was not until 9:11 hours IST even though its X handle was active from 7:16 hours IST that day. Posts from its account were mostly reshares of tweets posted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi about his visits to other countries and pollution in Delhi. Below are a few instances.

    Click to view slideshow.

    Similarly, news agency ANI posted its first tweet on this only at 9:48 hours IST, after stock markets opened, despite their website having the news report on the issue by 7:00 hours IST. ANI’s X handle was active when the news broke. Following are a screenshots of the some of the posts from ANI’s handle even as X was abuzz with the news of the indictment.

    Click to view slideshow.

     

    ANI’s first X post on the issue was not the news of the indictment but instead the Adani group’s letter to Indian bourses notifying them about the cancellation of “proposed USD denominated bond offerings” in the view of the allegations levelled against the conglomerate. It did not even post its own report (available on its website) on X. On checking the website of the National Stock Exchange, we found that Adani’s clarification on the bond offerings was sent to the exchanges at 9:29 hours IST.

    On November 21, eleven hours after the news broke, the Adani group released a statement on its official X page, labelling the allegations “baseless”.

    The first report by IANS was the group’s denial of the charges. Note that the Adani group has a controlling stake in IANS too. It had acquired an over 50% stake in December 2023 and upped this in January through its subsidiary AMG Media Networks.

    Coming to state-sponsored DD News. Its first post on X was at 5.41 hours IST, a few hours after the statement from the Adani group was released.

    Apart from their own websites, news organisations do rely a fair bit on social media platforms, especially X, to amplify and disseminate important news updates quickly. On these platforms as well as their websites, publications compete over speed, accuracy and drawing more readers as a result of putting out information first. The contents and timing of their posts are thus crucial when the matter is of this nature, which is why such delays raise concerns.

    Indian Prime Time Television

    Most mainstream TV channels, including India Today and its Hindi counterpart Aaj Tak, featured the news of the Adani indictment in their prime-time segments (between 20:00 and 23:00 hours). But how some of these debates actually unfolded deserves a closer look.

    News18’s debates ‘Goonj’ and ‘Aar Paar’ hosted by Rubika Liyaqat or Amish Devgan did not carry the developments but in the segment ‘Desh Nahi Jhukne Denge‘ hosted by Aman Chopra, the case was mentioned as part of the news round-up for the day. The channel, however, chose to focus on how the allegations of bribery against Adani, which Congress and its leader Rahul Gandhi was trying to draw attention to would backfire against the Opposition. That’s because many of the states mentioned in the indictment where the bribery allegedly took place were governed by Congress or its allies. Chopra added that this was yet another attempt by Rahul Gandhi to tarnish Prime Minister Modi’s image before ending the section with tributes to Modi and his international presence.

    In Republic’s ‘Debate With Arnab’ segment, host Arnab Goswami’s monologue at the beginning of the show  goes on about how the indictment by an American court is proof that the US is “very insecure” about India owing to the strength of “the Indian infrastructure machine“. He also brings up conspiracy theories by “Deep State” actors who are keen on disrupting the success of the Adani group. The debate was largely centered on the conspiracy.

    India TV’s Rajat Sharma briefly covered the ruling in his prime-time segment ‘Aaj Ki Baat’. Questioning the timing of the indictment, he wondered aloud whether it was a coincidence or larger conspiracy as the Hindenburg report released in 2023 was just before a Parliament session and had similarly resulted in Adani stocks crashing. He says that Rahul Gandhi’s attempt to find a Modi factor in it has failed because the states mentioned in the indictment were governed by Congress and allies.

    A similar argument on the rogue timing of the indictment also featured in DD News‘ debate ‘5 Ki Panchayat’. Show host Reema Parashar, in her opening presentation, says how each time just before the start of a Parliament session, an agenda arises or is deliberately introduced to cause disruptions in the House proceedings to show the government in poor light.

    ABP News’ prime-time programme ‘Mahadangal’ hosted by Chitra Tripathi, discusses Gandhi wanting to bring a George Soros-type model to the Indian market and is likely targeting Gautam Adani for his role in the fast-growing infrastructure of India. George Soros, a Hungarian-American investor and founder of the Open Society Foundations, is involved in funding democracy and human rights initiatives, and has been accused of influencing global politics through these. Soros has also been a critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In February 2023, he also criticised Adani after the Hindenburg report was published. This combined with Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi’s jibes against the PM and his comments on the closeness between Modi and Adani has led the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party government to link Gandhi with Soros. The BJP has also accused the Congress leader of attempting to destabilise the Indian government.

    Rahul Gandhi was also the centre of debates on Times Now’s Nation Wants To Know and India Upfront. The channel’s Hindi counterpart, Times Now Navbharat, discussed the US ruling in its show Sawal Public Ka hosted by Navika Kumar. But the segment was titled “As the Parliament session approaches… has the ‘toolkit gang’ become active again?” Needless to say, the focus was on the leader than the gravity of the charges and what it could mean for the conglomerate. .

    A Gap in Reportage?

    Hours after the indictment news was made public, Kenyan President Willian Ruto announced the cancellation of deals with the Adani group. Kenya had agreed to hand over control of a key airport to the conglomerate for a 30-year lease in exchange for a new runway and upgrading the passenger terminal there. The country also has several energy deals with the Adani group.

    Ruto said that the decision was made based on the new information provided by investigative agencies and partner nations. The news of Kenya cancelling the deals, worth over $2.5 billion, broke around 18:00 hours IST on November 21. However, this crucial information was not part of majority of the prime-time segments of TV news channels. Times Now Navbharat, Times Now, India TV, ABP and DD News did not mention the development at all in their prime-time debates while Republic showed a clip of the Kenyan President cancelling the Adani deals without any commentary.

    India ranks 159 on the Press Freedom Index. Partisan coverage of many events has been a rising concern. With some of the largest businesses backing news outlets and their alleged closeness to the governing regime, honest and unbiased journalism and reportage face multiple threats. The media analysis of the Adani indictment is just one case in point.

    The post How Indian media reported Adani group’s US indictment appeared first on Alt News.

    This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

  • Cyclone Biparjoy: Republic anchor’s antics symptomatic of everything that’s wrong with Indian TV media

    Even before cyclone Biparjoy (literally, ‘disaster’) made landfall in Gujarat, news anchor Sweta Tripathi took Indian television news by storm on Wednesday night. Republic Bharat, the channel where she works, was in the eye of that storm. The show that she put up was another disaster in itself.

    Cyclone Biparjoy made landfall over the coastal areas of Saurashtra and the Gulf of Kutch on Thursday evening around 7 pm in the form of a very severe cyclonic storm causing extremely heavy rainfall, strong winds and tidal waves. BBC reports that more than 150,000 people in the two countries were evacuated from the path of the storm before its landfall.

    Reporting on the weather conditions in Gujarat hours before the landfall, Republic Bharat anchor Sweta Tripathi hosted a bulletin that has since gone viral on social media. (Barely) Standing with an umbrella in the studio, she twisted and turned, ducked and swerved, stuttered and stumbled under the imagined influence of stormy winds to present a simulacrum of the actual scenario. The result was both hilarious and pathetic. Hilarious because of its absurdity, and pathetic because it ended up making a caricature of what is essentially a natural disaster affecting thousands in potentially life-transforming ways.

    Standing inside the Noida studio, she says: “See this.. we have reached Dwarka in Gujarat. The wind is blowing so hard that even standing here is difficult.. wind blowing at a speed of 150kmph.. it is tough to be standing or speaking… People have been asked to stay away from ports. How will people face such high-speed wind that is the question. Just imagine what will happen when the actual landfall takes place. That’s why I am asking you to stay safe. Trees are getting uprooted. NDRF teams are prepared….” All the while she continues her antics.

    Moreover, the absurdity of the whole thing did not end with the news anchor’s histrionics.

    2022 Florida Hurricane Video Shown in Background

    The visual that played out behind the anchor all the while was that of Hurricane Ian in Florida from September 2022. We looked at a video of the storm’s destruction uploaded on YouTube by the Washington Post. The red building and the movement of the trees match those in the Republic Bharat video to a tee.

    The description of the Washington Post video says: “Video taken on Sept. 29, shows Hurricane Ian slamming Fort Myers, Fla., with destructive winds and devastating flooding.”

    Here is a side-by-side comparison of two screen-grabs, one from the Republic Bharat show and one from the Washington Post video report:

    As it turns out, the bulletin was not only improperly presented, but factually incorrect as well. An old video from Florida was shown as visuals of the cyclone in Gujarat. But how does authenticity or correctness matter compared to sensationalism!

    Aerial Survey by Republic Anchor

    Just before the above-mentioned part in the bulletin, the same anchor was shown with the help of VFX inside a helicopter surveying tumultuous sea waters below.

    She says: “The storm will also pass over Karachi, but Gujarat will bear the maximum brunt. I’ll now tell you where the landfall will be. We are now passing over the Jakhau port area. This is where the cyclone will hit land. And then, its speed will be 150kmph. If it loses speed, the cyclone will weaken. But if the wind speed goes up, what are the preparations for that? I’ll tell you.”

    In the next frame, she ‘storms’ into the screen holding an umbrella as the Florida hurricane video plays out in the backdrop. Watching the entire bulletin is a severe test of the audience’s ability for the willing suspension of disbelief, a faculty that was thus far considered necessary to enjoy a work of creative art.

    Not a One-off Instance of Mindless Sensationalism

    This is not the first time anchor Sweta Tripathi has seemingly thrown all journalistic decorum to the wind. As part of  Republic’s months-long ‘investigation’ into the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, she was seen hounding and bullying a watchman and others outside actor Rhea Chakraborty’s house.

    In another part of the bulletin, she can be seen reporting from outside the gate of Chakraborty’s house. She says, “Rhea Chakraborty, thoda to sharam kijiye! (Have some shame)… We asked Rhea Chakraborty, “What is your drugs connection?”.

    The media trial and witch-hunt of Rhea Chakraborty after her former partner Sushant Singh Rajput’s death was one of lowest points in the history of Indian television journalism.

    Again, in September 2020, Sweta Tripathi chased actor Deepika Padukone’s car on the streets of Mumbai to ask her questions about her ‘drug addiction’. This was also related to the channel’s ‘investigation’ into Rajput’s death. In the bulletin, she can be herd screaming, “the black car, the black car…” Then, as the TV channel’s vehicle comes close to the actor’s car, she holds the boom out of the car window and screams at the top of her voice, ‘Deepika Padukone, tell us, do you take drugs’? The other car has its windows rolled up.

    Taking the Viewer for Granted

    At the heart of this trend to pass off anything as ‘breaking news’ lies the belief that the audience will accept whatever they are fed. Not to be left behind, Times Now Navbharat too put out a video placing presenter Shweta Srivastav inside a helicopter as she reported on the impending disaster.

    The same confidence to take the audience for granted left Republic editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami red-faced after he had claimed on his show in 2021 that he had intelligence inputs about the goings-on on the fifth floor of Kabul’s two-storeyed Serena Hotel. And the same no-holds-barred craving for sensationalism had made top Times Now editors Navika Kumar and Rahul Shivshankar fall for a fake WhatsApp forward when they read out 30 names of ‘dead Chinese soldiers’ after the Galwan clash in 2020.

    The post Cyclone Biparjoy: Republic anchor’s antics symptomatic of everything that’s wrong with Indian TV media appeared first on Alt News.

    This post was originally published on Alt News.

  • Paharganj video: Woman slit own wrist after altercation with friend; Sudarshan News added ‘Jihad’ twist

    A 33-second long video in which a mob is roughing up a young man while a woman with her wrist slit stands next to him is viral on social media with the claim that this is a case of ‘jihad’ or ‘Love Jihad’.

    ‘Love Jihad’ is a conspiracy theory propagated by the Right Wing ecosystem, according to which Muslim men are out to entrap Hindu girls in a romantic relationship with the intention of converting them to Islam.

    Right Wing propaganda outlet Sudarshan News tweeted the clip on the morning of June 10 with the following caption: “A Hindu girl from Delhi’s Inder Puri was roaming with a Muslim boy from Paharganj. There was a rift between them and the boy slit the girl’s wrist… Another Jihadi act by Jihadis inside Delhi has come to light.” (Archive)

    Verified Twitter Blue user Surya Prakash Maithil also tweeted the same Sudarshan News clip with the same Hindi caption. (Archive)

    Several users shared the video with #LoveJihad. Among them are Amitabh Chaudhary (@Mithilawaala) who frequently shares misinformation, and Gokul Bhati 💫🧡(@GokulBhati05).

    Click to view slideshow.

    This claim video is widely circulating on both Twitter and Facebook with the same claim.

    Fact Check

    We began by closely following the conversation in the widely circulated video. In the footage, a middle-aged man wearing purple attire is observed addressing the girl directly. Speaking in Hindi, he utters the following words, “…Your mother carried you in her womb for nine months, show some decency. This is not right, this is not right, child.”

    The man then turns his attention to the surrounding crowd and points out the girl’s wrist, stating, “She inflicted the cut on her own wrist because of her involvement with this young man. Take a look at it and record a video.” According to the middle-aged man’s account, it appears that the girl intentionally slit her own wrist.

    We then proceeded to find reports concerning the incident. According to a tweet by journalist Sachin Gupta, Delhi police provided the following statement upon investigating the situation: “The young woman is from Ghaziabad and had travelled to Delhi to meet her friend. Subsequently, her father arrived at the location. Upon seeing her father, the young woman inflicted an injury upon herself. No criminal activity has taken place, and neither the girl’s family nor the girl herself has filed a formal complaint.”

    Furthermore, we found a June 12 report published by Jagran. As per the report, the young woman engaged in an argument with the young man, following which she harmed herself. Consequently, the locals in the vicinity physically confronted the young man while questioning him.

    The report provides further details. It states that during investigation, police found that the young woman was a resident of Ghaziabad. She walked out of her house after being angry with her family members for some reason and went to Paharganj to meet a Muslim friend. The report says that the two individuals knew each other, and upon witnessing the girl’s distress, the young man informed her family. Subsequently, an argument ensued between the two, resulting in the girl inflicting the injury upon herself.

    Furthermore, the report clarifies that there is no evidence to suggest that the young man physically caused the girl’s wrist injury. The police confirmed that the incident occurred on June 7 and they continue to investigate the matter. The report also states that no allegations have been made against the young man, either by the girl or by her father.

    Alt News reached out to a police official who spoke to us on condition of anonymity. The official revealed that the girl had caused the injury in the presence of her father. Since no crime was committed in this particular case, no FIR was filed. The police verified that the girl had travelled to Paharganj to meet the boy, and the argument erupted because he had informed her family about it.

    To sum up, Sudarshan News falsely amplified a video showing a crowd assaulting a young man in Delhi’s Paharganj, claiming it was a case of ‘jihad’ where a Muslim man had slit the wrist of a Hindu girl. Other users called it a case of ‘Love Jihad’. Police and media reports refute these allegations. The woman hurt herself after an altercation with her friend.

    The post Paharganj video: Woman slit own wrist after altercation with friend; Sudarshan News added ‘Jihad’ twist appeared first on Alt News.

    This post was originally published on Alt News.

  • Bulandshahr blast: Sudarshan News, RW handles falsely claim house belonged to a Muslim

    On March 31, a blast rocked a house in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, leaving several people dead. Sharing the news, many media outlets, Right Wing influencers and journalists tweeted that the explosion took place at the residence of a certain Mohammad Shafiq, resulting in four deaths.

    Sudarshan News UP tweeted about the incident and made the same claim.

    The New Indian also tweeted about the incident with the accompanying claim. 

    BJP supporter Arun Pudur, who frequently shares misinformation on social media, also posted a tweet claiming that a blast occurred at the house of Mohammad Shafiq.

    Jitendra Pratap Singh of Sudarshan News, suspended BJP MP Naveen Jindal, Sudhir Mishra, journalist Shobhna Yadav, and Sujeet Swami among others also tweeted about the incident with similar claims. 

    Click to view slideshow.

    Fact Check

    Upon searching for news reports related to the explosion, Alt News came across an article by Dainik Bhaskar. The daily reported that six people died in a blast at a house in Bulandshahr. The investigation revealed that both the home and the plot on which it was built belonged to an individual named Satish. Another man named Rajkumar was occupying the home as a tenant. According to this report, among the six people killed in the explosion, three were Hindus (Abhishek, Chandrapal, Vinod) and two Muslims (Rais and his five-year-old son Ahad). A woman’s head was also recovered from the spot, while the search for her body was still on. 

    Bulandshahr SSP Shlok Kumar shared more information pertaining to the case in a statement to the media. He revealed that after receiving the information about the explosion in Bulandshahr’s Nagar Kotwalon area, a police team reached the spot and recovered some evidence. On the basis of this evidence, they found documents mentioning M/S Air Star Traders Co., which is registered under a person named Rajkumar. The police also came to know from the GST number mentioned on those papers that Rajkumar had a licence for dealing in chemicals. Based on this information, the police raided the house of the company owner and seized some material. Police had also constituted an SIT to investigate the matter.

    थाना कोतवाली नगर क्षेत्रान्तर्गत खेतों के बीच बने एक मकान में विस्फोट होने के सम्बन्ध में वरिष्ठ पुलिस अधीक्षक की #अपडेट बाइट।@Uppolice @dgpup @adgzonemeerut @igrangemeerut pic.twitter.com/Bl0IhMxCOD

    Alt News also reached out to the PRO of SSP Bulandshahr. He sent us the details of the incident. He confirmed that the owner of the company was Rajkumar and the land on which the house was built belonged to an individual named Satish. The house where the explosion took place did not belong to any Mohammad Shafiq.

    We also found a brochure of M/S Air Star Traders Co. on the IndiaMart website. It contains details about the company, such as the products in its catalogue, many of which are chemicals and firecrackers. The name ‘Raj kumar’ is given in the contact details.

    To sum it up, several users and media outlets claimed that four people had died in a blast in Mohammad Shafiq’s house in Bulandshahr. In reality, the house where the blast took place belongs to a man named Satish who had given the house on rent to Rajkumar, the owner of a company named M/S Air Star Traders.

    The post Bulandshahr blast: Sudarshan News, RW handles falsely claim house belonged to a Muslim appeared first on Alt News.

    This post was originally published on Alt News.

  • Scripted video of two men marrying one woman viral; media outlets report on ‘unique wedding’

    A video has gone viral which apparently shows two men marrying the same woman at the same time. Twitter Blue subscriber Mohammad Tanvir shared the video with a caption in Hindi that translates to, ‘Two men applied vermilion on the same woman and also tied the Mangalsutra on her one by one. In this way the two married the same woman.’

    DNA Hindi’s official Twitter account tweeted a screenshots of the viral video while sharing a full article on it.

    The headline of their article says, ‘OMG: Loved two boys in school, married both, unique wedding photo viral’. In the story they have been described as ‘a triple couple’. Towards the end of the story, the writer says, “यह वीडियो प्रैंक वीडियो भी हो सकता है.” (This might be a prank video.)

