South Asia

Indian news agency continues pushing fake news against China, Pakistan

Published: 06:24, 26 February 2023

Indian news agency - Asian News International (ANI) - continues to push fake narratives using non-existent sources and 'fake experts' to target rivals, particularly China and Pakistan, revealed a report by EU DisinfoLab.

The revelation by EU DisinfoLab was made in an investigative report titled 'Bad Sources' which delved into anti-Pakistan and China influence operations as part of its follow-up on two previous exposes of ANI.
'Two past EU DisinfoLab investigations have revealed that ANI regularly quoted the defunct 'EP Today' and 'EU Chronicles', two fake media outlets supposedly specialising in EU affairs that were, in fact, created to push anti-Pakistan/China narratives in India,' the report by the Brussels-based NGO stated.
The latest investigation revealed that the Indian wire service, a purveyor of news to millions of Indians, has been repeatedly quoting a think tank that was dissolved in 2014 and therefore no longer exists.
Moreover, the news agency has been using quotes from a journalist, as well as from several bloggers and supposed geopolitical experts, who do not exist.
EU DisinfoLab reported that the Canadian IFFRAS think tank, previously linked to the Srivastava group and legally dissolved in 2014, was now quoted about twice a week by ANI.
It furthered that the think tank's website 'falsely mentions real Canadian university professors as participants in a conference that they never attended, even concocting false quotes by these academics'.