Fake news story and clarification
A few days ago most of the media channels and newspapers reported an incident of a young woman getting raped by 20 men in an Artistic Millers office. The report was a headline and a video was also shown. The story became trending on social media and many people made many comments.
The next day the media on the third page of the newspaper reported that after checking it was found out that the woman was a 40 years old drug addict who had overdosed and died. She came from a family of drug addicts and was living with her husband near where she died. It was also reported that her body was not found in the Artistic Millers office and no one was raped or murdered there. The initial report was a fake story.
It was shameful that a fake story that did not make any sense was even published by media outlets without verification especially if it is about rape and murder of women, which is always a very serious matter for Pakistanis. It was even more shameful that none of the media outlets that made this mistake of reporting a fake story, also reported the corrected version the next day with the same enthusiasm. Their fake story had put at risk the reputation of a company where hundreds are employed.
Therefore the Government, Interior Ministry, Information Ministry and the judiciary should immediately take action and order all media channels and newspaper that reported this fake news to clarify their mistake every day for a week. The media houses should also offer free promotion of Artistic Millers Brand on their channels for three months to ensure the company reputation does not suffer much.
Strict actions need to be taken against such fake reports that create a bad reputation for Pakistan. As this fake report became trending on social media, but the clarification was not even made on the first page of local newspapers.
Source: The Nation (Editorial)
” 
” 
” 
” 
” 