    News 18 Hindi also published an article on this viral video. It’s titled, ‘2 men took turns marrying a woman, both tied mangalsutra on her, great example of sharing is caring’. Here also, it is mentioned towards the end that it might be a ‘created content’. (Archive)

    Tv9 Bharatvarsh also ran a report in Hindi. The headline says, ‘Two boyfriends in school, the girl married both of them together; video viral’.

    The official YouTube channel of News 18 UP Uttarakhand also shared a short video report on this incident.

    Twitter Blue subscriber @Delhiite_ also tweeted screenshots from the viral video while sharing a link of the aforementioned article. He later deleted it.

    Fact Check

    Using a keyword search on Facebook, Alt News came across the original video posted by a handle under the name of ‘Tukka’. The page describes itself as a content creator. The ‘Intro’ of the page says, ‘Tukka is a based on entertainment with clean and family content.’

    The page has over 6 lakh followers. It frequently posts scripted videos.

    The video in question was posted on November 10, 2022.

    दो भाई ने की एक लड़की से शादी

    दो भाई ने की एक लड़की से शादी
    .
    .
    .
    .
    ✔️Important Notice- permission has been taken from all the people Shown in this video to make a video and made for entertainment purpose only.

    Posted by Tukka on Thursday, 10 November 2022

    A disclaimer appears at the very end of the video for less than 2 seconds. It says, ‘The video is produced under TUKKA PRODUCTION and is purely made for entertainment purposes only…’

    To sum up, the video that has been making the rounds on social media apparently showing two men marrying a woman is actually a scripted video posted on a Facebook page on November 10, 2022. Media outlets like DNA Hindi and News 18 Hindi wrote reports on the video and gave their readers the impression that it was an actual case of two men marrying the same woman at the same time.

    The post Scripted video of two men marrying one woman viral; media outlets report on ‘unique wedding’ appeared first on Alt News.

    This post was originally published on Alt News.

  • Fact check: Saudi Arabia has not banned loudspeakers on Ramzan

    The Saudi Arabian minister of Islamic affairs Sheikh Abdullatif bin Abdulaziz Al-Sheikh recently issued a circular underlining the steps to be taken to prepare mosques for the month of Ramadan or Ramzan, the ministry said in a tweet.

    The announcement soon triggered a flurry of reactions from various quarters. A tweet and a YouTube video by Sami Hamdi, the founder of The International Interest, a current affairs magazine focusing on the Middle East and North Africa, went viral on the internet. In the video, Hamdi criticizes the orders. Hamdi shared a few pointers and claimed that Crown Prince Muhhamad Bin Salman (MBS) was trying to restrict Ramadan in Saudi Arabia.

    The description of the YouTube video says, “Behind the apparent ‘reasonable’ wording of the English translation of Bin Salman’s new rules on #Ramadan in #SaudiArabia lies an aggressive assault on one of the most central manifestations of Muslim identity.”

    Several Indian media outlets reported along these lines.

    CNN News18 shared a video of their broadcast coverage of these orders. Their bulletin started with the point that there was an order banning loudspeakers. The caption of the tweet, too, starts with ‘no loudspeakers’.

    News18.com published a story on their web desk reporting on the Saudi government’s ‘restrictions’ on Ramadan. The headline says, ‘No Loudspeakers, Iftar Inside Mosques…’

     

    Other outlets such as ThePrint, Live Hindustan, ABP, and Right Wing propaganda outlet OpIndia also reported on the announcement, among others.

    • The Print said in the headline that loudspeakers were not allowed, but the story said there was an order ‘limiting mosque loudspeakers’.
    • The Live Hindustan story said in the headline that loudspeakers were banned.
    • ABP initially said “रमजान में नहीं सुन पाएंगे अजान! मस्जिदों में लाउडस्पीकर हुए बैन, सऊदी अरब ने लिया फैसला, भड़के मुस्लिम धर्म गुरु” (Azaan will not be heard in Ramzan! Saudi Arabia takes decision to ban loudspeakers, Muslim religious leaders angry.) A day after publishing the story, they updated the story and said “Saudi Arabia ने मस्जिदों में लाउडस्पीकर की आवाज को कम करने का ऐलान किया था. रमजान के महीने में अब अजान लाउडस्पीकर पर दूर तक सुनाई नहीं देगी.” (Saudi Arabia announced reduction in the sound of loudspeakers in mosques. In the month of Ramzan, now Azaan will not be heard from far on loudspeaker.) The original version of the story can be read here.
    • OpIndia said, “Loudspeakers in mosques are prohibited as per this order while worshippers are ordered to do Iftar inside the mosques”.
    Click to view slideshow.

     

    Major Surendra Poonia, a former special forces soldier in the Indian Army, tweeted the directives. He added a line in Hindi in his caption, that translates to ‘If you do this in India, there will be a storm’. 

    Panchjanya, the mouthpiece of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, also tweeted on the issue saying loudspeakers had been banned in Saudi mosques.

    Many other users made the claim on Twitter that loudspeakers had been completely banned in Saudi Arabia during Ramadan or Ramzan. Some of them asked why India can’t take a similar decision. These tweets can be seen here.

    Fact Check

    When one reads the set of directives issued on March 3 by the ministry (screenshot below), one can see that there is no mention of loudspeakers.

    However, media reports from January this year said that Saudi Arabia had issued directives to restrict the use of loudspeakers in all mosques across the Kingdom. Gulf News wrote that the minister of Islamic affairs had set the number of external loudspeakers at four which are only to be used in mosques to make the prayer calls.

    According to the report, loudspeakers can not be used for additional prayers throughout the holy month. The minister “instructed all Imams to remove extra loudspeakers, if any, from mosques and store them in a warehouse for later use or give away to mosques that do not have enough,” it added.

    Importantly, the report pointed out that this was not the first-ever effort on the part of the government to ensure that the sound of microphones during prayers did not cause trouble to elderlies and children. “Last year, the ministry issued restrictions on volume levels for loudspeakers at mosques during the fasting month. Speakers must not exceed a third of their maximum volume,” Gulf News says.

    We also noted that the order prohibiting iftar inside mosques was nothing new.

    Iftar, which is the ceremonial breaking of the day’s fast during the month of Ramadan, is almost always held in the courtyards attached to a mosque, and never inside the shrine. A Google image search with the terms ‘Iftar at Jama Masjid Delhi’ will confirm this.

    One can find pictures below of people holding iftar in the courtyards of the Jama Masjid of Delhi and Ahmedabad, respectively.

    Click to view slideshow.

    Regarding iftar, the order says that it should be held at places designated for the purpose in the courtyards of the mosque under the supervision of imams and muezzins and that the place should be cleaned immediately after iftar is over. No temporary tents or rooms should be set up for the purpose.

    In a statement to media outlet Middle East Monitor, government spokesperson Abdullah Al-Enezi clarified the ministry’s stance. Rubbishing the claims that iftar was not allowed, he said that it would be arranged in a way that the sanctity and cleanliness of the mosque were maintained. The report can be read here.

    Therefore, the claims regarding the ban on loudspeakers in mosques in Saudi Arabia are false. The west Asian country has restricted the number of loudspeakers to four but has not banned their use. And as far as the order on iftar inside the mosque is concerned, it is in sync with age-old tradition.

    The post Fact check: Saudi Arabia has not banned loudspeakers on Ramzan appeared first on Alt News.

    This post was originally published on Alt News.

  • No, Monu Manesar has not been given clean chit by Rajasthan police in Bhiwani case

    On February 16, the charred bodies of two men Junaid (35) and Nasir (25), both residents of Ghatmeeka in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur district, were found inside a four-wheeler in Bhiwani, Haryana. The family of the individuals alleged that the two men were attacked and abducted by members of the right-wing outfit Bajrang Dal. One of the accused is the district coordinator of Bajrang Dal (Manesar) Monu Manesar.

    The investigation is in progress and the Rajasthan Police has mentioned multiple individuals in the FIR. So far one person identified as Rinku Saini has been arrested. Police are on the lookout for at least eight others.

    In this context, a news report started circulating on February 23 that the Rajasthan Police had given a clean chit to Monu Manesar. News24 shared an update on Twitter in Hindi that read, “Names of Monu Manesar and Lokesh Singla removed from the wanted list of Rajasthan Police, police gave clean chit”.

    Pro-BJP propaganda outlet OpIndia English and OpIndia Hindi also amplified this claim based on News24’s tweet.

    Navbharat Times too amplified this claim. The headline read, “Rajasthan Police gives clean chit to Monu Manesar in Bhiwani incident! Name removed from the wanted list”.

    Based on News24’s tweet, Newsroompost shared the same update. A handful of social media users also amplified this claim (here, and here).

    Fact Check

    Alt News contacted a senior Rajasthan Police official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. As per the official, no clean chit has been given to anyone in this case. “We released 8 names for which we have clear evidence, there could be many more involved. We are investigating further,” said the official.

    In addition to this, the Twitter handle of Bharatpur Police replied to a post on Twitter clarifying that they have released eight names in which they have clear evidence of involvement in the crime through their interrogation of Rinku Saini. It also said that the search operation with Haryana Police is still in progress. The police are also doing an in-depth investigation with regard to Monu Manesar, Lokesh Singla and all other individuals mentioned in the FIR.

    It is quite evident from the graphic that the police have released eight names and below the photos a subsequent text reads that they’re still investigating Monu Manesar’s involvement.

    The Indian Express report also said, “The name of Mohit Yadav alias Monu Manesar, who was earlier named as an accused, wasn’t on the list but the police maintained that he is still a suspect.”

    In conclusion, as of February 23, 2023, the role of Monu Manesar and Lokesh Singla in the alleged murder of Nasir and Junaid is still being investigated and no clean chit has been given to them.

    The post No, Monu Manesar has not been given clean chit by Rajasthan police in Bhiwani case appeared first on Alt News.

    This post was originally published on Alt News.

  • Jagran-owned Vishvas News continues as IFCN signatory despite violating codes of conduct

    In March 2020, Meta (previously Facebook) announced a partnership with the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN, set up in 2015 by US no-profit Poynter Institute) ‘to reduce the spread of misinformation and provide more reliable information to users.’ In an interview with American podcaster Joe Rogan, the founder of Meta platforms Mark Zuckerberg said in August 2022, “…we do not want to be deciding what is true or false… We also didn’t want to be in the business of deciding which fact-checkers are professional and not. So we basically outsource that to this accreditation (referring to IFCN)… it’s widely respected. It is sort of the best that there is, even though it’s, you know, it’s not without flaws…”

    In the first week of September 2022, IFCN announced that it had awarded $450,000 in grants to organizations working to lessen the impact of false and misleading information on WhatsApp. Out of 11 award-winning organizations, three were from India. One of them was Vishvas News, which received $50,000 (~40 lakhs). According to the announcement, Vishvas News intended to ‘create a bridge of information between people who are facing a flow of misinformation and have no idea where and how to check for legitimacy.’

    Vishvas News is a subsidiary of MMI Online Limited, the digital arm of Jagran Prakashan Ltd, the parent company of ‘Dainik Jagran’ newspaper, which, according to its website, has a daily readership of over 50 million — one of the largest in India. It is worth noting that Bharat Gupta, the CEO of MMI Online Limited, is one of the 11 board members at the IFCN.

    This report seeks to analyze if Vishvas News follows IFCN codes of conduct, and document instances of misinformation by its sister concern, Dainik Jagran, between January 2021 and July 2022.

    Does Vishvas News follow the IFCN codes of conduct?

    The IFCN has five code of conducts with multiple sub-points. The following sub-points in pertinent to this report:

    • Commitment to Standards and Transparency of Methodology
      5.2 The applicant selects claims to check based primarily on the reach and importance of the claims, and where possible explains the reason for choosing the claim to check.
    • Commitment to an Open & Honest Corrections Policy
      6.5 If the applicant is the fact-checking unit of a media company, it is a requirement of signatory status that the parent media company has and adheres to an open and honest corrections policy.

    Alt News noticed that Vishvas News rarely mentions primary sources of misinformation such as prominent accounts or news outlets. As a result, it completely ignores the importance of the reach of the social media account making the claim. For example —

    Click to view slideshow.

    Two years ago, Alt News reported that most Facebook fact-checking partners in India had failed to fact-check misinformation shared by pro-BJP users/organizations. Alt News had cited five sources of misinformation that came out on top as per our reports — BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya, BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra, Sudarshan News’ chief Suresh Chavhanke, and OpIndia.

    In order to find this data, Alt News performed a domain-specific keyword search on Google. Here, the domain would be the website of the fact-checking portal and the specificHow keyword is the source of misinformation. For example, site:vishvasnews.com “Suresh Chavhanke”.

    Data showed that barring BoomLive, The Quint, and Alt News, most fact-checking portals looked the other way when false claims or misinformation were shared by these platforms/individuals. Between August 2019 and August 2020, Vishvas News mentioned only one of them on only one occasion.

    As per the Alt News’s 2022 year-ender report, BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya and the party’s national spokesperson Sambit Patra were on the list of prominent politicians who shared misinformation in 2022.

    Similarly, prominent personalities who shared misinformation last year included Pakistani-Canadian author Tarek Fatah and Sudarshan News editor Suresh Chavhanke.

    On December 7, 2022, Alt News found that as of February 20, 2023 —

    1. Vishvas News has not documented misinformation by BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya
    2. Vishvas News has not documented misinformation by Sudarshan News editor-in-chief Suresh Chavhanke
    3. Vishvas News has not documented misinformation by Pakistani-Canadian author Tarek Fatah
    4. Vishvas News has documented just one instance of misinformation by the pro-BJP propaganda outlet OpIndia.

    Over the past few months, Alt News has read multiple fact checks by Vishvas News and found that they never mentioned prominent sources of misinformation. This is in violation of the above-mentioned point (5.2) of the code of conduct. Vishvas News does not consider ‘reach and importance’ when it selects claims for fact check. 

    Does Dainik Jagran adhere to an open and honest correction policy?

    Between January 2021 and July 2022, Dainik Jagran, a sister concern of IFCN member Vishvas News, published 17 instances of misinformation, as per our database. In the same time period, BoomLive and The Quint documented Jagran’s misinformation seven and two times, respectively (view spreadsheet). We found that at least 6 out of 17 articles were not updated with corrections (view Jagran Corrections spreadsheet) — we tried establishing contact with Dainik Jagran for more clarifications. However, we didn’t get any response. The readers should note that Alt News couldn’t verify if corrections were made in two stories because they were print stories and the same story could not be found online.

    This is significant because clause 6.5 of the IFCN codes of conduct says “if the applicant is the fact-checking unit of a media company, it is a requirement of signatory status that the parent media company has and adheres to an open and honest corrections policy.” By not publishing corrections, Vishvas News’s parent media company is thereby violating IFCN codes. 

     

    ‘Seal of approval on misinformation by IFCN’

    Alt News spoke with Manisha Pande, the executive editor at Newslaundry. In addition to her extensive portfolio as a journalist, she has five years of experience in watchdog journalism in India. She is the writer and host of the YouTube show Newsance.

    Manisha said, “One can understand editorial lapses where a media outlet misses out on certain information or they share videos without due diligence because it’s a matter of number of clicks and volume of online traffic. But what makes it to their front page really makes a huge difference is when one gives prime space to conspiracy theories. The kind of misreport that is published on the front pages of Dainik Jagran is straight-up conspiracy theories at times.”

    Manisha also pointed out that when in 2018 an 8-year-old nomadic girl was gang-raped and murdered in Kathua, Jagran claimed no rape had taken place (report by Alt News, Newslaundry). In 2020, when a Dalit woman was gang-raped in Hathras, Jagran claimed that she was murdered by her brother and mother. Referring to the 2020 rape cases, she added, “Without even verifying, Dainik Jagran reported that the victim was having an affair. Newslaundry has found multiple instances when Dainik Jagran relied upon dubious sources while amplifying the anti-Muslim conspiracy theory ‘Love Jihad’. This isn’t a question of developing stories. Basics of journalism such as finding credible sources and lack of triangulation within a report that are essential for a front page are simply absent at times.”

    She added, “Thinking from IFCN’s point of view, the logic behind including Vishvas News might stem from the fact that they are a part of the largest and most read Hindi-language media outlet. In my opinion, if Vishvas News is given a seal of approval not just as a fact-checker but also a place on the IFCN board, then they are indirectly giving a seal of approval to the misinformation put about by Dainik Jagran as well.”

    Alt News reached out to the concerned officials at MMI Online Limited & Vishvas News, Poynter & IFCN Facebook, BoomLive and FactCheck.in and Facebook on October 19. The Facebook spokesperson replied saying, “We have no input to share.”

    Last year, the Press Council of India took suo motu cognizance of Dainik Jagran’s publishing advertisements in the garb of news in the New Delhi editions of the newspaper on June 10 and 16. In the same year, Newslaundry reported how Dainik Jagran published UP government ads with bylines of reporters on multiple instances. Last month, Newslanudry also published a detailed article capturing the nuances related to the ownership of the Jagran Group.

     

    Misinformation by Dainik Jagran

    Upon categorization of the 17 instances of the misinformation, we found that 42.1% targeted the Muslim community and 26.3% were pro-government.

    It is pertinent to note that in a 2019 report on government spending on newspaper ads, Indo-Asian News Service reported, “Leading the pack in the 2014-15 to 2018-19 period was Dainik Jagran that received government ads worth over Rs 100 crore in the given time frame.”

    1. Blamed bad weather for Haryana CM’s rally cancelled due to farmer protests

    Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar had planned to hold a rally on January 10, 2021, in Karnal district’s Kaimla village to intimate the public of the benefits of the Centre’s new farm laws. That same evening, Dainik Jagran reported that the event was cancelled since Khattar was not able to attend due to bad weather. In their report, they stated that the CM could not reach the gathering because his helicopter had trouble flying in bad weather. However, other news outlets cited the farmers’ protest against the new farm laws as the reason behind his cancellation. After being called out for publishing incorrect information, Dainik Jagran edited their reports to reflect that the CM was not able to address the rally in Karnal due to commotion created by a group of protesters. 

    2. Falsely claimed that Suriname President was to be chief guest at 2021 R-Day parade

    In January 2021, Jagran Josh (Part of Jagran Prakashan Limited) claimed that Suriname’s Indian-origin president Chandrikapersad Santokhi would be the chief guest at the 2021 annual Republic Day parade. The report cited ‘media reports’ as the source.

    The ministry of external affairs clarified on January 14, 2021, that no foreign leader would be invited as the chief guest this Republic Day. “There will be no foreign leader as Republic Day chief guest. The decision comes due to the global situation arising out of Covid-19”, it announced. 

