Comment by Riaz Haq on December 5, 2022 at 4:19pm

Hindu Nationalists often quote known fake sites set up by their Hindutva friends. These sites have now been fully exposed.

Both Op India and thedisinfolab.org are part of the Hindutva disinformation campaigns to spew hatred against Muslims.

OpIndia is a propaganda outlet controlled by BJP.

OpIndia: Hate speech, vanishing advertisers, and an undisclosed BJP connection
Ashok Kumar Gupta, the director of OpIndia’s holding company, has had affiliations with the Sangh Parivar.

https://www.newslaundry.com/2020/06/23/opindia-hate-speech-vanishin...

“In India, politics and journalism attract some of the worst brains, thanks to the system that has evolved over time,” read the About Us section of OpIndia, a popular Hindu supremacist website, in December 2014, nearly a year after it was launched. “OpIndia.com is an attempt to break free of this system.”


https://thedisinfolab.org is a clone of EU Disinfo Lab set up by Hindu Nationalists to fool the world.

The real EU Disinfo Lab website is https://www.disinfo.eu/

Here's a link to the REAL Disinfo Lab: https://www.disinfo.eu/publications/indian-chronicles-deep-dive-int...

Indian Chronicles: deep dive into a 15-year operation targeting the EU and UN to serve Indian interests

Following a preliminary investigation published in 2019, the EU DisinfoLab uncovered a massive operation targeting international institutions and serving Indian interests. “Indian Chronicles” – the name we gave to this operation – resurrected dead media, dead think-tanks and NGOs. It even resurrected dead people. This network is active in Brussels and Geneva in producing and amplifying content to undermine – primarily – Pakistan.

Comment by Riaz Haq on April 30, 2023 at 10:42am

Mohammed Zubair
@zoo_bear
Media outlets including ANI shared the photo of a padlocked grave with the claim that parents in Pakistan were locking daughters' graves to avoid rape. The photo is from Hyderabad, India and the grave is reportedly of an aged woman.

https://twitter.com/zoo_bear/status/1652688083593330688?s=20

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The image of a padlocked grave has gone viral. In media reports and social media posts, it is being linked to rising necrophilia cases in Pakistan, with the claim that the image is an example of how mothers lock their daughters’ graves in Pakistan in order to prevent rape.

ANI Digital tweeted the image with the above claim. In their article titled ‘Pakistani parents lock daughters’ graves to avoid rape’, they cited a Daily Times article to report that parents in Pakistan guarded their dead daughters against rape by putting padlocks on their graves. The viral picture has been used in the ANI article with the caption, ‘Pakistani parents locking up graves of daughters to protect their dead bodies from getting raped’ and they have credited Twitter for the image. (Archive)


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Media misreport: Viral photo of grave with iron grille is from Hyderabad, not Pakistan

https://www.altnews.in/media-misreport-viral-photo-of-grave-with-ir...

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 6, 2023 at 1:39pm

#India (ranked 161 among 180 countries) drops below #Pakistan (ranked 150) in #PressFreedomIndex Rankings for 2023. In the rankings for 2022, it was India that was ranked 150, while Pakistan came in at 157. #Fakenews #Modi #BJP #Hindutva #Fascism https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/india-slips-in-world-press-f...

https://twitter.com/haqsmusings/status/1654946945734168576?s=20


India slips in World Press Freedom Index, ranks 161 out of 180 countries
In comparison, Pakistan climbed up seven ranks to reach 150 this year.
May 03, 2023 10:34 am | Updated May 04, 2023 10:47 am IST - New Delhi

THE HINDU BUREAU

India’s ranking in the 2023 World Press Freedom Index has slipped to 161 out of 180 countries, according to the latest report released by global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF). In comparison, Pakistan has fared better when it comes to media freedom as it was placed at 150, an improvement from last year’s 157th rank. In 2022, India was ranked at 150.

Sri Lanka also made significant improvement on the index, ranking 135th this year as against 146th in 2022

Norway, Ireland and Denmark occupied the top three positions in press freedom, while Vietnam, China and North Korea constituted the bottom three.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) comes out with a global ranking of press freedom every year. RSF is an international NGO whose self-proclaimed aim is to defend and promote media freedom. Headquartered in Paris, it has consultative status with the United Nations. The objective of the World Press Freedom Index, which it releases every year, “is to compare the level of press freedom enjoyed by journalists and media in 180 countries and territories” in the previous calendar year.

