ANI, India's main news agency accused of disinformation by NGO
Website of the Indian news agency Asian News International, ANI (screen capture).
© Aninews.in
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
New controversy over freedom of the press in India.
The country's main news agency, Asian News International (ANI), is accused of disinformation by a report by the NGO EU DisinfoLab.
In particular, she would have summoned false experts in her articles critical of China or Pakistan.
The agency denied by press release this Saturday, February 25, 2023.
Advertisement
Read more
With our correspondent in Bangalore,
Côme Bastin
It is a private and officially independent news agency, frequently taken over by many Indian media.
However, she is reputed to be close to the government of Narendra Modi, whose news she covers in detail, and has since Friday faced direct accusations of manipulation of the info.
EU DisinfoLab relies on a long investigative work called “Bad Sources”.
The NGO claims that the ANI agency summons imaginary, dead or unreachable specialists or “think tanks” to support information directed towards India's great rivals, China and Pakistan.
#BadSources - our latest investigation into how Indian news agency ANI repeatedly quoted non-existent bloggers, experts, journalists and think tanks spreading anti-Pakistan/China narratives in India.
🧵1/Nhttps://t.co/24o5ekFwUE#BadSources #StoryKillers
— EU DisinfoLab (@DisinfoEU) February 23, 2023
On more than a hundred occasions, ANI would have relied on reports and conferences from IFFRAS, a Canadian research center that has been dissolved since 2014. Or the CPFA, a French organization that does exist, but whose cited experts cannot be found.
Which, says EU DisinfoLab, violates the journalistic principles of the Munich Charter.
This Saturday, ANI called the NGO's accusations defamatory.
"
We will continue to cover the atrocities taking place in China and Pakistan
," the agency said in a long statement.
►Also read: Narendra Modi, India and democracy: the debate rages on social networks
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
India
Media
Narendra Damodardas Modi