    3. Claimed ‘Harvard’ study lauded UP govt’s handling of migrant crisis during COVID

    In April 2021, Dainik Jagran reported that a Harvard study had hailed the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh for handling the migrant crisis more effectively than other states. The study reportedly appreciated Yogi Aditynath’s way of resolving the crisis of migrant labourers. Jagran quoted a so-called Harvard study to demonstrate the UP government’s efforts in four focus areas including bus and train services and cooperation with railways.

    On probing further, Alt News found that the study in question was published by the Institute For Competitiveness (IFC) and not Harvard University. The cover page of the study, titled ‘COVID-19 & the migrant crisis resolution: A report on Uttar Pradesh’, had two logos — those of IFC and ‘Microeconomics of Competitiveness’ (MoC), a course platform developed by the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at Harvard Business School (HBS), designed to be taught at selected universities around the world. We spoke to an alumnus of Harvard University who stated that there was no such thing as a ‘Harvard study’. Studies were attributed to authors and not the university to create legitimacy. Alt News spoke to Katelyn B. Ahern, the competitiveness & economic development program manager at the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at HBS, who also said that it was not accurate to refer to a study by an MoC affiliate as a Harvard study.

    Moreover, it was found that the external usage of ‘Harvard’ or any logo, seal, or other symbol, words, names, or devices that identify Harvard or any Harvard school for any purpose required written approval from the university. 

    Furthermore, the inference that the study draws has been misrepresented in the media reports. Amit Kapoor, honorary chairman at IFC, spoke to Alt News and said that the study did not conclude UP government had handled the migrant crisis more effectively than other states. He added that the document was for internal consumption and was not intended to be made public.

    Thus, a study by IFC was falsely dubbed as a Harvard study by the UP government and media. Furthermore, Amit Kapoor, honorary chairman at IFC, told Alt News that MOC’s logo would be removed from the report. This was also reported by BOOMLive.

    4. Misreported ‘Pakistan zindabad’ was chanted in UP

    After the results of the gram panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh, Dainik Jagran published an article on May 5, 2021, with the headline ‘Pakistan zindabad slogans echoed in Bahraich near the Nepal border, video viral on internet media (बहराइच में नेपाल सीमा पर गूंजा पाकिस्तान जिंदाबाद का नारा, वीडियो इंटरनेट मीडिया पर वायरल)’.

    Alt News found that the supporters of Haji Abdul Kalim were not raising ‘Pakistan zindabad’ slogans but shouting ‘Haji Saab Zindabad’, which is clearly audible if one carefully listens to the chants. Bahraich police also put out a tweet rubbishing the claims that Pakistan Zindabad slogans were raised at the procession. “The truth is that in the victory procession, the supporters of the newly-elected pradhan only raised slogans of ‘Haji Saab zindabad’ NOT Pakistan zindabad. This is clear upon closely listening to the audio of the viral video clip,” the police statement said. Alt News reached out to Haji Abdul Rahim, the brother of Haji Abdul Kalim, who also refuted the claims.

    5. Misleading reporting on mass burials in Prayagraj during COVID-19

    Alt News found that Dainik Jagran had published a series of reports attempting to downplay the severity of the second wave of COVID-19. On May 26, 2021, the Hindi daily published an image of mass burials and claimed it was taken in 2018 asserting that most pictures of mass graves at Shringverpur ghat in Prayagraj were old. It then attempted to normalize the number of deaths by portraying there had been no increase due to the pandemic and that such mass burials had always been taking place. That same day, Jagran published another report in its print edition headlined, ‘There was no corona three years ago, but pictures of the banks of Ganga from three years ago were the same.’ This report, also published in Jagran’s New Delhi edition, highlighted three points (marked in red) – 1) Several Hindu communities practice cremation by burial; 2) the digital media sensationalized the issue; 3) People who died due to leprosy and snake bites were buried on the ghat. A similar report was published in Jagran’s Prayagraj edition on May 28, 2021. No national media outlet had reported on mass burials on the banks of Ganga between March 2018 and December 2018, as claimed by Jagran. 

    Strangely enough on May 15, about 10 days before these reports were published, Jagran published an image of dead bodies buried at Shringverpur ghat and reported that 100 corpses were cremated every day since the last week of April. On a usual day, 20-25 bodies are cremated, the outlet said. 

    Local independent photojournalist Prabhat Kumar Verma told Alt News that the number of burials in April-May 2021 was the most he had seen, not just at Shringverpur ghat but other ghats as well. Singh also spoke to local priests who corroborated that there had been a massive increase in the number of deaths during said time. 

    BJP state minister and UP coordinator Anamika Chaudhary and UP co-coordinator Sunil Nishad confirmed to Alt News over a phone call that burials at Shringverpur ghat and Phaphamau ghat had increased during the pandemic.

    Shortly afterwards, Dainik Jagran accused Alt News of defamation and filed a petition in a Delhi-based court. They claimed that the fact-checking website had carried false and disparaging statements in its article. In November 2021, civil judge Chitranshi Arora dismissed Jagran’s petition and said, “There is no reason for the court to intervene at such an initial stage and stifle the ever-widening contours of free speech, as developed by the higher courts.”

    As of February 2023, Dainik Jagran has not made a correction to their report. 

    6. Amplified hoax video claiming ‘alien/ghost’ spotted in Jharkhand

    A video of a shadowy figure walking on a highway at night took both media and social media by storm. The 30-second clip had been shared with the claim that an ‘alien’ or a ‘ghost’ was spotted in India. The video was amplified by mainstream media channels including Dainik Jagran. The Jagran article titled, “हजारीबाग में विचित्र मानव को देख सहमे लोग, किसी ने कहा एलियन तो किसी ने भूत” was published on May 29, 2021. Jagran did not attempt to find out the real story behind this sighting.

    Alt News found that the video had been shot at Seraikela and not Hazaribagh, as was claimed. Local channel Jan Doot News interviewed the two youths who recorded the viral video and said that while returning from Chakradharpur to Seraikela via Kharsawan Road, they spotted a strange woman walking naked. One of the youths was identified as Deepak. They posted a 30-second Whatsapp status which was amplified on social media. Alt News reached out to Deepak who further confirmed that the so-called ‘alien-sighting’ was actually a naked woman walking down the street. Deepak also sent the original video to Alt News and it can be accessed in the article.

    As of February 2023, the report has not been updated with a correction by Dainik Jagran. 

    7. Shared photo of IS terrorist as Hizbul commander gunned down in Kashmir

    In their coverage of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Mehrajuddin Halwai’s assassination on July 7, 2021, Jagran used an image of IS terrorist, Omar Hussain. Alt News found that the picture of an ISIS fighter Omar Hussain was used by journalists and carried by media portals in India as Hizbul commander Mehrajuddin Halwai, who was gunned down recently.

    8. Misreported that ‘tanga’ drivers in UP flaunted Pakistan flag

    A video went viral in August 2021, where a man can be heard alleging, “Pakistan’s flag is imprinted on the tanga owned by Noor Alam and Wasir that they have been using for 20 years and they claim they are unaware (that Pakistan’s flag is imprinted on the tanga). They have a problem saying ‘Hindustan Zindabad’ but have no shame saying ‘Pakistan Zindabad.” The man in the video then harasses two poor tanga drivers from the Muslim community, forcing them to chant ‘Hindustan Zindabad’, ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’, and ‘Pakistan Murdabad’. He continues to hound them even after the drivers shout the chants. Angered by the unreasonable coverage, Wasir questions the man why they should make the chants and ends the conversation by saying that he will hail both countries. Dainik Jagran also carried a story claiming that the tanga was painted with the flag of Pakistan. On August 25, 2021, Jagran published a report based on the viral video with the headline, “लखनऊ में लगे पाकिस्तान जिंदाबाद के नारे, इंटरनेट मीडिया पर वीडियो वायरल” (Translation: Pakistan Zindabad slogans raised in Lucknow, video viral on internet media). The police spoke to both parties – the tanga driver and the people who accused him of driving a tanga with Pakistan’s flag – and the matter was sorted after it was concluded the tanga adorned an Islamic symbol. Lucknow police confirmed the same to Alt News.

    As of February 2023, Dainik Jagran has not made a correction to the story. 

    9. Falsely claimed that Neeraj Chopra had a Maratha lineage

    Shortly after Neeraj Chopra won the gold in August 2021, Union minister for civil aviation Jyotiraditya M Scindia congratulated him and wrote, “He exhibited the true Maratha spirit & skill!”. Several news outlets, including Dainik Jagran, reported about Neeraj’s alleged Maratha lineage. According to an August 9, 2021 Jagran article titled “मराठाओं से है नीरज चोपड़ा का नाता, योद्धा बनकर भाले से जीती दुनिया”, Neeraj Chopra associated himself with the same Marathas who fought the third battle of Panipat. 

    In reality, Neeraj Chopra hails from the Ror (pronounced Raud) community. Based on our interaction with members of the Ror community, it appears that there are two schools of thought — one section of the community believes that their lineage is closely linked with the Marathas and the other, including Neeraj’s family, doesn’t believe in the Maratha lineage theory. 

    As of February 2023, Dainik Jagran has not made a correction to the story.

    10. Falsely claimed ex-Pak diplomat admitted to 300 deaths in Balakot airstrike

    In January 2021, Dainik Jagran reported that former Pakistani diplomat, ‘Agha’ Hilaly has admitted that the 2019 Balakot airstrike saw 300 casualties on the Pakistani side. According to the report, during a debate on a Pakistani Urdu channel, Hilaly said, “India crossed the international border and did an act of war in which at least 300 were reported dead. Our target was different from theirs. We targeted their high command. That was our legitimate target because they are men of the military. We subconsciously accepted that a surgical strike — a limited action — did not result in any casualty. Now we have subconsciously told them that, whatever they will do, we will do only that much and won’t escalate,”. Jagran cited the news agency ANI in their report.

    We found that the report was based on a clipped and doctored video of a panel discussion shared on social media. In the original video, Hilaly states that India had intended to kill 300 people, but in reality, the Indian operation had failed and a football field had been bombed. This was also reported by BOOMLive.

    11. RRB-NTPC protest: Used 2019 photo while reporting on police excess

    On January 25, 2022, a large number of the applicants of the RRB-NTPC exams in UP gathered to protest on railway tracks in Prayagraj against the Railways’ decision to hold the exam in two stages. During the protest, the students were chased down by the police, and some students allegedly responded by pelting stones. In response to this, the police forcefully entered a nearby hostel and lathi-charged students. A video of the police excess went viral on social media after which six policemen were suspended. Reporting on the protest on January 28, 2022, Dainik Jagran published an article that carried a purported photo of a student injured in police violence.

    An Alt News fact check revealed that the image used by them was unrelated to the RRB-NTPC protest, and was at least two years old. It first went viral on Facebook in Bangladesh with the claim that the person in the photo had violated COVID lockdown guidelines and as a result, the police thrashed him. It was shared with a series of photos that suggests how the incident unfolded. The same photo of the injured youth was viral in Malaysia in 2020 with the claim that the soldiers of the Malaysian Armed Forces assaulted a boy while enforcing the movement control order (MCO). It was debunked by the Armed Forces saying that the photo is originally from Bangladesh and was uploaded in 2019.

    12. Misreported that ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ was chanted in Jharkhand

    A video shot during the nomination of Mukhiya candidate Shakir Hussain in Dokidih panchayat of Giridih district in Jharkhand went viral with the claim that slogans of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ were raised in the nomination rally. Dainik Jagran published an article on April 23, 2022 in this regard with the headline “गिरिडीह में पाकिस्‍तान जिंदाबाद के नारेबाजी मामले में मुखिया प्रत्‍याशी को भी भेजा गया जेल, 50-60 अज्ञात पर केस” (Translation: In Giridih, the chief candidate was also sent to jail in the case involving sloganeering of Pakistan Zindabad, 50-60 cases on unidentified individuals”. The report is based on a Facebook live stream that went viral. The video portrays the head candidate reaching the block headquarters gate. Jagran claimed that while sloganeering, the Pakistan Zindabad slogan was raised and repeated several times consecutively. Nobody raised any objection. 

    Alt News had contacted local residents of Dokidih who said that ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans were not raised during the procession. Alt News also watched the video carefully in slow motion and analyzed the video in detail. We concluded that slogans of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ were not raised but ‘Shakir Hussain Zindabad’ slogans were raised during the nomination procession of Shakir Hussain, the Dokidih Mukhiya candidate of Giridih district of Jharkhand. Jagran ran the story without verifying the facts.

    As of February 2023, Dainik Jagran has not made a correction to the story.

    13. Falsely reported that ban on Namaz provoked sloganeering in Saharanpur

    A video of a group of Muslim demonstrators raising slogans outside a mosque had gone viral on social media with the claim that Muslims had staged a demonstration in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh after they were stopped from offering prayers on the street. According to a tweet by Dainik Jagran on April 29, 2022, Muslim devotees created a ruckus outside the Jama Masjid in Saharanpur. (“सहारनपुर में सड़क पर नमाज पढ़ने के विरोध के बाद जामा मस्जिद के बाहर हंगामा, मौके पर डीएम तथा एसएसपी”).

    The official Twitter handle of the Saharanpur Police had issued a statement by SSP Akash Tomar in connection with the viral video which read, “…..when people were returning after offering prayers at the mosque, some media persons asked them provocative questions during which some young boys created a ruckus. But the situation was later resolved. It is now calm and normal….”. Alt News had also procured a video by the Imam of Jama Masjid Saharanpur who corroborated the police’s statements. Alt News spoke with another journalist who was present on-ground, who revealed that the news being broadcasted over the news and social media was false. To sum it up, an Alt News fact-check revealed that devotees in Saharanpur did not raise slogans after the administration ‘prohibited them from offering prayers on the road’.

    As of February 2023, the story has not been updated with a correction.

    14. Misreported that pro-Pakistan chants raised in MP’s Katni 

    A video had gone viral on social media with the claim that pro-Pakistan slogans were raised in Katni, Madhya Pradesh, following the victory of a Muslim leader in sarpanch elections. Subsequently, Dainik Jagran tweeted on July 2, 2022, ‘Slogans of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ after Muslim becomes sarpanch: Supporters in Katni chant, ‘Pakistan won’. An article on this issue published by Jagran was attached to the tweet.

    We examined the viral video carefully and noticed that the slogans being chanted were ‘Wazid bhai won – Wazid bhai won’ (जीत गया भाई जीत गया – वाज़िद भाई जीत गया) and ‘Long live Wazid bhai’ (वाज़िद भाई ज़िंदाबाद). We also slowed down the video and could not hear any pro-Pakistan sloganeering. Sheikh Saeed alias Wazid is the husband of Rahisha Begum, the candidate who had won the sarpanch election from the Chaka Gram Panchayat in Madhya Pradesh’s Katni district. We reached out to Wazid who also said that there were no slogans raised in support of Pakistan. Sheikh Saeed alias Wazid also shared three videos of the incident with Alt News. After listening to all of these carefully, it became evident that the slogans being chanted were not ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ but ‘Wazid bhai Zindabad’. This was yet another instance of Jagran publishing misinformation without basic verification.

    15. Communalization of 2022 Silchar floods in Assam

    While reporting on the Assam floods in June, NewsX called the flooding in Silchar ‘flood jihad‘ and blamed Assam’s Muslim community for the disaster. Hindi media outlet Dainik Jagran didn’t use the phrase ‘flood jihad’ but its report in July, 2022 stated, “There are signs of a deep conspiracy behind this.” An Alt News fact check found that the communal spin was refuted by the Assam chief minister and the police.

    16. Published scripted video of drunk groom garlanding sister-in-law as real

    A video purportedly from a wedding had been shared widely on social media. In the video, the groom, who appears to be in an inebriated state, offers the wedding garland (varmala) to the woman standing next to the bride. The woman with the garland subsequently slaps the groom in anger. The online portal of Dainik Jagran amplified the claim in their report titled, “नशेड़ी दूल्हे ने दुल्हन की बजाए उसकी छोटी बहन को पहनाई वरमाला, गुस्साई साली ने ताबड़तोड़ बरसाए चांटे”, published on June 25, 2022.

    In reality, the video was scripted. Alt News performed a keyword search on YouTube and found the source video uploaded by a YouTube channel called Mithila Bazaar on May 16, 2022. The video description reads, “All characters and story in this video are fictional and intended for entertainment purposes only”. The description also mentioned the names of the artists. On checking the timeline of this channel, we found that they often make staged videos for entertainment.

    17. Did Madras HC say that removal of thali amounts to mental cruelty?

    A social media uproar ensued following the alleged ruling by a division bench of the Madras High Court in an appeal filed against a divorce petition. “मद्रास हाई कोर्ट का बड़ा बयान, कहा- गले से मंगलसूत्र उतारना पति से मानसिक क्रूरता की पराकाष्ठा” read the headline of the Jagran article published on July 14, 2022.  Alt News had shown in its fact-check that a PTI story was misinterpreted by a number of media houses. 

    (This report will be updated if there is a response from any of the concerned parties.)

    The post Jagran-owned Vishvas News continues as IFCN signatory despite violating codes of conduct appeared first on Alt News.

    This post was originally published on Alt News.

  • Saharanpur students didn’t shout pro-Pakistan slogans; false claim by media, RW handles

    A video of a group of college students in uniform chanting slogans inside a bus is making the rounds on social media. It is claimed that the students raised pro-Pakistan slogans. Many users are also claiming that two of these students were arrested.

    ABP News journalist Vivek Bajpai also made the same claim while tweeting the clip. (Archived link)

    Journalist Rishabh Mani of News18 tweeted this video claiming that the students of Saharanpur’s Glocal University were raising slogans of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’. (Archived link)

    Similarly, a number of media outlets, propaganda websites, politicians, journalists and social media users amplified the video with the same claim. Among them were UP Tak, Times Now Navbharat, ABP News, Amar Ujala, Zee Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand, ETV Bharat, Dainik Bhaskar, Free Press Journal, BJP spokesperson Prashant Patel Umrao, Dainik Hint editor Kapil Tyagi, Anil Bhardwaj of Aaj Tak, India TV journalist Khushboo Chaudhary, Gaurav Shukla of Asianet News, journalists Shubham Shukla and Himanshu Mishra, right wing propaganda portal OpIndia, Newsroom Post, Only Fact, RSS mouthpiece Panchjanya, and BJP supporter and Only Fact founder Vijay Patel. In their articles and posts, it was claimed that the students shouted pro-Pakistan slogans. 

    Click to view slideshow.

    Fact Check

    Alt News examined the video closely by listening to it at different playback speeds. We found that the slogan being chanted by the students was not ‘Pakistan Zindabad’. In fact, they were actually saying, “Zaid sir Zindabad, Zaid sir Zindabad, Monis sir Zindabad, Monis sir amar rahein” (Long live Zaid sir, Long live Monis sir). This can be heard clearly when the video is played at 0.75 x speed.

