A screenshot of a news report purportedly published by NDTV is being shared widely on social media. The report claims that former Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa had funded a reporter of the newspaper The Hindu to create fake news about LTTE resurgence.
BOOM found that the viral screenshot is photoshopped, and NDTV has not published such report on its website.
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Despite Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa announcing his resignation on May 9, Sri Lanka continues to witness violence due to nationwide protests. According to reports, the protests recently turned violent leaving more than 300 people injured. The viral post is being shared in this backdrop.
A Facebook user posted the picture with a caption reading 'What else can we expect from him'. The headline of the alleged NDTV report reads, 'Ex-PM Mahinda Rajapaksa, funds The Hindu reporter to create fake news about LTTE resurgence'.
Click here to view the post.
Another Facebook user captioned the image 'This despot cannot live without political power'.
Click here to view the post.
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Fact Check
BOOM performed a keyword search with the words mentioned in the headline of the said NDTV report but found no such article on the internet.
We also came across a tweet from the verified Twitter handle of NDTV Group's president Suparna Singh carrying the same image. Singh's tweet reads 'FAKE news'.
Click here to view the post.
This apart, BOOM found several anomalies in the alleged news report.
Take for instance the dateline on the viral screenshot which mentions the report's update time as 10.38 pm IST on May 15. Suparna Singh had tweeted the screenshot at 3.19 pm on May 15.
The headline in the viral screenshot also has a grammatical error where the comma is misplaced.
The font style of the viral screenshot is also different from that of NDTV's original reports. Also, NDTV follows a different headline style where the first letter of every word is capitalised.
Below is a comparison of the viral screenshot with an NDTV article.
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