Also read: Exponential rise in attacks on press freedom: PCI-IWPC

RSF defines press freedom as “the ability of journalists as individuals and collectives to select, produce, and disseminate news in the public interest independent of political, economic, legal, and social interference and in the absence of threats to their physical and mental safety.”

Concerns arise
The Indian Women's Press Corps, the Press Club of India, and the Press Association released a joint statement voicing their concern over the country's dip in the index.

"The indices of press freedom have worsened in several countries, including India, according to the latest RSF report," the joint statement said.

"For developing democracies in the Global South where deep pockets of inequities exist, the media's role cannot be understated. Likewise the constraints on press freedom due to hostile working conditions like contractorisation have to also be challenged. Insecure working conditions can never contribute to a free press," it added.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor too, commented on the embarrassing development.

"Time for all of us to hang our heads in shame: India slips in World Press Freedom Index, ranks 161 out of 180 countries," he wrote on Twitter.

Comment by Riaz Haq on June 4, 2025 at 5:47pm

How misinformation overtook Indian newsrooms amid conflict with Pakistan - The Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/06/04/india-news-channels...

Journalists from some of India’s largest news networks spoke to The Post about why falsehoods filled the airwaves during a crucial and dangerous moment.

NEW DELHI — Shortly after midnight on May 9, an Indian journalist received a WhatsApp message from Prasar Bharati, the state-owned public broadcaster. Pakistan’s army chief had been arrested, the message read, and a coup was underway.

Within minutes, the journalist posted the information on X and others followed suit. Soon enough, it was splashed across major Indian news networks and went viral on social media.

The “breaking news” was entirely false. There had been no coup in Pakistan. Gen. Asim Munir, far from being behind bars, would soon be elevated to the rank of field marshal.

It was the most glaring — but far from the only — example of how misinformation swept through Indian newsrooms last month during several of the most violent nights between the nuclear-armed neighbors in decades.

The Washington Post spoke to more than two dozen journalists from some of India’s most influential news networks, as well as to current and former Indian officials, about how the country’s information ecosystem became inundated with falsehoods — and how it warped the public’s understanding of a crucial moment. The journalists spoke on the condition that their names and employers remain anonymous, fearing professional reprisals. Most of the officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.

As the fighting escalated night after night, few Indian officials were put forward to explain what was happening, said Nirupama Rao, India’s former foreign secretary. The vacuum was filled on television newscasts by “hypernationalism” and “abnormal triumphalism,” Rao said, creating what she called a “parallel reality.”

Times Now Navbharat reported that Indian forces had entered Pakistan; TV9 Bharatvarsh told viewers that Pakistan’s prime minister had surrendered; Bharat Samachar said he was hiding in a bunker. All of them, along with some of the country’s largest channels — including Zee News, ABP News and NDTV — repeatedly proclaimed that major Pakistani cities had been destroyed.

To support the false claims, networks aired unrelated visuals from conflicts in Gaza and Sudan, from a plane crash in Philadelphia — and even scenes from video games.

Zee News, NDTV, ABP News, Bharat Samachar, TV9 Bharatvarsh, Times Now and Prasar Bharati did not respond to requests for comment.

“It’s the most dangerous version of what a section of TV news channels have been doing for a decade, completely unchecked,” said Manisha Pande, media critic and managing editor of Newslaundry, an independent news outlet. “At this point, they’re like Frankenstein’s monsters — completely out of control.”

India has one of the most expansive and linguistically diverse media landscapes in the world. Nine hundred television channels attract millions of viewers each evening across Indian towns and cities; newspapers still have a wide reach in rural areas.

Over many decades, the country’s independent press has played a critical role in exposing government corruption and holding power to account. In the past decade, however, particularly in television news, that independence has been eroded.

Some of India’s largest channels now routinely echo government talking points, analysts say — out of ideological alignment with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, or as a result of pressure from the state, which has prosecuted journalists under terrorism, sedition and defamation laws, as well as by using regulatory threats and tax probes to silence critical voices.

Pande also attributes the shift to opportunism. “For most of these anchors, aligning with power is a calculated career move,” she said.

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