    According to a press note issued by the Uttar Pradesh Police, the students were part of the DPharma course at Glocal University. Two DPharma students, Soban and Shaban, had been identified, while the identity of the others were being looked into. 

    Alt News reached out to Glocal University students Soban and Shaban for more information. They explained that there was no pro-Pakistan sloganeering in the college bus. According to them, the students were having fun and shouting slogans in support of their teachers ‘Zaid Sir’ and ‘Monis Sir’.

    We also contacted both the teachers. They revealed that on February 3, they were traveling with their students to J V  Jain College to participate in the ‘UP Global Investors Summit – 2023′. Since both the teachers were students’ favourites, the students chanted their names in the bus. They clarified that the students never raised any objectionable slogans like ‘Pakistan Zindabad’.

    Alt News also spoke to Gulshan Saini and Shubham Kumar, two students who were in the bus. They confirmed that no student chanted ‘Pakistan Zindabad’, and instead the group was raising slogans in the name of Zaid Sir and Monis Sir. 

    Teachers and students informed Alt News that the university recorded the statements of more than 30 students who were inside the bus, along with the bus driver and teachers. Everyone categorically denied that any objectionable slogans like ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ were being chanted in the bus.

    In a video statement given to the press, the police said that the audio in the viral video was not so clear. They added that a case had been registered in this matter and it was under investigation.

    We also reached out to Saharanpur’s SSP Vipin Tada on this issue. He said that the video had been sent for investigation. No arrests have been made in this case so far.

    To sum it up, several news channels, media outlets, propaganda outlets, journalists and social media users falsely claimed that Glocal University students raised ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans inside a bus. In reality, the students were having fun and raising slogans in support of their teachers, ‘Zaid Sir’ and ‘Monis Sir’, who were also in the bus.

    The post Saharanpur students didn’t shout pro-Pakistan slogans; false claim by media, RW handles appeared first on Alt News.

  • Media reports that Pakistan denied airspace to IAF aid plane to Turkey are false

    On February 6, an earthquake struck southern and central Turkey and western Syria. Its epicenter was in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep. The BBC reported at 13.46 IST on February 8 that the toll had crossed 9,000.

    On February 7, the Indian Air Force sent an aircraft carrying search & rescue teams to Turkey.

    Soon after that, several media outlets reported that Pakistan had denied airspace to India’s C-17 plane carrying relief aid. One of the first media outlets to tweet about this was the First Post.

    Other media outlets to follow suit were Mirror Now, Zee News English, Asianet Suvarna News, Free Press Journal, News 18, Oneindia News, G Plus, OpIndia.com.

    Multiple prominent social media accounts shared screenshot of First Post and took a dig at Pakistan.

    Twitter user @MrSinha_wrote, “Hello the people of #Turkey, this is how Pakistan repaid your support!!”. His tweet was viewed over two lakh times. ‘Only Fact’ co-founder Vijay Patel tweeted on the same lines.

    A verified Twitter account of a journalist named Rajgopal wrote, “Both wanted to be the leaders of the Islamic World.”

    Taking a similar stance, Major Surendra Poonia (Retd) said on Facebook, “This is after Turkey supported Pakistan’s Jihad policy in Kashmir @RTErdogan, Mr President, today your so-called friend Pakistan has shown its true colours…”.

    Click to view slideshow.

     

    Senior Editor at New India Pramod Kumar Singh, Times Now Navbharat Amit Sahu, and Twitter users @MeghUpdates and The Hawk Eye (later deleted it) also made this claim. The tweet by ‘Megh Updates’ gained over 8 lakh views.

    Click to view slideshow.

     

    Fact Check

    We noticed a tweet by India Today journalist Ankiit Koomar where he said that he did not agree to the claim that Pakistan had denied airspace to India. Sharing a clip that showed a simulation of the IAF aircraft’s flight path, he wrote that there was no indication that it had sought to use Pak airspace.

    Sidhant Sibal, diplomatic & defence correspondent at WION, tweeted, “On reports of Indian C17 with relief to Turkiye not using Pakistan airspace, can point out that Indian military planes don’t use Pakistan airspace nor New Delhi seeks Islamabad’s permission to use its airspace.”

    Sibal added, “Even during the evacuation of Indians from Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover in August 2021, Indian military planes flew from Kabul to Dushanbe & used Iranian airspace to come back to India.”

    Alt News’ sources at Indian Air Force said on the night of February 7, “The media reports are incorrect.” They added, “The IAF aircraft to Turkey is following a standard routing for the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) missions. These missions involve overflight clearances from countries that are en route to the destination. The clearances for this HADR mission were sought for the standard routing which the IAF operators fly on a regular basis.”

    An overflight clearance is an authorizations from the civil aviation authorities of a country to overfly or use that country’s airspace.

    Alt News asked its source if any permission was sought from Pakistan. They said, “No permission was sought because Pakistan was not on the route. Thus, there is no question of Pakistan denying airspace to the IAF. It’s worth noting that the IAF did not use Pakistani airspace during the 2021 Afghanistan evacuations as well.”

    To sum it up, several media outlets reported that Pakistan had denied airspace to India’s C-17 plane carrying relief aid. The IAF debunked this claim by stating that as per standard operating procedure, the route doesn’t entail flying over Pakistan.

    Interestingly, some media outlets like News18 later updated their reports or published a new report without correcting the previous one where they had talked about Pakistan’s refusal to India.

    The post Media reports that Pakistan denied airspace to IAF aid plane to Turkey are false appeared first on Alt News.

  • Misreporting by major news outlets; Pakistan flag was not hoisted in Bihar’s Purnea

    On January 26, 2023, news broke that a Pakistani flag had been hoisted on a residential building in Madhubani Sipahi Tola area in Purnea, Bihar. Several news media outlets reported this. Multimedia news agency ANI tweeted, ” A Pakistani flag was hoisted in the Madhubani Sipahi Tola area in Purnea”. The tweet further contained the Station House Officer’s statement wherein he states that the flag had been removed and that further action would be taken. The tweet also contained two pictures where the said Pakistani flag was visible. (Archive)

    In its bulletin, a CNN News18 reporter said, ‘the Republic Day shocker’ was promptly taken up by the police who reached the location immediately. According to cops, the flag had since been removed. (Archive)

    Times Now Navbharat also tweeted a clip of their report on this incident. The clip contains a video interview of a resident of the house, Rehana Parveen, who says that she didn’t know it was a Pakistani flag. She also says that the flag was hoisted on January 26 itself. (Archive)

    News18 Bihar also tweeted a clip of their reportage of the incident. (Archive)

    Other media outlets, including Times of India, Zee News English, ANI Hindi, OpIndia Hindi, Zee Bihar Jharkhand, India TV, India TV Hindi, The New Indian, Mid Day, RSS mouthpiece Organiser Weekly, Times of India Patna and Live_Hindustan also reported on this incident.

    Click to view slideshow.

     

    Right Wing accounts amplified the claim

    Several verified handles tweeted the CNN News 18 reportage. The BJP Andhra Pradesh state secretary Ramesh Naidu Nagothu tweeted that ‘the shameful act’ of hoisting the Pakistani flag in Bihar ‘is beyond condemnation’. Tripura BJP secretary Amit Rakshit condemned the apparent hoisting of the Pakistani flag as well. BJP Gujarat state media co-head Zubin Ashara also tweeted the News 18 report and called it a ‘shameful incident’. Andhra BJP general secretary Vishnu Vardhan Reddy wrote, “Law and order has gone for a toss since the Mahathughbandhan formed gvt in Bihar.”

    Click to view slideshow.

    RVCJ Media tweeted a graphic containing images of the flag. According to the graphic, the police promised of strict action in the matter. The tweet garnered almost 7,000 likes. Twitter handle @BefittingFacts also shared an image of the flag and wrote that “A Pakistani flag was hoisted on a house owned by Mohammad Mubarukuddin”.

    Fact Check

    The reader must note that a video shot from an angle below the flag has been used by several media outlets in their reportage. If one looks closely, one might notice that parts of the flag toward the pole are not green in colour. There is a blue patch and then there is a part that is black and white in colour. Below is a screenshot from the Times Now Navbharat reportage which shows the relevant frame. This was also pointed out by a Twitter user in a thread.

    This pattern is not present in the Pakistani national flag. The Pakistani national flag has a vertical white stripe on the left with a crescent moon and a star on a green background. Based on the stark differences in pattern, it is quite clear that the flag hoisted at the house in Purnea was not the Pakistani national flag.

    Moreover, according to a statement released by Purnea Police on Twitter, their investigation concluded that the flag was not a Pakistani flag but a religious flag which had been hoisted a month ago. (Archive)

    On the same day as it tweeted about the incident (that is January 26), The Times of India later published a report headlined ‘Pakistan’s flag not hoisted in Bihar’s Purnia, say police’. The report cites a police statement while saying that a religious flag had been hoisted at a house owned by Mohammad Mubarakuddin which is located adjacent to a local mosque. This confirmation was reiterated by Surendra Kumar Saroj, SDPO Sadar who stated that the religious flag had been put up there a month ago. He also said that the police were trying to identify the persons who spread the rumour that it was a Pakistan flag.

    Alt News got in touch with Purnea SP Amir Jawaid who sent us an image of the flag after it was taken down by a police official. The reader can clearly spot the black-and-white part and the blue stripe with prints on it.

    We reached out to Dr Anwar Raza Qadri, spokesperson for All India Muslim Jamaat, who explained the significance of the patterns seen on the flag in Islam. According to Qadri, the blue stripe is inspired by the pattern seen on the dome of  Baghdad Sharif Mosque also known as Ghous-E-Azam. The white part with the black zigzag lines has been inspired by the dome of Dargah E Aalahazrat in Bareilly. Below we have compared the patterns on the flag with the domes.

    This flag has been waved on several instances in India in the past, especially during the celebration of Eid Milad-Un-Nabi to mark the birth anniversary of the Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam. This flag has been seen in cities like Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Varanasi and New Delhi.

    Click to view slideshow.

    Similar claim made in the past

    It is worth noting that a similar claim had been made in November 2019. A video of flags hoisted on the terrace of several buildings in Jalandhar, Punjab, was shared on social media with the claim that these were Pakistani national flags. However, an Alt News fact check found the claims to be misleading. The flags that were seen in the 2019 viral video had a similar pattern with two stripes- one with white prints on a blue background and the other with black lines on a white stripe. Below is a comparison between the religious flag that was seen in Jalandhar in 2019 and the Pakistani national flag. The following image has been taken from the 2019 Alt News fact check.

    It is also worth noting that the images that Zee News English used in their report of this incident are old. These images were also used in a Zee Madhya Pradesh Chhattisgarh report dated October 26, 2022. The report, titled ‘मुस्ताक ने छत पर लगाया पाकिस्तानी झंडा, बोला- बच्चे ने की थी जिद; तानाव के बाद एक्शन’, was about a fruit-seller named Mustaq whose 15-year-old child had hoisted the Pakistani flag at their home in the Saria area of Raigarh, Chhattisgarh.

    Click to view slideshow.

    To sum it up, a religious flag that was hoisted atop a house in the Purnea district of Bihar was falsely portrayed by various news outlets as a Pakistani national flag hoisted on the Republic Day. In reality, the Pakistani national flag and the religious flag that was hoisted are starkly different in terms of pattern and colour. The police have also dismissed the viral claims.

    The post Misreporting by major news outlets; Pakistan flag was not hoisted in Bihar’s Purnea appeared first on Alt News.

  • Did Ashwini Choubey tear up while taking about farmers? Misleading claim by NDTV

    Farmers in Buxar have been protesting for the last 84 days demanding proper compensation for the acquisition of their land for a power plant. There were reports of police personnel entering protesting farmers’ homes in the middle of the night and thrashing them. Angered by this, protesters allegedly torched police vehicles. Police officers had to fire in the air to disperse the demonstrators.

    The following day, Union minister and BJP leader Ashwini Choubey arrived in Chausa, facing the wrath of the aggrieved farmers. In fact, he decided to leave the meeting altogether once the protesters began raising slogans against him. Later, the leader kept a silent vow and fast in protest of the atrocities on farmers at Ambedkar Chowk in Buxar. He accused individuals associated with the Bhim Army of attacking him during this dharna. BJP leader Parshuram Chaturvedi suffered a heart attack and died while entering Buxar’s Bhagat Singh Park during the protest march organized to call for arrests of the accused responsible for the same attack.

    Against this backdrop, a video of BJP leader and MP Ashwini Choubey crying during a press conference is making the rounds on social media. It has been claimed that the senior leader broke into tears while talking about farmers.

    NDTV tweeted the video with the accompanying claim. (Archived link)

    Journalist Prabhakar Kumar Mishra quote-tweeted NDTV’s post and wrote, “I’m feeling overwhelmed seeing this union minister shedding tears for farmers!” (Archived link)

    Jagran journalist Vineet Tripathi also quote-tweeted the video shared by NDTV. He added that farmers were in such dire straits since the opposition was not doing its work properly, so much so that it moved a Union minister to tears. (Archived link)

    Fact Check

    We searched for the video of Ashwini Choubey’s press conference on YouTube, and found it on the Live Cities YouTube channel. Here, the leader announces that BJP leader Parshuram Chaturvedi, who worked continuously by his side for several days in this movement, died due to a heart attack. He breaks down in tears while discussing Chaturvedi’s death. 

    Alt News also found several news reports which clearly state that Choubey received the news of her close friend Parshuram Chaturvedi’s death due to a heart attack during the press conference itself. Aaj Tak also tweeted a video in which it has been told that Ashwini Choubey started crying during a press conference after hearing the news of BJP leader Parshuram Chaturvedi’s death.

    To sum it up, Ashwini Choubey became emotional and began weeping inconsolably during a press conference after receiving the news of the demise of fellow BJP leader and close friend Parshuram Chaturvedi. Although the press conference covered topics like the Ramcharit Manas and AIIMS, the primary focus was on farmers’ issues. Hence, the viral clip from the press conference was being circulated with the misleading claim that Union minister Ashwini Choubey broke into tears while talking about farmers. 

    The post Did Ashwini Choubey tear up while taking about farmers? Misleading claim by NDTV appeared first on Alt News.

    This post was originally published on Alt News.

  • Old video of people fighting over sack of wheat shared as current food crisis in Pakistan

    A 41-second long video clip where four individuals can be seen getting into a physical tussle over a sack of wheat is going viral on social media as visuals from Pakistan.

    Dr Shalabh Mani Tripathi, an MLA from Deoria, Uttar Pradesh, and former media advisor to chief minister Yogi Adityanath tweeted the video and wrote, “After Sri Lanka and China, now look at the condition of people in Pakistan fighting over flour. Thank yourself that you are in Mr. @narendramodi ji’s India!!”

    Gaurav Sawant of India Today group tweeted the same clip and made a reference to an infamous speech by the former prime minister of Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He also made a reference to slogans chanted in Kashmir in the early 90s.

    Others who have shared the clip with similar captions include, Major Surendra Poonia, journalist Shubham Shukla, Sagar Kumar of Sudarshan News, Dheeraj Sharma, and many more.

    Click to view slideshow.

    Media outlets have also reported on a food crisis using the same video. This includes Times Now, The Economic Times, InKhabar, DNA, and RSS mouthpiece Panchjanya.

    Click to view slideshow.

    Fact Check

    We broke down the video into key-frames and performed a reverse image search using Google. This took us to a tweet from September 2022 by António Guterres, the secretary general of the United Nations. Guterres had tweeted a photo of a meeting Pakistan Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif, discussing the severe floods in Pakistan that occurred in September last year.

    His tweet had a reply that contained the same viral video. This establishes that the video is not recent and is at least four months old.

    We also found Reddit posts of TikTok videos of the same incident uploaded in September 2022. One of the comments on the Reddit posts also suggests that this was possibly due to the severe floods in the country.

    Additionally, we found the same video uploaded on Facebook from September 6, 2022, which had a text superimposed on it that read, “So much fighting for the sake of one bag among the flood victims, may god have mercy on them”.

    There are other similar videos from the same time where people can be seen getting into physical altercations over bags of food.

    To sum it up, a video that is at least four months old is being circulated as visuals of the economic crisis in Pakistan. The country is indeed going through economic turmoil with high inflation and low foreign exchange reserves, however, the video is from 2022.

    The post Old video of people fighting over sack of wheat shared as current food crisis in Pakistan appeared first on Alt News.

    This post was originally published on Alt News.

  • The Kashmir Files has not been shortlisted for Oscars 2023; claims by film crew, media false

    The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) recently released a Reminder List of productions eligible for the 95th Academy Awards. The list consists of 301 films which include Indian films like RRR, Kantara, The Kashmir Files, Gangubai Kathiawadi, Me Vasantrao, Tujhya Sathi Kahi Hi, Rocketry: The Nambi Effect, The Last Film Show, Vikrant Rona and Iravin Nizhal, among others.

    Soon after the list was released, The Kashmir Files director Vivek Agnihotri took to Twitter to announce that his film had been ‘shortlisted’ for Oscars 2023, in ‘the first list of The Academy’. He also stated that The Kashmir Files was one of the 5 Indian films that had been named on the list. (Archive)

    In a subsequent tweet, he said that actors Pallavi Joshi, Mithun Chakraborty, Anupam Kher and Darshan Kumar had also been ‘shortlisted’ in the best actor category. (Archive)

    Actor Anupam Kher also tweeted to announce that the film The Kashmir Files and he himself had been shortlisted for the Oscars 2023. He added that ‘even a short list’ was a big triumph for them. (Archive)

    Actor Darshan Kumar, who also stars in The Kashmir Files, took to Twitter to say that he felt ‘truly blessed to be shortlisted’ in the Best Actor category for the Oscars 2023. (Archive)

    In an article headlined ‘Mithun Chakraborty breaks his silence about critiques calling ‘The Kashmir Files’ ‘vulgar’ and a ‘propaganda’ as the film gets shortlisted at Oscars 2023′, the Economic Times quoted Chakraborty as saying “It feels great that Kashmir files have been shortlisted . It’s an answer to all the critiques. The jury who called the movie vulgar and propaganda have gotten the answer today. The people have liked the mov(i)e and that’s the response”. (Archive)

    Media outlet Republic reported that The Kashmir Files had been shortlisted for the Oscars 2023 in the first list of Academy Awards. According to their reportage, The Kashmir Files is one of the five films that have been shortlisted from India as official entries into the Oscars 2023. They cited this claim to director Vivek Agnihotri. A reporter also says on air that the 44-pages list which was released includes the names of the movies that have ‘been selected for the 95th Academy Awards’. The reporter adds that the inclusion of this film in the list is a big blow to the lobby which alleged that the film catered only to a certain section of society.  (Archive)

    India Today also tweeted “#TheKashmirFiles gets shortlisted for #Oscars2023. Director #VivekAgnihotri says ‘it’s just the beginning’”. (Archive)

    Times Now tweeted a clip of an interview with Anupam Kher ‘after ‘The Kashmir Files’ was shortlisted for Oscars’. Kher says that shortlisting does not mean being nominated but shortlisting is the first step which needs to be celebrated. According to him, the fact that the film got shortlisted, despite the opposition, is a big victory. (Archive)

    Other media outlets including Mirror Now, Zee News English, All India Radio News, Times Now Bharat, Mojo Story and Filmi Beat also tweeted that The Kashmir Files had been shortlisted for the Oscars 2023.

