Clarion India
NEW DELHI – Asia News International (ANI), a prominent news agency, is being called out on social media after it tweeted a fake news on Tuesday that police in Noida, Uttar Pradesh were quarantining people allegedly came in contact with Tablighi Jamaat members.
The Noida police was quick to dismiss the information as baseless with clarification that the quarantining of the people in Noida has nothing to do with Tablighi Jamaat. They accused the ANI of spreading rumours.
The twitter account of District Commissioner of Police, Noida posted the clarification that said: “@ANINewsUP people who had come in contact with the positive case were quarantined as per laid procedure. There was no mention of Tablighi Jamaat. You are misquoting and spreading fake news. @noidapolice @Uppolice.”
News agency ANI claimed that residents of Sector 5, Harola in Noida were quarantined after coming in contact with Tablighi Jamaat members. DCP Noida refuted the report, terming the Jamaat link “fake news”. #AltNewsFactCheck | @samjawed65 https://t.co/d38BF9hjLF
— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) April 8, 2020
A subsidiary twitter account of the agency that tracks news in Uttar Pradesh had made claims with the support of visuals that they attributed to Sankalp Sharma, the DCP of Gautam Budha Nagar area of Noida. It had said: “Those in Sector 5 Harola, Noida, who came in contact with Tablighi Jamaat members have been quarantined: Sankalp Sharma, Gautam Budh Nagar (DCP) #COVID19”
Always in Narendra’s Interest (ANI) gets it wrong yet again. They have an excellent track record of being repeatedly inaccurate. An amazing propaganda machine in the garb of a news wire. pic.twitter.com/jWttcLvbNs
— Pratik Sinha (@free_thinker) April 8, 2020
Samita Prakash, editor and chief of the agency, retweeting the post urged the people of Noida to maintain safe distance from Tablighi Jamaat members.
Why has FIR for spreading fake communal propaganda not been registered against ANI & Smita Prakash @DCP_Noida? pic.twitter.com/uRY7wNi9Hu
— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) April 8, 2020
Reacting sharply to the development, Twitter users lashed out at the agency for indulging in such unprofessional practice. They pointed out bias and the Islamophobia in the way the agency covers news.
ANI’s obsession with the Tablighis is now being called out by even the UP police…. https://t.co/Z7m6lCYrEy
— Rohini Singh (@rohini_sgh) April 8, 2020
The public outrage prompted the agency to delete the tweet, but the criticism continued to pour in with netizens posting the screenshot of the tweet along with their comments.
All the stories about “Spitting” by Tablighi members has been brought out by ANI, which has been picked up by other media outlet, followed by Videos on SM which has been proved fake. Now situation is such that even UP Police has to call out @ANI for fake news about Tablighi pic.twitter.com/UXjj5MkV4s
— Joy (@Joydas) April 8, 2020
ANI is not alone in burnishing the hate campaign that was unleashed on a community ever since the news of Tablighi Jamaat’s Nizamuddin Markaz being a Coronavirus cluster came to the fore.
@Reuters Your Indian affiliate spreading fake news to communalise a pandemic.
cc: @sjhasker @stephenjadler @ReutersPR@USCIRF @hrw @HouseForeignhttps://t.co/7iOu29dwtQ
— Sidrah (@SidrahDP) April 7, 2020
Many news outlets have published reams of reports accusing the Jamaat of spreading the virus in the country deliberately. Some TV channels even accused Tablighi Jamaat of being anti-nationals.
In several instances, police have dispelled the news reports as fake while urging the public to not give communal colour to the situation. Yet there have been many episodes of public violence against Muslims at many places because of the hate being beamed out by news outlets.
A member of the Jamaat has sent legal notice to several outlets over defamation the fake reports have brought to the Jamaat.