Lighthouse Journalism came across a post being widely circulated on social media platforms. The post was a screenshot of an e-paper being shared as a newspaper clip from Jansatta. The newspaper clip suggests that the story was carried by Jansatta, a leading Hindi news daily. The headline mentioned that the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDI Alliance) is stronger in West Delhi. However, during the investigation we found that Jansatta did carry any such news, the viral claim is false.
Claim:
Facebook user Parmender Shokeen shared the viral post on his profile.
Check the archive version of the post here.
Other users too are sharing the same post.
Investigation:
We started our investigation by observing the newspaper clip. Over the masthead it was mentioned that the news was from 20th May 2024.
We then checked the epaper of the same date to check if this news appeared in the newspaper.
We could not find this news in the edition of 20th May.
We also did not find this news report being carried by any digital edition of Hindi newspapers, including Jansatta.
We found a tweet on the official X handle of Jansatta that mentioned that the newspaper has not carried this news report.
We found the same post on the official Facebook page of Jansatta too.
We also found a post by the executive editor of Jansatta, saying that the newspaper clip is fake.
Editor of Jansattta online, Vijay Kumar Jha informed that the news stories from Jansatta print edition are also shared on the website of Jansatta. However this news report has not been published in any edition. Some one has used the masthead of Jansatta and shared the fake news.
Conclusion: Jansatta did not carry a news report saying INDI Alliance is strong in West Delhi. Viral claim is false.