    Click to view slideshow.

    Wion reported that the Kannada film Kantara has also been shortlisted in the Best Picture and Best Actor categories. (Archive)

    Fact Check

    The first thing to note here is that the list released by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) is titled REMINDER LIST OF PRODUCTIONS ELIGIBLE FOR THE 95TH ACADEMY AWARDS. The word ‘shortlist’ has not been mentioned anywhere on the list consisting of 44 pages.

    Secondly, the 95th Oscars Shortlists had been announced for 10 Categories on December 21, 2022. These are:

    • Documentary Feature Film
    • Documentary Short Film
    • International Feature Film
    • Makeup and Hair-styling
    • Music (Original Score)
    • Music (Original Song)
    • Animated Short Film
    • Live Action Short Film
    • Sound
    • Visual Effects

    According to the official website, who features in each of these shortlists is decided by a committee setup for that purpose (known as a branch), except for the International Feature Film category. The shortlist for this category is determined by Academy members from all branches who are invited to participate in the preliminary round of voting. They need to meet a minimum viewing requirement to be eligible to vote.

    According to the already published shortlist, 15 entries have been selected for each of the following categories:

    • Documentary Feature Film
    • Documentary Short Film
    • International Feature Film
    • Music (Original Score)
    • Music (Original Song)
    • Animated Short Film
    • Live Action Short Film

    And 10 entries have been shortlisted for each of the following:

    • Visual Effects
    • Sound
    • Makeup and Hair-styling

    It must be noted that Kashmir Files has not found a place in any of the shortlists for the 10 categories. Moreover, the awards for Best Actor and Best Actress do not have shortlists. Hence, contrary to claims made by the makers of The Kashmir Files, there is no question of Anupam Kher or Pallavi Joshi being shortlisted for them. 

    Among Indian entries, the Gujarati film Chhello Show (The Last Show) is India’s official entry to the International Feature film category. The track ‘Naatu Naatu’ from SS Rajamouli’s RRR has been shortlisted in the Best Original Song Category and two Indian films, All That Breathes and The Elephant Whisperers, have been shortlisted in the Documentary Feature Film and Documentary Short Film categories respectively.

    Reminder List VS Shortlist

    Responding to a mail sent by Alt News, Michael Benedict, senior manager, member relations, global outreach and awards Administration, told us that the Reminder List is a list of all of the eligible films that have entered for General Entry (Best Picture and the craft categories). On the other hand, the shortlist is a list of films that advanced to the next round in specific categories. The awards are given in total 24 categories. Not all of  them have a shortlist.

    According to The Academy’s website, some of the eligibility criteria required for consideration under rules implemented for the 95th Academy Awards year are:

    • Feature films must open in a commercial motion picture theatre in at least one of six U.S. metropolitan areas: Los Angeles County; the City of New York; the Bay Area; Chicago, Illinois; Miami, Florida; and Atlanta, Georgia, between January 1, 2022, and December 31, 2022.
    • They must complete a minimum qualifying run of seven consecutive days in the same venue.
    • Feature films must have a running time of more than 40 minutes.
    • To be eligible for Best Picture consideration, films must have submitted a confidential Academy Representation and Inclusion Standards entry as part of the submission requirements.

    The entire set of rules can be found here.

    We spoke to Aseem Chhabra, festival director of the New York Indian Film Festival, who reiterated that a reminder list is not the same as a shortlist. A reminder list is a list of all the films that have qualified for the Oscars. There are 301 films that have met the eligibility criteria this time. This is the protocol that is followed every year. Many Indian films like Kashmir Files and Gangubai Kathiawadi that are released in the US qualify. It doesn’t depend on the quality of the film.

    Chhabra further clarified that every year around December 21, The Academy releases the shortlist for the 10 categories. But categories like Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, etc do not have a shortlist. The members of the Academy then vote for the nominations for all of the categories, including the ones that do not have a shortlist. The nominations for each category consist of five entries except for the Best Picture category which may include up to 10 entries.

    Films like Gangubai Kathiawadi and Kashmir Files are part of the 301 films in the reminder list, and hence they are eligible for the categories of Best Picture, Best Director, etc. Whether they will make the cut depends on whom The Academy members are voting for.

    Hence it is clear that the Reminder List is not a shortlist. Any film that meets the eligibility criteria can be a part of the Reminder List. The Academy members who watch the film decide which film gets nominated/shortlisted. Hence, the tweets by Vivek Agnihotri, Anupam Kher and others, and the media reports claiming The Kashmir Files has been ‘shortlisted’, are false.

    Moreover, the claims made by the film crew that certain actors have been shortlisted for the Best Actor award are false as well, since there is no shortlist for the Best Actor award. 

    The nominations for the 95th Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, January 24, 2023, while the Oscars ceremony will be held on Sunday, March 12, 2023, at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood.

     

    The post The Kashmir Files has not been shortlisted for Oscars 2023; claims by film crew, media false appeared first on Alt News.

  • Delhi ASI murder accused is Anish Raj, not Mohd Anish, as claimed by media

    On January 4, a 57-year-old Delhi Police assistant sub-inspector (ASI), Shambhu Dayal, was stabbed multiple times while trying to nab a man accused of snatching a phone earlier that day. He sustained serious injuries and was admitted to Delhi’s BLK Hospital.

    The ASI succumbed to his injuries on January 8. The Delhi Police tweeted, “On January 4, ASI Shambhu Dayal posted at Mayapuri police station was seriously injured after being attacked with a knife while catching a snatcher. Today he was martyred while undergoing treatment at BLK Hospital. We are proud of the courage and devotion to the duty of our brave officer. A heartfelt tribute to him.”

    Sudarshan News, a pro-BJP propaganda outlet, tweeted a clip of its broadcast on January 8, where the anchor reading the news refers to the accused as “Jihadi Mohammad Anish” multiple times.

    Prabha Upadhyay, whose Twitter bio says she is the state president of Mahila Morcha Jai Bharat Manch (Uttar Pradesh), also shared the news bulletin by Sudarshan News where the anchor says, ‘Jihadi Mohammad Anish killed ASI Shambhu Dayal’.

    Times Now Navbharat also mentioned in its report that a suspect named Mohammad Anis stabbed ASI Shambhu Dayal. (Archive)

    NDTV in its report on January 10 named the suspect as Mohammad Anish. The caption of the tweet read, ‘#Delhi : CCTV of attack on ASI Shambhunath surfaced, died during treatment’. The caption called the late officer as ‘Shambhunath’ instead of ‘Shambhu Dayal’. (Archive)

    An Aaj Tak broadcast was tweeted by Sanjay Singh of the Aam Aadmi Party. In this broadcast, the host, Sayeed Ansari, calls the suspect ‘Mohammad Anis’.

    Other public figures and journalists who have tweeted about the incident and named the suspect as ‘Mohammad Anish’ or ‘Jihadi Anish’ include the National Spokesperson of VHP (Vishwa Hindu Parishad) Vinod Bansal, Sagar Kumar of Sudarshan News, Ravi Jalhotra, senior journalist with ANI, Mahesh Kumar Srivastava, a journalist affiliated with Sudarshan News, Ashish Vyas of Sudarshan News, BJP Delhi spokesperson KhemChand Sharma. Ravi Bhadoria who is followed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, tweeted about the incident as well. He named the accused as ‘Anis’ in his tweet.

    Click to view slideshow.

    Sudarshan News also published a news report about the incident where they described the accused as a ‘Jihadi’. News Track also named the accused the same.

    Click to view slideshow.

    Fact Check

    We performed a keyword search on Google and came across a news report by The Indian Express published on January 9. As per the report, a woman had approached officer Dayal for help after her phone had been allegedly snatched by a man. Taking cognizance of her complaint, he took the complainant to the spot of the alleged crime where she identified the accused. When officer Dayal was taking the accused to the police station, the accused pulled a knife and stabbed the officer.

    In this report, the suspect is identified as Mayapuri resident Anish Raj (24).

    Alt News accessed a press release issued by the Delhi Police via WhatsApp on January 4 i.e., on the day of the incident. As per the press release, the accused is Anish, the son of Prahlad Raj.

    Additionally, Alt News spoke with the station in-charge of Mayapuri West. He confirmed that the accused was a Hindu and there was no communal angle to the incident.

    To sum it up, the incident of an officer being stabbed in Delhi’s Mayapuri was misreported by a number of media houses as they got the name of the accused wrong. Sudarshan News and its journalists communalized the crime by describing the accused as a ‘jihadi’.

    Last year, a similar stabbing case that happened in Delhi’s Naraina was given a communal twist by social media users and politicians.

    The post Delhi ASI murder accused is Anish Raj, not Mohd Anish, as claimed by media appeared first on Alt News.

    This post was originally published on Alt News.

  • BJP leaders, media outlets shared unrelated photos as Vande Bharat vandalism

    On December 30, Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually flagged off the Vande Bharat Express connecting Howrah to New Jalpaiguri in West Bengal. Three days later, there were reports of stone pelting at the Vande Bharat Express near Malda station. Following this, BJP leaders and news outlets shared a few images as scenes from the ground after the stone-pelting incident on the train. The images feature a smashed window and glass shards scattered on seats.

    In a now-deleted tweet, BJP West Bengal president Sukanta Majumdar shared a few pictures while mentioning the stone pelting on the Vande Bharat. Shortly afterward, he posted another tweet featuring a segment from channel News18.

    CNN News18 also reported on the vandalism of the Vande Bharat train in one of its programmes. This was also tweeted by BJP MLA and West Bengal assembly Opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari.

    Times Now also used the following images in its coverage of the stone-pelting at the Vande Bharat Express. (Archived link)

    In its report on the incident, The Telegraph also described the viral picture as a file photo of the Vande Bharat Express. (Archived link)

    The Asansol BJP district organization also amplified the images. (Archived link)

    Fact Check

    Alt News performed a Bengali keyword search on a Facebook tool called CrowdTangle. We found posts written in Bengali which claimed the image showed coach D3 of the Purulia Express (12827). According to these posts, the incident occurred on January 1 when someone threw a stone at the Purulia Express before it crossed Panskura in West Bengal. This broke one of the windows of a coach, injuring a male passenger. The posts all contained similar information with the name ‘Pranabesh Sen’ mentioned at the bottom of each. For example, such posts can be seen here and here.

    Using this information as a clue, we tracked down Pranabesh Sen on Facebook and found an account by this name. In addition to the photo in circulation, the user had shared other pictures related to the incident on January 1.

    We noticed that a user commented on Sen’s Facebook post stating that he knew the victim who had been injured during the incident. Along with this, the user mentioned an account named Soumitra Kole. The ‘About’ section of this user’s account states that he is the sub-divisional horticulture officer of Purulia Sadar. After this, we performed a keyword search on Google using filters. This led us to the contact details of Dr. Soumitra Kole on the website of the department of food processing and horticulture, government of West Bengal.

    We reached out to Dr. Soumitra Kole for more information. He confirmed that on January 1, he was allotted seat number 78 in the D3 coach of the Purulia Express. Around 5:30, somebody threw a stone from the outside, which broke the glass of the window, seriously injuring him. His lip was cut and one of his upper teeth was broken following the incident. His fellow passengers informed the TTE about this, who provided first aid to Dr. Kole with their help. After this, he was treated at the local railway hospital when the train reached Kharagpur station. He is currently recuperating. Dr. Kole also sent us Alt News a picture from the day of the incident which confirms that it took place on the Purulia Express and not on the Vande Bharat Express.

    Using a keyword search on YouTube, we found a vlog dated December 29. In this video, a YouTuber by the name of MOinsideHIT showed the first look of the Vande Bharat Express kept in the railway yard before its inauguration. We compared the seats in the viral picture with the seats of the executive class and chair car shown in this video. As shown in the comparison below, it is evident that these seats are not the same as the ones found in the Vande Bharat Express.

    To sum it up, the viral picture does not show the aftermath of stone-pelting at the Vande Bharat Express, but the Purulia Express. However, some media outlets also used this picture in their reports without verification.

    The post BJP leaders, media outlets shared unrelated photos as Vande Bharat vandalism appeared first on Alt News.

  • Old photo shared as traffic jam near Atal tunnel after Christmas 2022

    In the days following Christmas, various media outlets, including Times Of India and Hindustan Times, reported a massive rush of tourists in Himachal Pradesh. As per reports, 19,000 vehicles passed the Atal tunnel on the Leh-Manali Highway. Some news portals used a photograph of traffic congestion in their reports, with hundreds of cars lined up in a queue.

    Dainik Bhaskar on December 26 published a report in which this image was used with the caption: ‘On the way to Atal Tunnel… 5-km-long jam’.

    Gujarati newspaper Divya Bhaskar used the photo on Page 2 of its December 27 print edition with a caption that suggested this was a current photo.

    Tv9 Bharatvarsh also tweeted and published an article using the same image.

    The image was also tweeted by Amit Karn, who is a film journalist at Dainik Bhaskar.

    The image is viral on both Facebook and Twitter with netizens claiming that the rush of tourists has peaked after Christmas in Manali.

    Fact Check

    By conducting an reverse image search on Google, Alt News found a travel page on Facebook called Travel Menu. This image was posted on the page in July 2022. In the post, a photographer named Yash Handa was credited for the photo. By surfing through his Instagram profile, Alt news came across the original photograph that he had clicked and posted in January 2022. The tagged location in the concerned post was Manali.

    Therefore, it can be concluded that the image that has been circulating on the internet claiming to be of a massive traffic jam near the Atal Tunnel after Christmas 2022 is actually an old photo. The original image was posted in January 2022.

    Vansh Shah is an intern with Alt News.

    The post Old photo shared as traffic jam near Atal tunnel after Christmas 2022 appeared first on Alt News.

    This post was originally published on Alt News.

  • Media outlets got it wrong; Messi hugging woman after WC final is not his mom

    A video of Argentine football player Lionel Messi embracing a woman on the field has been making the rounds on social media recently. It has been claimed that the woman seen here is Messi’s mother. Several media outlets also carried the image with the same claim.

    News 24 identified the woman in the clip as the footballer’s mother.

    [webp-to-jpg output image]

    India TV also claimed that the woman hugging Messi was his mother. 

    [webp-to-jpg output image]

    Similarly, several media outlets including Hindustan Times, Republic World, Times Now, The Statesman, Indian Express, NDTV, and The Quint Hindi ran the image with the accompanying claim.

    Click to view slideshow.

    Fact Check

    Alt News performed a keyword search which led us to a report by The Sun. It identified the crying woman sharing the emotional moment with Lionel Messi as Antonia Farias, the chef for Argentina’s national football team.

    [webp-to-jpg output image]

    Roy Nemer, who reports on the Argentina national team, tweeted that Messi was hugging Antonia Farias, the head cook of the Argentina national team.

    Argentinian sports news outlet Varsky Sports also clarified in a tweet that the woman seen in the video was not Messi’s mother, but Antonia Farias, the chef for the country’s football team.

    Alt News also performed a search on Facebook to find Antonia Farias, the woman in the video. There are several pictures of her on her Facebook profile. We compared the tattoo on her arm seen in one of these pictures with a frame from the viral video. As shown in the side-by-side comparison below, it is clear that both the tattoos are identical.

    [webp-to-jpg output image]

    To sum it up, several social media users and media outlets wrongly identified the woman embracing Lionel Messi after their World Cup win as the player’s mother. In reality, the woman is Argentinian team chef Antonia Farias. 

    The post Media outlets got it wrong; Messi hugging woman after WC final is not his mom appeared first on Alt News.

  • No, 22-yr-old man didn’t ‘marry’ 52-yr-old woman; news outlets fell for scripted video

    Multiple mainstream media outlets recently carried the news that a 21/22-year-old man had married a 52-year-old woman. The ‘reports’ did not have any detail about the newlyweds but had a video that, the reports said, was viral on social media.

    The video posted by Aaj Tak on its Twitter handle garnered 45500 views, 695 likes, and 128 retweets.

    Many Indian news outlets including ABP News, Zee News, NDTV, TV9 Bharatvarsh, Times Now, News24, Zee Rajasthan, TV9 Telugu Zee News Tamil One India, Asianet News, Lokmat, LatesTly, Sach Tak (Website owned by Manish Kashyap), Lakshay Media and others have reported on the viral video.

     

    Click to view slideshow.

    Times Now Navabharat tweeted and posted on Facebook saying “Viral Video: 21 साल का दूल्हा, 52 साल की दुल्हन!” On Facebook, it has 10000 views. The video was also uploaded on the Times Now Navbharat YouTube channel. It garnered 5,000 views.

    Aaj Tak shared this video on December 14 on Facebook with a text embedded in the video that said, “Age is no bar when it comes to relationships”. It garnered 441000 views, 10000 likes, 35,00 comments, and 977 shares. The video posted by Aaj Tak on Instagram has 702000 views and 66000 likes.

    Click to view slideshow.

    Aaj Tak news anchor Shubhankar Mishra also shared it claiming a 21-year-old boy married 52-year-old woman.

    Fact Check

    On doing a key-word search on YouTube, we found the same video on many channels. One channel named ‘All in one NEWs‘ with 10.5 lakh subscribers had given credit for the video to Instagram user @techparesh. We found the same video on @techparesh’s Instagram timeline posted 2 weeks ago. It has 16.8 million views. Almost all the videos on this user’s account are related to marriage/relationships.

    We also noticed that the man in the viral video, who is said to be 22-year-old, appears in many other videos with different stories of relationships on the same @techparesh Instagram account. In another video posted by @techparesh, he acts as the boyfriend of two girls.

     

    View this post on Instagram

     

    A post shared by Paresh Sathaliya (@techparesh)

    Besides, in a video uploaded on September 14, 2022, the same man is seen with another girl of around the same age. The video is about a boy refusing to marry a girl.

    Not only that, the 52-year-old woman in the viral video, too, appears in different videos with different relationship stories. In a video on the same Instagram account, she can be seen claiming to have been married to another man who also claims to be 22 while the woman is 52.

    Conclusion

    Hence, it is clear the a scripted video posted on an Instagram channel is being falsely reported as a marriage between a 22-year-old man and a 52-year-old woman by different media organizations. Both the man and the woman are actors in a dramatized piece.

     

    Vipul Kumar is a freelance Journalist and a fact checker. 

     

    The post No, 22-yr-old man didn’t ‘marry’ 52-yr-old woman; news outlets fell for scripted video appeared first on Alt News.

    This post was originally published on Alt News.

  • No, Israeli filmmaker neither took back comments on ‘The Kashmir Files’, nor called it ‘brilliant’

    During the closing ceremony of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa on November 28, jury head Nadav Lapid, an Israeli filmmaker, described the film ‘The Kashmir Files’ as a vulgar, propaganda movie that had disturbed and shocked the entire jury.

    Lapid’s remarks received a lot of media attention. Israeli Ambassador to India Naor Gilon wrote an open letter to Lapid saying that he should be ashamed of his comments. Fellow jury member Sudiptio Sen, the director of the soon-to-be-released film ‘The Kerala Story‘, issued a statement saying that Lapid’s comments were ‘completely his personal opinion’.  In a series of tweets, pro-BJP media personality Shefali Vaidya used abusive words against Lapid due to his remarks.

    The maker of the film, Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri, himself issued a statement the next day saying that if any ‘intellectual’ managed to prove that a scene or a dialogue in the film was not true, he would stop making films.

    As expected, various media houses rushed to interview Lapid following the controversy. He spoke to media houses including India Today, CNN-News18 and The Wire. In the context of these interviews, reports started floating on social media that Lapid has apologized for his remarks about the film. One report claimed that Nadav Lapid has walked back from his comments and called ‘The Kashmir Files’ a ‘brilliant movie’.

    Anupam Kher, who acted in the film, tweeted a graphic featuring the alleged quote of Lapid. Kher wrote, “Ultimately Truth always triumphs!” The graphic is based on a news report by Hindustan Times that claimed that during an interview, Lapid had called the film a ‘brilliant movie’.

    Others who have reported this include editorji, HT Entertainment, itimes, and RVCJ Media.

    Click to view slideshow.

    The maker of the film, Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri quote-tweeted a tabloid report and wrote, “Most honest man of the world.” The caption of the report said Lapid had apologized for his remarks.

    Additionally, NDTV shared a tweet along similar lines. It read, “Totally Apologise’: Israeli Filmmaker On ‘The Kashmir Files’ Comments”… ANI Digitial wrote, “Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid apologises for remarks on ‘The Kashmir Files’, deets inside.”

    Click to view slideshow.

    Fact-check

    When we read the reports of NDTV and ZoomTv, it became quite clear that Nadav did not apologize for his remarks on the film. He said if his comments were insulting for the relatives of the sufferers, he apologized for that. His exact words were: “I didn’t want to insult anyone, and my aim was never to insult people or their relatives, who have suffered. I totally totally totally apologize if that’s the way they were interpreted.”

    An article published by News18 based on the CNN-News18 interview also read the same.

    An interview given by Lapid to The Wire published on December 1 touched upon these news reports. At 10:30 minutes, interviewer Karan Thapar brings up the CNN-News18 interview. To which Nadav responded, “as I said if they [relatives and victims] were manipulated to think that I disrespect the memory of their dear ones, of themselves, or the terrible things that happened I’m truly sorry. Afterwards, I’m not taking back one word that I said about the movie.

    “I read somewhere that I claimed that the movie is brilliant. I mean I should be totally crazy and schizophrenic in order to say that. I mean I believe completely and I stand completely behind my statement,” he added.

    Alt News also watched the India Today interview of Nadav Lapid, based on which Hindustan Times published a report claiming that Nadav called ‘The Kashmir Files’ a ‘brilliant movie’. At no point in this interview did Lapid change his stance. He never called the film a ‘brilliant movie’ during this interview.

    He says,”…I totally respect and accept the fact that there are many people who love this movie, who think that it is a brilliant movie. As well as I respect the fact that there are people who think terrible things about my movies. But I, this year was invited to Goa as the president of the jury because of my achievements as a filmmaker. In order to express my opinion, my view and the view of the jury about the movies. So, exactly as much as the people who love the movie. Of course, with full right, it goes without saying to claim that it’s a brilliant, unbelievable movie, I have the right to claim the opposite…” [watch from 6:00-minute mark].

    India Today grills IFFI jury chief Nadav Lapid

    #EXCLUSIVE | India Today grills IFFI jury chief #NadavLapid | Rahul Kanwal | #ITLivestream

    Posted by India Today on Wednesday, 30 November 2022

    To sum it up, misleading news reports and misleading captions gave the impression that filmmaker Nadav Lapid had changed his stance regarding his criticism of the film ‘The Kashmir Files’.

    The post No, Israeli filmmaker neither took back comments on ‘The Kashmir Files’, nor called it ‘brilliant’ appeared first on Alt News.

  • Aaj Tak, India TV, Jagran fell for Elon Musk’s joke; Twitter didn’t hire back two fired employees

    Right after Elon Musk took over the reins of microblogging site Twitter, the organization carried out large-scale lay-offs. While many social media users made memes poking fun at the development, others sharply criticized the move. 

    On November 15, Musk shared a picture of himself with two people, writing, “Welcoming back Ligma and Johnson!” In the tweet thread that followed, he added that it was important to admit when he was wrong, and that firing them was his biggest mistake.

    Based on this tweet, India Today Group’s Hindi channel Aaj Tak shared the post on its social media channels, claiming that Elon Musk admitted that firing the employees was his biggest mistake. Aaj Tak also amplified this on Twitter and Facebook. However, the channel later deleted the tweet.

    Jagran also published an article based on Elon Musk’s tweet. The daily claimed that he reinstated two employees after firing them earlier, and accepted his mistake. (Archived link)

    Similarly, outlets like India TV, TV9 Bharatvarsh, and One India also promoted the same claim in their articles.

    Click to view slideshow.

    Fact-check

    Alt News noticed that Elon Musk had mentioned the names ‘Ligma’ and ‘Johnson’ in his tweet. When we performed a keyword search using related terms, we came across several news reports in which the two men posing with Musk in the picture have been identified as prankster duo Rahul Ligma and Daniel Johnson. It is worth noting that ‘Ligma‘ is not a surname, but an internet slang.

    According to a New York Times report, Twitter fired four top executives soon after Elon Musk took over the social media platform on October 27. This included Twitter CEO Parag Aggarwal, CFO Ned Segal, and Head of Legal Policy Vijaya Gadde among others.

    Taking a jab at the Twitter lay-offs, both these pranksters stood in front of the company’s headquarters with boxes on October 28. The stunt found coverage on a number of reputed media outlets like CNBC and Bloomberg, which mistook them for actual Twitter employees who had been fired. However, the outlets later rectified the error in their reports. American technology news site The Verge also clarified that the two were not, in fact, employed by Twitter.

    CNBC journalist Dierdre Bosa, too, interviewed both the pranksters assuming they were real Twitter employees, and claimed that Twitter’s data engineers had been fired. She later issued a clarification and apology.

    To sum it up, Hindi news outlets including Aaj Tak, India TV, TV9 Bharatvarsh and One India mistakenly promoted a stunt by two men claiming to be Twitter employees who had been fired as real. The two were actually pranksters, and Elon Musk posted the tweet in question as a joke. 

    The post Aaj Tak, India TV, Jagran fell for Elon Musk’s joke; Twitter didn’t hire back two fired employees appeared first on Alt News.

    This post was originally published on Alt News.

  • Leading media outlets use old photos of Imran Khan claiming them to be of Nov 3 attack

    Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was allegedly shot at during a rally in Wazirabad in Pakistan’s Punjab on Novermber 3. Khan was leading his party members to the capital, Islamabad, to demand snap elections after he was ousted in April when he was attacked. According to preliminary reports, the ex-cricketer-turned-politician received injuries on his leg, while many of his supporters were injured.

    Soon after the reports came in, several photos started circulating on social media as visuals of the attack and its immediate aftermath. News24 shared two photos on Twitter with the caption, “Photos of Imran Khan have surfaced after he was shot. 9 people were injured in the attack, and 1 dead.” (Archive.)

    Click to view slideshow.

    The same visuals were shared by multiple Indian news outlets, including NDTV, Times Now Navbharat, ET Now Swadesh, Zee Salaam, News1India, Zee Delhi-NCR Haryana, and Inextlive.

    Click to view slideshow.

    Various Indian journalists shared the same visuals on Twitter. Among them are multimedia journalist Abhishek Tiwari, manager of India TV Jay Ram Patel, independent journalist Ashish Bhatt, Dainik Bhaskar correspondent Tarun Sharma, and News9 journalist Jacob Mathew.

    Click to view slideshow.

    International publications such as The New York Times, The Economist and The Guardian also used the same visual as the aftermath of the assassination attempt. The New York Times mentioned (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, via Associated Press’ as photo credit while The Guardians credited Associated Press for the photo and said it was released by Khan’s party Tehreek-e-Insaf.

    Click to view slideshow.

    Fact-check

    Photo 1

    When Alt News performed a Google reverse image search on the first photo of Imran Khan laying on the ground with his arms up, we came across a tweet from 2014 by Imran Khan with the caption, ‘Night at the dharna [protest].’

    This photo was clicked in August of 2014 when Khan had challenged the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to resign after allegations of ‘electoral match-fixing’ were made against the latter. Khan and Tahirul Qadri of Pakistan Awami Tehreek had started separate rallies from Lahore and reached Islamabad after 35 hours of march. The now-viral photo was clicked during this journey where Imran Khan had camped for the night.

    Photo 2

    For the second photo in which we can see a bleeding Imran Khan being carried by his aides, we again performed a Google reverse image search and found various news reports. Among them was a Time of India fact-check from 2018 that carried the same image. This photo was in circulation in 2018 when claims were made on social media that the Pakistani leader was shot or beaten to death. Alt News had also done a fact-check on the same when it was in circulation in 2018.

    The article mentions that the photo is from 2013 when Khan injured his head after falling off a forklift that was taking him onto a stage at an election rally in Lahore.

    A video of the incident can also be found on Al Jazeera English’s YouTube channel.

    To sum it up, almost decade-old photos were circulated by journalists and media organisations in the aftermath of the assassination attempt on former Pakistan PM Imran Khan on November 3.

    The post Leading media outlets use old photos of Imran Khan claiming them to be of Nov 3 attack appeared first on Alt News.

    This post was originally published on Alt News.

  • Jagran publishes article claiming lighting diyas increases oxygen, then deletes it

    In a now-deleted article titled “दीप प्रज्ज्वलन के वैज्ञानिक और आध्यात्मिक पक्ष, जानें ये है फायदे” (Translation: Scientific and Spiritual Aspects of Lamp Lighting, Know These Benefits), Hindi news media organisation Jagran recently claimed that lighting diyas (earthen lamps) increased atmospheric oxygen. The report also listed several other benefits of lighting diyas. One can find an archive of the article here.

    Dainik Jagran also tweeted the article with the caption, “दीप प्रज्वलन से बढ़ती है घर में ऑक्सीजन की मात्रा, जानिए और क्या है फायदे” (Translation: Lighting diyas increases the amount of oxygen in the house, know the other benefits). The tweet has now been deleted.

    According to the article, “Lighting diyas at the door of the house increases the level of oxygen in the house“. It explains that since warm air is lighter it goes up and cold air comes down. The oxygen present in the air rushes towards the flame of the lamp. Due to this, the amount of oxygen around the lamp increases. It is further stated that diyas should be lit at the door of the house on Diwali since lighting too many diyas in a closed space will increase the use of oxygen.

    A parallel was drawn between the five elements of the earth and the burning of diyas. “Diyas are made of clay, which symbolizes the earth. The oil and wick burning in it are also found in the ground itself. There is space around the earth in the way space has been imagined around the lamp. There is also fire in the lamp, it needs air to burn and water molecules are also formed in the process of burning oil.”

    The author of the article also claims that diyas have several scientific benefits: Heat from the lamp destroys bacteria, viruses, etc. present in the air. Besides, no harmful elements or chemicals are released; fossil fuels are not used in lighting the lamp; the magnesium in the oil reacts with the sulfur and carbon oxides in the air to form sulfates and carbonates which results in heavier elements falling to the ground, making the air lighter and easier to breathe.

    Click to view slideshow.

    Does lighting Diyas increase oxygen?

    To check the veracity of the claims made in the article, it is pertinent to understand the type of reaction that produces fire, or a combustion reaction. A combustion reaction is a high-temperature exothermic (heat-releasing) redox (oxygen-adding) chemical reaction between a fuel and an oxidant, usually, atmospheric oxygen, that produces oxidized, often gaseous products, in a mixture termed as smoke.

    Many combustion reactions occur with a hydrocarbon (like Ghee and oil used in the diyas), a compound consisting of carbon and hydrogen. The products of the combustion of hydrocarbons are carbon dioxide and water. Oxygen is thus not produced in the reaction, but is used. During combustion, the level of oxygen reduces and the level of carbon dioxide increases.

    It must be noted that the article mentions, “फैटी एसिड का एक मॉलीक्यूल जलने से कार्बन के 56 और पानी के 52 मॉलीक्यूल निकलते हैं। एक फैटी एसिड मॉलीक्यूल को जलाने के लिए हवा में मौजूद ऑक्सीजन के 79 मॉलीक्यूल खर्च होते हैं।” (Translation: Burning one molecule of a fatty acid produces 56 molecules of carbon and 52 molecules of water. It takes 79 molecules of oxygen in the air to burn one fatty acid molecule). Yet, the writer has reiterated that the lighting of diyas increases oxygen several times.

    Alt News spoke to Professor Abhijit Majumder, associate professor of chemical engineering at IIT Bombay, who refuted the claims made in the article. He stated, “Burning is a process that uses oxygen. The article itself says, “एक फैटी एसिड मॉलिक्यूल को जलाने के लिए हवा में मौजूद ऑक्सीजन के 79 मॉलिक्यूल खर्च होते हैं।”. Hence, burning anything cannot increase the oxygen in the surroundings”.

    We also spoke to Nilesh Ranjan Maiti, who is a teacher of biochemistry and principal of Sishuram Das College in West Bengal. He said, “The claim that oxygen increases due to the lighting of diyas is false. It is common knowledge that the oxygen content in the environment is 21%. Whether it’s a diya or a candle, oxygen is required for combustion. The gases produced are mainly carbon dioxide along with other gases (depending on what is being burnt). It must be remembered that carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide are greenhouse gases. An increase in greenhouse gases is harmful to our health and is responsible for global warming”.

    Does heat from the diya destroy the bacteria and viruses present in the air?

    The article stated that the heat from the lamp destroys the bacteria and viruses present in the air. This was listed as one of the many scientific benefits of lighting diyas.

    Addressing this claim, Professor Majumder said, “In terms of killing the viruses and bacteria, one can easily calculate that the increase in temp happens only for a small area surrounding the flame. Hence, a few diyas at the door cannot kill the bacteria or virus at any significant level.”

    Profesor Maiti reiterated the same argument. He states, “Bacteria will be destroyed only in the immediate surrounding of the flame, which is a very insignificant number. There are a lot of harmful bacteria outside the area of the diya”.

    To conclude, most of the ‘scientific’ claims made in the article are misleading. The spread of misinformation related to science has been on a steep rise, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. Misinformation of all kinds are common on social media platforms and the daily discourse of the common man. When popular media outlets publish misinformation, they give them an air of credibility, and people fall for them even more easily.

    The post Jagran publishes article claiming lighting diyas increases oxygen, then deletes it appeared first on Alt News.

    This post was originally published on Alt News.

  • ‘Police ki Dandiya’: How Aman Chopra of News18 glorified public flogging of Muslims by Gujarat police

    Trigger Warning: Violent visuals. Viewer discretion is advised.

    In the afternoon of October 4, the residents of Undhela in Gujarat’s Kheda district witnessed a public flogging of 10 Muslim men who were allegedly among the 43 who reportedly disrupted a Garba event at the same village the previous night. Each of the men was held against a pillar and caned by policemen in plain clothes (one of them seems to be carrying a firearm). They were then taken away in a police van stationed nearby.

    According to a resident of the village, who spoke to ThePrint, a message was sent out to every house in the area prior to the flogging, asking locals to gather at the spot. The incident was filmed and the videos were shared widely on social media. The spectators can be heard clapping and cheering. Slogans of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ were raised. The men who were being flogged can be heard pleading for mercy. (Archive)

    The treatment meted out to the men by police, which can be termed extrajudicial punishment, was widely condemned.

    After the videos caused massive outrage, an inquiry was ordered. The police officials involved in the said incident were identified three days later, on October 7. The person who is seen flogging the men has been identified as police inspector A V Parmar. Another person, seen removing the phones and wallets from the pockets of the men being beaten up, has been identified as sub-inspector D B Kumavat. The police are yet to name the other policeman seen in the viral videos. According to a report in The Hindu, the police are also going to take action against the ones who filmed the incident.

    Amid widespread condemnation of the incident, some people (noticeably aligned with the Right-wing) celebrated the public flogging and even called the accused ‘j!hadis’. ‘Jihadi’ is a word Hindu fundamentalists often use to target Muslims. A @MrSinha_ tweeted the video with the caption, “This is how Gujarat Police treated j!hadis who attacked Garba playing Hindu devotees in Kheda last night”. (Archive)

    Senior editor of Network 18 Aman Chopra went to the extent of dubbing the public flogging by the police as ‘Dandiya’ during his prime-time TV news show Desh Nahi Jhukne Denge on News18 on October 4. Not only did he not condemn the public flogging, he exalted it saying “Garbe mein pathharbaazi kar rahe the, police ne Dandiya khel diya unke saath.”

    Dandiya is a socio-religious folk dance that is celebratory in nature. So when Chopra described the public flogging of the accused as ‘Dandiya’, he was clearly lauding the police for their move.

    Below, Alt News has analysed his skewed reportage of the incident in detail.

    Analysing Aman Chopra’s reportage

    Following is the transcript of the first one and a half minutes of Aman Chopra’s monologue on the October 4 episode of Desh Nahi Jhukne Denge on News18.

    “Chaliye aapko Gujarat police ka sabse pehle Dandiya dikhate hain. Sabse pehle Gujarat police ka Dandiya aapko dikhate hain- full screen par tasveerein dikha dijiye. Ye dekhiye aap. Tasveerein dekhiye phir mein tasveer ki kahaani sunaunga. Audio de dijiye, bhai ambiance de dijiye– Gujarat police ka Dandiya. Ye Gujarat ke Kheda mein- police ka Dandiya. Police ne kaise Dandiya khela ye dekhiye aap. Yeh kaun log hain, poori kahaani sunaunga, pehle in tasveeron ko dekhiye aap araam se. Waise toh likh diya gaya tasveeron mein- khambe se baandh kar patthharbaazon ki pitai. Ye dekhiye ab- ek… do…teen, giniye aap.
    Garbe mein patthharbaazi kar rahe the, police Dandiya khel diya inke saath. Yeh bhi bata doon, logon ke beech mein. Aaropiyon ko gaaon laya gaya, tasveerein dekhiye aap, sirf tasveer dekhiye dhyaan se. Logon ke beech mein, gaaon mein laya gaya in sab ko. Yeh tasveerein hai Gujarat police ki aur jinhe khambe se baandh kar peeta jaa raha hai na, yeh dekhiye aap, jinhe dande mare jaa rahe hai, jo ab maafi mang rahe hai- inhone Kheda pehle mein mazhabi dadagiri ke zariye Garba karyakram bandh karane ki koshish ki aur phir uske baad Garba karyakram mein Garba khel rahe lagon par patthharbaazi ki inhone. Aur uske baad police gaaon lekar aai saare aaropiyon ko, aur phir khambe se baandh kar phir Dandiya khela police ne.”

    Throughout his 6-minute monologue, News18 senior editor Aman Chopra repeatedly used the word ‘Dandiya’ to describe the public flogging of the men. The violence in the video was not only shown without a trigger warning but also needlessly highlighted multiple times. Seemingly pleased with what was being shown on screen, he asked his crew members to ‘amp up the audio and ambiance’ for his viewers. At 0:31 of the monologue, Chopra can be heard counting the beatings and playfully asking his viewers to join him. Chopra also tweeted his monologue with the caption, ‘New form of ‘Dandiya’ by Gujrat Police’. (Archive)

    Videos that are inherently violent in nature are often blurred out and/or aired with a trigger warning/disclaimer. This practice is standard on all public platforms, but it is arguably most essential when it comes to national TV. It must be noted that in this case, neither was a disclaimer added nor was the video blurred out. In fact, at 0:22 of the monologue, Chopra can be heard saying “Yeh kaun log hai yeh poori kahaani sunaunga, pehle in tasveeron ko dekhiye aap araamse“. 

    While talking about another incident of alleged stone-pelting at a Garba event that happened in Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh, Chopra says, “….Garba karyakram par pathharbazi karne walo ko ghar se juda kar diya gaya- sar tan se juda nahi, ghar se juda..“. The motive behind such a statement is left for interpretation, but the reader must know that there are no reports of “Sar Tan Se Juda” slogans being raised in the Mandsaur incident. It is safe to say this particular statement made by Chopra was provocative and uncalled for.

    Chopra then delivers a tirade against Muslims who allegedly conceal their identities to participate in Hindu festivals. He states, “Everybody is free to enter Garba events, then why do they need to conceal their identities?”. The reality, however, is quite the contrary.

    It was widely reported in the mainstream media that identity cards were made mandatory for people participating in Garba events after Madhya Pradesh culture and tourism minister Usha Thakur suggested this move in order to prevent cases of ‘Love Jihad’ (1,2,3). The debate surrounding the entry of Muslims into Garba took yet another aggressive turn when OpIndia editor-in-chief Nupur Sharma tried to gate-keep Garba from Muslims by asking them to “stay away”.

    At 4:20, Aman Chopra goes on to describe the public flogging as ‘ilaaj’ (treatment). The usage of this terminology implies tacit support of a blatant violation of human rights. He then asks his production team again to raise the volume of the video so that a proper ‘ambiance’ is created. From the 5:17-minute mark, Chopra addresses the unlawful nature of the flogging for exactly 7 seconds in a monologue that lasts 5 minutes 58 seconds. He, however, does not sound too sure, as he says that the answer to whether the public caning is justified is up for debate.

    The monologue is followed by an hour-long debate with political analyst Shivam Tyagi who describes himself as working for the Bharatiya Janata Party, Muslim cleric Sajid Rashidi, political analyst Rizvan Ahmed, VHP spokesperson Vinod Bansal, lawyer Subuhi Khan, Islamic scholar Atiq ur Rehman, and Juna Akhada mahamandaleshwar Umakant Saraswati. Chopra repeatedly asks the Muslim panelists questions like “Why do Muslim youth take such a keen interest in Garba?” and “Why do Muslims need to change their names to enter Hindu festivals?”. At 15:10, Subuhi Khan, who identifies herself as a ‘Sanatani Muslim’, says that Muslim youth are interested in Garba because Hindu women dress up for the celebrations. At this moment, Chopra, in agreement with Khan, adds that “Kanwar Yatra mein nahi jaate inlog“.

    At one point in the show, he asks one of his panelists ‘not to generalize’ the Muslims because of a few stray incidents.

    From the 38:00 mark of the YouTube video, Chopra is seen pressuring panelist Atiq ur Rehman to say “Jay Maa Durga” because the latter claimed that he tries to remain as liberal as possible. Again at 45:02, Aman Chopra challenges Sajid Rashidi to say Jay Shree Ram while Subuhi Khan and Vinod Bansal can be heard reiterating Chopra’s demand.

    During the segment, the channel’s ticker ran suggestive texts like “Garba par pattharbaazi, Aparaadh ya Jihaad?”

    This segment was sponsored by Rakesh Spices, Goldiee Masale, Patanjali, Unacademy, Moneycontrol among other corporate brands. The show was co-powered by V-GUARD, Ceat and Dulux, Niva and co-presented by MDH and Patanjali.

    Click to view slideshow.

    Alt News reached out to queer rights activist Indrajeet Ghorpade who filed a complaint with the News Broadcasters & Digital Association (NBDSA) regarding the hateful language used in the October 4 episode of Desh Nahin Jhukne Denge. In a reply to their complaint, Kshipra Jatana, compliance officer of NBDSA, said that the unlawful nature of the police’s actions was not condoned by the host Aman Chopra. According to Jatana, “the anchor had stated that police should not have taken law unto itself and indulge in the beating of some allegedly accused miscreants’ persons who were involved in the stone pelting incident at the event” at the beginning of the show.

    Alt News in this report has already pointed out the economy of words used by Chopra in holding the police accountable for their actions as he dedicated 7 seconds in a 6-minute monologue for addressing the unlawful nature of the police violence.

    Jatana further states, “During the debate, the anchor also sought panellists views on how could the police take the law unto its hands and resort to such actions of beating the accused.” (sic).

    Alt News has found this statement to be quite far from the truth.

    Around the 47:00-minute mark in the debate, Chopra vaguely questions panelist Shivam Tyagi about the “ilaaj” meted out by the police in Kheda. In reply, Tyagi says that anyone who does what the men in Kheda had allegedly done would be treated in a similar manner. Tyagi then mentions an alleged stabbing by suspected Muslim youths in Rajasthan over an alleged case of sexual harassment, Chopra asked, “So, decision to be taken on the spot? Sticks on the road?”. Chopra then goes on to describe the public flogging as Dandiya yet again while “condemning the police’s move”.

    Apart from this one reference to the ‘ilaaj‘, not once did the blatant illegality of the police action come up for discussion during the debate.

    Aman Chopra’s dubious distinction

    This is not the first time Aman Chopra made suggestive remarks against Muslims. The October 6 episode of Desh Nahi Jhukne Denge was based on what Chopra called the “targeted lynching” of sadhus who were suspected of kidnapping children. During the debate, one of the panelists indirectly blamed Muslims for attacking sadhus and stated that “Sant Jihad” was a conspiracy to repress Sanatan Dharam. They are also heard saying, “How are we sure that the mob that attacked the Sadhu wasn’t the Love Jihad mob?”. Aman Chopra made no effort to stop his panelist from spewing this communal hate on his show.

    When another panelist claimed that nobody in the mob was seen wearing a skull-cap in the video that was being aired, Chopra denied ever mentioning a communal angle in this case. He even reprimands his panelist for doing so.

    Alt News has debunked several scripted videos of child kidnapping. These videos usually have millions of views and cause panic among people. The most pertinent bit that Chopra’s coverage failed to address was how innocent people including sadhus, fakirs, trans persons, as well as mentally disadvantaged persons are often made the victims of mob vigilantism.

    The language used by Aman Chopra in his prime-time show celebrating the police violence against minorities is not a unique case. Time and again, violent acts against minorities, especially Muslim minorities have been glorified by multiple news outlets. The language and terminology used by them justify and normalize violence. In fact, they encourage the idea of mob justice instead of due process of law.

    While reporting on the unconstitutional eviction drive in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri in April 2022, Chopra proudly declared “India with bulldozer”. “Desh maange bulldozer Raj” and “patthhar jihadi” were some of the other phrases used by him in his monologue.

    On November 16, 2021, Chopra had done a show on the allegation that Indian Muslims were spitting into food they were making. It used kickers like ‘Khane mein thookna, jihad ya jahalat?’, or, ‘Riwaaz-e-thook, ye kaisi bhookh?’, and the hashtag #ThookJihad.

    The Supreme Court recently expressed its displeasure over hate speeches via debates on TV channels. The court called the ‘visual media’ the ‘chief medium of hate speech’ and questioned the government why it was ‘standing by as a mute witness when all this is happening’ and treating it as ‘a trivial matter’. 

    The post ‘Police ki Dandiya’: How Aman Chopra of News18 glorified public flogging of Muslims by Gujarat police appeared first on Alt News.

  • Media outlets air old image of a crocodile from Costa Rica as Babiya from Kerala

    The famed vegetarian crocodile named Babiya, living at the Ananthapura Lake Temple, recently passed away in Kerala’s Kasaragod district. Several news organizations reported the news carrying a picture of a man resting his head against a crocodile. It is being claimed that this is a photograph of the recently deceased crocodile Babiya, guardian of the Ananthapura Lake Temple.

    A number of media outlets including Republic, Good News Today, Economic Times, Pune Mirror, NDTV, Dainik Bhaskar, Zee Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand, News18, ABP News, Navbharat Times, Zee Malayalam, ABN Telugu, Samayam Telugu, Newsroom Post, and Sambad English shared the same image in their coverage of the incident. 

    Click to view slideshow.

    Fact-check

    Alt News performed a reverse image search and found the source photo in a Times of India article from 2017. In this report also, the crocodile seen in the viral picture has been identified as Babiya from the Ananthapura Lake Temple. However, in the article’s comments section, a user mentioned that the photo of the man with the crocodile is not from Kerala, but from Costa Rica. Along with this, the user also added that the name of the man and the crocodile seen in the picture is Chito and Pocho.

    Using this information, we performed a keyword search on YouTube. This led us to a related video uploaded on YouTube on May 16, 2019. In this video, footage resembling the viral image appears at the 20:56 mark. In fact, this is the screengrab being circulated as a photo of Babiya the crocodile living at the Ananthapura Lake Temple in Kerala. Evidently, the viral picture is not from Kerala but from Costa Rica, a country located in the Caribbean region of Central America.

    For more information, we performed keyword searches related to Chito and Pocho. Alt News found that Chito’s full name is Gilberto Shedden alias Chito. American media outlet National Public Radio (NPR)’s website contains a transcript of Gilberto Shedden’s (Chito’s) interview in which he discusses Pocho the crocodile. According to a report by Costa Rican media outlet ‘The Tico Times’, Pocho died back in October 2011.

    Two documentaries based on Chito and Pocho’s friendship were released in 2013 and 2014, titled ‘Touching the Dragon‘ and ‘Dragon Feast‘ respectively.

    As Poncho died in 2011, Alt News can confirm that the viral image cannot possibly be of the crocodile living at a temple in Kerala. In fact, this photograph is at least 11 years old. 

    The post Media outlets air old image of a crocodile from Costa Rica as Babiya from Kerala appeared first on Alt News.

    This post was originally published on Alt News.

  • Fact-Check: Did UP electricity dept issue notice only to mosqes & madrasas for stealing power?

    A few days ago, media outlets reported that 400 mosques and madrasas in Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur were operating on stolen electricity. According to these reports, the electricity department issued notices to those running the mosques and madrasas asking them to install electricity connections within a week. If they failed to comply, action would be taken after an inspection campaign.

    On September 25, Live Hindustan reported that more than 400 mosques and madrasas were running on stolen electricity. The report included a statement by executive engineer Bhishma Singh Tomar who stated, “About 400 mosques and madrasas in the city do not have electricity connections. A list of these establishments have been sought from the police. There is an appeal to all of them to install an electricity connection within a week. If they fail to do so, their electricity connection would be cut and charges would be filed under electricity theft. (Archived link)

    Another report by Live Hindustan dated September 26 mentioned the use of stolen electricity by more than 400 mosques and madrasas. (Archived link)

    Navbharat Times also published a report with a similar claim on September 26. (Archived link)

    RSS mouthpiece ‘Panchjanya’ also claimed that mosques and madrassas in Rampur were issued notices over electricity theft. (Archived link)

    Fact-check

    Alt News performed a keyword search to get to the bottom of this claim. This led us to an article by The Times of India dated September 25. According to this article, 59 temples and 115 mosques in Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur were asked to get electricity connections. This article has been written by journalist Arvind Chauhan.

    We saw that Chauhan had called the claim made by Live Hindustan ‘misleading’ in a September 26 tweet. He also shared the list of 59 temples and 115 mosques in this tweet.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    Alt News reached out to Vishal Malik, the zonal secretary of Rampur PVVNL (Paschim Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited) to gather more information on the matter. He stated that the department had urged all religious places running without power connections to submit applications for electricity connections within a week. This includes both temples and mosques. It is worth noting that the department did not single out mosques in its directive to install power connections. Malik also informed Alt News that executive engineer Bhishma Singh Tomar had shared an advisory on this in a WhatsApp group consisting of local journalists. Along with this, he also shared the list containing details of the 59 temples and 115 mosques, along with their location and operators. Vikas forwarded both these messages to us.

    It is worth noting that the text used in the advisory is misleading since it mentions masjids, madrasas, maulvis and the caretakers of the masjid. However, there is no mention of temples or priests anywhere.

    The readers can download this pdf file by clicking here. Below is a list of the temples and mosques in the gallery that was sent to the WhatsApp group of journalists.

    Click to view slideshow.

    Where did the ‘400’ figure come from?

    As per a Live Hindustan report, executive engineer Bhishma Singh Tomar had called for a report from the police. On this basis, he claimed that 400 mosques were using electricity without power connections. Alt News got in touch with Tomar to gather information on this. He said that the advisory had been issued to both temples and mosques, and not to any one religious community. He added that it was for all religious places which used electricity without a power connection.

    When we asked Bhishma Singh Tomar about the list based on which he made the misleading claim about 400 mosques and madrasas using electricity without connection, he replied that he had only one police station list which he had sent to the WhatsApp group of journalists. It includes 59 temples and 115 mosques. He said that by taking a total of four police stations, he estimated that more than 400 mosques and madrasas were using stolen electricity. When we asked him whether any notice had been issued to the operators of the temple and mosques, he said that no one was issued any notice. Rather, it was an advisory that had been circulated.

    Overall, executive engineer Bhishma Singh Tomar issued a misleading advisory and made a misleading statement in the media. On the basis of incomplete information, media outlets claimed that only mosques and madrasas in Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur were running on electricity without power connections leading the electricity department to issue a related advisory. In reality, the advisory was issued to all religious places, including temples, to install power connections.

    The post Fact-Check: Did UP electricity dept issue notice only to mosqes & madrasas for stealing power? appeared first on Alt News.

    This post was originally published on Alt News.

  • Analysis of Saam TV clip of PFI protest reaffirms no pro-Pak slogans raised

    On September 23, a day after Popular Front of India (PFI) offices across the country were raided by multiple law-enforcement agencies, a protest by PFI activists in Pune created a huge row as many political leaders and media houses claimed that ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans were raised at the protest.

    Alt News debunked the claim on September 25 and proved that the slogans raised by PFI supporters/activists heard in the viral videos did not include ‘Pakistan Zindabad’.

    In this context, over the past few days Marathi news channel Saam TV has repeatedly aired a 20-second clip (0:28 of video) from the PFI protest in Pune in their coverage insisting that ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ can be heard. They also criticized Alt News’ fact check from September 25, claiming that ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ could be clearly heard in the clip.

    The footage aired by Saam TV consists of a close-up shot of a man wearing a pink shirt inside a police van. He can be heard sloganeering from the van itself. The camera then pans away from the pink-shirted man and points to the crowd of protesters. At the end of the 20-second clip, the police van can be seen moving away.

    Executive editor of Saam TV News Prasanna Joshi seems unconvinced by the previous Alt News fact-check in a 22-minute video uploaded by Saam TV. He goes on to make his viewers listen to the same footage and insists that ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ can be heard.

    A clip from Saam TV’s coverage subsequently went viral. Twitter users, including Aaj Tak news anchor Shubhankar Mishra, shared it claiming that ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ could be heard in the video.

    Advocate Ashutosh J Dubey, who identifies himself on Twitter as ‘legal co-convener Of Palghar BJP assembly’, also tweeted the clip with the caption, “In a clear video with clear audio, we can hear that they are shouting “Pakistan Zindabaad” via Saam TV news”.

    Fact Check

    While denouncing the Alt News fact check of the claims on the sloganeering, Saam TV presented as ‘evidence’ another footage that was filmed during the PFI protest in Pune. The only difference that we noticed between Saam TV’s footage and the footage that we had procured (and used in the previous fact-check) is that Saam TV’s footage has been shot from a much closer angle and was of higher resolution. Saam TV shared an infographic wherein they questioned the agenda behind refuting the ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ claim. They also implied that Alt News had done the fact-check without ‘checking the full video’.

    The reader must keep in mind that Alt News had described, in detail, how the previous fact-check had been carried out. We also watched every single footage of the incident that we could procure and went through a strenuous process of locating the exact time frame portraying the viral chain of events (alleged sloganeering) in the videos that had been shot from different angles.

    The first thing one does while fact-checking such videos is to reduce the playback speed of the audio/video and carefully listen to the slowed-down version. In the screen-recording below, we play the video at normal speed until 1:04 of the YouTube video. Thereafter, we used YouTube’s in-built tools to slow down Saam TV’s video from the 1:06 mark. Owing to the closer angle at which this footage was shot, one can clearly hear the words ‘Popular Front Zindabad’ being said. This is the most basic verification that the Saam TV team should have done before claiming to have heard Pro-Pakistan slogans.

    It is pertinent to note that during a protest, accurate pronunciation of certain words may not be heard due to several factors, such as fatigue after shouting the same phrase repeatedly, overlapping of voices and other external sounds. When one listens to the Policenama live video (7:30) of the PFI protest in Pune, one might notice that ‘Popular’ has been mispronounced as ‘Poplar’ in many instances, including the one in context.

    In their broadcast, Saam TV has annotated their video with the text of the slogans with ‘Zindabad Zindabad’ and ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ written in Hindi. The moment the man in the police van starts the alleged sloganeering, the annotation moves to his mouth, which makes it difficult for us to analyse the video. Consequently, Alt News reached out to Saam TV for the raw footage, which they were kind enough to share with us.

    The footage contains one of the key reference points that we have used in the previous fact-check to compare and crosscheck the audio of the viral video with the other videos, that is, the moment of the police van moving away. All of the videos of the protest that we analyzed in the previous fact-check contained this moment, from which we backtracked to the moments of the alleged sloganeering. The police van moves away within approximately 15 seconds from the alleged sloganeering. (The Saam TV footage shows the van moving away at the 20th second, so we have kept a 20-second clip for the readers to see)

    We located the point where the police van moves away in Saam TV’s footage. We subsequently found the point where the alleged sloganeering takes place. Below we have juxtaposed the viral video (left) with the clip from Saam TV footage (right). As the reader might notice, the clip that Saam TV used in their coverage and the one that we have used in our analysis are the same, implying that this was the time frame when the alleged slogans were raised. Additionally, it must be noted that the viral video and the clip used by Saam TV (and us) are from the same time frame.

    Phonetic analysis of the slogan

    We have cropped the relevant section of the raw footage provided by Saam TV and slowed it down. The moment in the video where Saam TV has used the annotations ‘Pakistan Zindabad’, the primary voice that can be heard is of the man in the pink shirt. The video below shows the 2x slowed-down version of the sloganeering by the person.

    Further, upon slowing down the raw footage 4x times, the man in the pink shirt is seen closing his lips thrice in quick succession.

    Elementary knowledge of phonetics (the study of human sounds) will suggest that the man in the pink shirt inside the prison van could not have said ‘Pakistan Zindabad’. For the lay reader, Alt News here breaks down his lip movements in terms of phonetics.

    The word PAKISTAN consists of five consonants: P, K, S, T and N.

    Phonetically, P is a voiceless bilabial plosive. The word ‘bilabial’ is of particular interest to us, which means, in order to utter the consonant, one needs to close one’s lips to stop the flow of air out of the mouths.

    None of the other consonants in the word ‘Pakistan’ requires a closing of lips.

    • K is a velar plosive, which means it is pronounced by raising the rear of our tongue at the soft palate.
    • S is an alveolar sibilant which means the sound is made by placing the tip of the tongue lightly against the ridge behind the upper teeth.
    • T is an alveolar plosive. The T sound is made by placing the tip of the tongue against the tooth ridge and the sides of the tongue against the upper side teeth.
    • N is a velar nasal. The sound is made with our nose.

    The mouth remains open while we utter all these consonants.

    The phrase ‘POPULAR FRONT’ has two bilabial plosives: P and P and one labiodental fricative: F. A labiodental fricative is pronounced by touching the lower lip with upper teeth.

    One requires to close one’s mouth thrice to utter the phrase POPULAR FRONT, and that is exactly what the man in the pink shirt does. It is impossible to utter the word ‘Pakistan’ by closing the lips thrice in quick succession.

    The reader must remember that it is the vowels in any alphabet that form the crux of a syllable, which in turn, enables us to make meaningful sounds. In that moment of an extreme adrenaline rush, the man in the pink shirt doesn’t clearly utter the vowels — O, U, A and O in the phrase POPULAR FRONT. That is why it might sound like some other word. But a phonetic analysis, as done above, proves beyond a speck of doubt that what is being said has three bilabials, and that can’t be Pakistan.

    Thus, after a detailed analysis of all the relevant footage that Alt News had procured in what is now a two-part story, it can be ascertained that ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans had not been chanted during the PFI protest in Pune.

    Saam TV criticized Alt News for an ‘inadequate’ fact-check and claimed that we had not checked the full video of the incident. Several verified profiles on Twitter also shared a clip from Saam TV’s coverage and furthered this claim. Saam TV provided their own footage as evidence, yet failed to carry out basic verification processes before finding fault with our work in public. A detailed Alt News analysis with proper corroboration shows the reader that ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans had not been chanted during the protest.

     

     

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  • PFI protest: Media and BJP leaders falsely claim ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans were raised

    On September 22, 2022, in a raid jointly conducted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Enforcement Directorate (ED) and police in multiple states, over 100 leaders of the Popular Front of India (PFI) were arrested. PFI is a political organization founded in 2007 that claims to work for marginalized sections of the population. The raid was followed by nationwide protests from supporters of PFI on September 23. However, the protest in Pune by PFI became an epicentre of controversy after several media organizations and numerous verified Twitter handles claimed that protesters had raised the slogan ‘Pakistan Zindabad’.

    A video showing PFI workers in Pune being shoved into a police van while demonstrators shout slogans has gone viral. Several users who shared the viral video claimed that the protesters could be heard shouting “Pakistan Zindabad” in the video. 40 PFI workers were reportedly detained in Pune.

    Media Reports

    On September 24, 2022, ANI tweeted that ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans were heard outside the district collector’s office in Pune City the previous day, where PFI cadres had gathered to protest the ED-CBI-Police raids against their organisation. Some of the protesters were detained the following morning. ANI further added that the audio, though unclear, was ‘corroborated’ by reporters in the field.

     

    The first person to post the above video on social media was ANI’s Indrajeet Chaubey.

    Along with ANI, Times Now was one of the first media organizations to put forth the claim.

    Shivangi Thakur of Zee News posted a video captured from another angle, with the same claim.

    Fact-check

    In order to verify the claims vis-a-vis the viral video, we looked at multiple other videos of the said incident to identify if the moment when the alleged slogans were raised had been captured in other videos. Among the many videos of the said incident that Alt News could procure from various journalists who were on the ground, we found two videos which were filmed from other angles and contained a key moment which was also present in the viral video. One version of the viral video can be seen below.

    At the 00:17-mark in the video seen above, the police van can be seen moving away. The alleged sloganeering starts after the 00:03-mark in the viral video. We found the reference point of the van moving away in two other videos shared by Journalist Varsha Torgalkar and the Facebook page Policenama. We have used this key moment as a reference to compare and crosscheck the audio of the viral video with the other videos.

    Policenama live coverage

    Policenama published a Facebook live video of the event which shows what transpired on the ground. The protesters can be seen being shoved into the police van from 4:18 in the live video. The door of the van finally closes at the 7:10 mark of the live video. The van starts moving at the 7:56-mark.

     

    #Live: NIA च्या कारवाईनंतर, PFI कार्यकर्ते आक्रमक…

    Posted by Policenama on Friday, 23 September 2022

    The relevant portion in the live video at 7:43 shows the sloganeering that has been shared in the viral clips. At this point in time, the slogan that was being raised was “Popular Front Zindabad” which can be clearly heard. The reader should note that the chain of events specified in this paragraph also took place within a span of 14-15 seconds, as seen in the viral video (mentioned above). The relevant clip from the Facebook live video can be seen below.

    Below, we have compared the viral video (top) with the relevant clip from the Policenama live video (bottom) to demonstrate that the pertinent moments in the live coverage (sloganeering and the van moving away) are the same as seen in the viral video, all happening in a span of 14-15 seconds.

    We observed the entire 12-minute live video uploaded by Policenama. Not once could “Pakistan Zindabad” slogans be heard.

    Other videos of the incident

    Journalist Varsha Torgalkar also shared some videos from the incident.

    The second video in Torgalkar’s Twitter thread captures the moment when the police van moves away. This is at the 00:28-mark in the video. The sloganeering prior to the van moving away can be heard starting at 00:14. In this video as well, the slogan that is being raised can be heard as “Popular Front Zindabad’, following which the van can be seen moving away. This is consistent with the relevant section in the Policenama video.

    Newslaundry report

    Newslaundry has published a report saying that police, contrary to the reports in Times Now, ANI, and Republic among others, refuted claims of pro-Pakistan being raised during the protest.

    A regional channel, Divya Marathi, has cited police sources to repudiate claims of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans. Translated to English, the report says, Pune police commissioner Amitabh Gupta has denied claims of Pakistan Zindabad sloganeering. Likewise, Pune DCP Sagar Patil also said no such slogans were raised at the PFI rally. However, he said a case had been registered against the PFI for unlawful assembly.

    Thus, an analysis of other videos of the same event which captured the time frame when the alleged slogans were raised shows that the slogans that were raised were ‘Popular Front Zindabad’, and not ‘Pakistan Zindabad’.

    Others who shared the false claim

    This false claim was shared by several other media channels and BJP leaders. NDTV, The Hindu, TOI, Jagran English, Zee Hindustan, ABP News, TV9 Marathi, India TV Hindi, OneIndia News, Zee 24 taas, LoksattaLive, Neetu Jha from ABP,  Sandeep Kumar of Times Now, Shalini Kapoor Tiwari and Vivek Gupta of News18 India, Vinay Kumar Singh who writes for Jagran, Ashok Srivastav of DD News, and many other media organisations and individuals shared the video claiming that protesters raised ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans.

    Shubhankar Mishra, News Anchor at Aaj Tak, tweeted that ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ was chanted at the rally in the presence of about 60-70 people.

    OpIndia, a propaganda outlet that supports the BJP, also published an article highlighting the claim.

    BJP members

    Several influential people associated with the BJP expressed anger while sharing the same video.

    BJP party worker Kapil Mishra accused the PFI of conspiring to attack the Prime Minister, of training jihadis and blamed the Opposition for its silence.

    BJP MLA from Maharashtra Nitesh Rane, seeking a ban of PFI in his tweet threatened the protesters shouting pro-Pakistan slogans of dire consequences.

    Siddharth Shirole, MLA  and BJP spokesperson from Pune City, indicated such sloganeering was tantamount to treason.

    Filmmaker Ashoke Pandit called PFI a ‘terror organisation’ and alleged that the organisation was being backed by Pakistan.

    Ashish Sood of BJP, BJP party worker Priti Gandhi, BJP vice president of Delhi Rajiv Babbar, BJP Mahila Morcha’s national media in-charge Neetu Dabas, national vice-president of BJYM Ram Satpute, MNS leader Raj Thackeray, Former DGP of Jammu and Kashmir Shesh Paul Vaid, Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde likewise condemned the alleged slogans and called for strict measures against such ‘anti-national’ acts.

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    This post was originally published on Alt News.

  • News channels show old, unrelated video as clip of cheetah brought to India from Namibia

    On September 17, cheetahs brought from Namibia were released at the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. Since then, social media users and media outlets have been circulating a video of a cheetah describing it as one of the animals from Namibia that Prime Minister Narendra Modi released at the Kuno National Park.

    The Times Now news channel aired the visual in one of its programmes, claiming that this was the first footage of the cheetahs as they returned to India 70 years later. (Archived link)

    Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav shared the video of the cheetah and wrote, “Everyone was waiting for its roar, but it turned out to be more like a cat.” (Archived link)

    Dainik Bhaskar also ran the video as footage of cheetahs brought from Namibia. (Archived link)

    Similarly, Congress leader and MLA Virendra Choudhary, News18 journalist Priyanka Kandpal, The Economic Times, The Lallantop, The Quint, The Quint Hindi, News18, Latestly, Live Hindustan, etc. also amplified this clip as the introduction of cheetahs to India.

    Click to view slideshow.

    Fact-check

    Alt News performed a keyword search on YouTube. This led us to the original video uploaded on a channel named Adventure with Creature on February 14, 2022. This means that the video is not recent at all.

    We also performed a reverse image search using a frame taken from this video, and found the original video uploaded on November 29, 2021 on a YouTube channel named The Wildcat Sanctuary.

    Alt News cannot confirm how old this video is and where it is from. At the same time, it is clear that the clip is at least nine-month old and has nothing to do with the group of cheetahs that were recently brought to India from Namibia.

    To sum it up, a number of politicians and media outlets shared an old video of a cheetah, claiming that it was the first visual of the cheetahs recently brought to India from Namibia.

     

    The post News channels show old, unrelated video as clip of cheetah brought to India from Namibia appeared first on Alt News.

    This post was originally published on Alt News.

  • Are ‘TMC cadres’ seen pelting stones at cops in video shared by BJP leaders after Nabanna march?

    Violence erupted during Nabanna Abhijan, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s protest march to West Bengal state secretariat ‘Nabanna‘ on September 13 as police in various parts of Kolkata and the adjoining Howrah district tried to stop the march. The protest rally was launched at a time when a number of Trinamool Congress leaders, state ministers and government officials are facing probes by central agencies over allegations of corruption. In July end, Rs 50 crore in cash and jewellery was recovered from the apartment of a ‘close aide’ of former education and industries minister Partha Chatterjee accused in the School Service Commission scam.

    Parts of Kolkata and Howrah resembled a battlefield in the late afternoon of September 13 as the protesters clashed with police. The cops used water cannons and tear gas and resorted to lathi-charge as BJP leaders and members tried to break barricades put up by police. TV coverage of the march showed a police jeep engulfed in fire at Chittpore crossing in central Kolkata. A few metres from the spot, an assistant commissioner of Kolkata police, Debjit Chatterjee, was allegedly assaulted by BJP members carrying party flags, with rods and sticks.

    In the backdrop of this, a video of a group of people (one of them wearing a skullcap) pelting objects into the distance went viral on Twitter with the claim that Trinamool Congress party workers were pelting stones at police during the rally.

    Amit Malviya, in-charge of BJP’s national information & technology department, tweeted a 23-second clip from news channel Aaj Tak’s coverage of the rally, where the skull-capped man was circled out in red, and captioned it: “Mamata Banerjee sent TMC cadres to pelt stones at the police so that later BJP could be blamed for it…”. In the video, the reporter says, “Look at how the demonstrators are pelting stones. The police vehicle that you see on screen was torched by the demonstrators”. There is an apparent insinuation that the people seen on the screen are the ones who set the car on fire. (Archive)

    Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga, national secretary of Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha, also tweeted this video with the same claim. (Archive)

    Debasree Chaudhuri, BJP leader and former union minister of state for women and child development, made the same claim while tweeting the clip. (Archive)

    Deepti Rawat Bhardwaj, national general secretary of BJP Mahila Morcha, did the same. (Archive)

    None of the above persons explained what made them identify the circled man as a Trinamool cadre.

    During India Today’s primetime show on September 13, host Rajdeep Sardesai asked Shehzad Poonawalla, BJP’s national spokesperson, who was responsible for the vandalism of public property. Referring to the skull-capped man in the viral clip, Poonawalla says “…if you look at it frame by frame, it doesn’t look like a BJP karyakarta at all. Look at who is pelting the stone”, insinuating that the people seen in the video were TMC workers. He further suggested that the Trinamool Congress sent its workers to vandalise and torch the police vehicle as well. (The conversation can be heard from the 0.35-minute mark onward in the following video.)

    News 18 India reported Amit Malviya’s allegations. At 8:40 in the video below, Amit Malviya’s allegations of TMC party workers inciting violence during the rally were aired.

    Amit Malviya’s allegations were also highlighted by Times Now while airing the viral clip.

    Aaj Tak repeatedly aired the clip where the skull-capped man can be seen throwing something into the distance and dubbed it a “TMC vs BJP” war (4:48 in the video below), insinuating that the people seen in the video are TMC workers.

    Fact Check

    Alt News closely observed Republic Bangla’s live coverage of the Nabanna Abhijan rally.

    In the beginning of a 17-minute clip uploaded by them on YouTube, a few men can be seen vandalising the police vehicle (PCR 10) using bricks, helmets and sticks while a man waves a BJP flag in front of it. For the convenience of the reader, Alt News has taken the liberty to add the relevant clips from live coverage of the incident wherever it was needed.

    At the 6:47-minute mark, the ground reporter standing right next to the police jeep can be heard saying, “The police vehicle has been set on fire by frenzied BJP workers and supporters”. Some other BJP workers tried to douse the fire at the same time, but in vain, he added.

    Then at 12:21 in the video, the ground reporters state that the crowd has gone berserk again. A few seconds later, the male reporter says that the local businessmen have started to retaliate against the BJP workers and they are throwing stones back at the BJP workers. At this point, the skull-capped man can be seen behind him at the 12:53-minute mark in the video. According to the Republic Bangla reporter, the local shop owners were trying to chase the BJP workers away in order to save their business establishments.

    Below we have compared stills from the viral video and Republic Bangla’s live coverage.

    At 13.35 in the video, the skull-capped man can be seen hurriedly shoving some gunny bags inside a shop right next to the burning police car (image below). At 13.58 the reporter says that paranoid shopkeepers are trying to save their stuff and putting them inside a shop. The man can still be seen on the screen.

    To find out what actually transpired on the day, Alt News went on the ground where the viral footage had been shot and spoke to locals. The police vehicle was set afire in front of a row of shops, barely 50 metres from the Mahatma Gandhi Road-Rabindra Sarani junction also known as Chittpore crossing. The Royal Indian Hotel, famous for its biriyani, is a few steps down the way. The man shown in the viral image is apparently throwing a stone towards the crossing through which the march was supposed to move westward.

    Munna Bhai, who has been running a footwear store at the spot for 30 years, spoke to Alt News. Pic: Faiyaz Hawawala
    Sk. Shahjahan, who runs a garment store, was among those who attended to the injured police officer. Pic: Faiyaz Hawawala

    Alt News spoke to five shop owners, all of whom denied the presence of any TMC cadre on the day of the march. When the clip of the man in a skullcap throwing an object was shown to them, they first identified him as ‘a local guy’. On pressing further, they said he was a ‘local shop assistant’, but they refused to give further details about the man.

    The Republic Bangla coverage and the clip of him moving some gunny bags away from the spot of the fire into a shop lends credibility to this claim.

    Two of the local businessmen, Munna Bhai and Sheikh Shahjahan (pictures above), agreed to speak to Alt News on record. Shahjahan was among the local shop owners who rescued the injured ACP from the marauding protesters and took him inside Munna bhai’s footwear shop.

    “There were no TMC men in the area on that day. Our shutters were down, but we were in the vicinity. The BJP march was supposed to pass through the M G Road. But the protesters chased policemen and entered Rabindra Sarani. They targeted the cops who were easily outnumbered. When the jeep was set ablaze, we feared for our shops and gathered the courage to retaliate. It was us who pushed back the protesters,” Munna Bhai told Alt News.

    Looking at the viral footage of stone pelting, he identified the man as a local shop-keeper.

    This Times of India report corroborates Munna Bhai’s point that the protesters’ foray into the Rabindra Sarani was sudden and unplanned.

    Shahjahan said, “The jeep was torched at 2.56 pm. The police officer was attacked around 3.12. We panicked thinking that the fire may spread to our shops. Then we assembled here and shouted at the BJP protesters. That is when they stepped back.”

    When shown the footage separately, he said, “He is a local man. The stone he picked up was thrown by the protesters. A number of shop owners did the same (that is, picked up stones and hurled them back at the protesters) to save their business establishments,” he added, before narrating to these correspondents how they barely saved the police officer from getting killed.

    This report in The Indian Express corroborates Shahjahan’s point that BJP supporters threw stones at the cops.

    The live reportage of Republic Bangla and Alt News’s conversation with locals and eye witnesses contradict the claim made by several BJP leaders including Amit Malviya that Trinamool Congress cadres were seen pelting stones at cops. On the contrary, the people throwing stones were actually trying to chase away protesters who had set the PCR van on fire.

    This is not the first time Amit Malviya has put out false information through social media. Alt News has in the past debunked several of his misleading/false claims. Readers can find related reports here, here and here.

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