ISLAMABAD
\nThe EU DisinfoLab, an NGO that focused tackling sophisticated disinformation campaigns, found that leading Indian media outlet Asian News International (ANI) was involved in using non-existent sources to spread propaganda against Pakistan and China.
\nThe organisation revealed it in its latest investigation into anti-Pakistan\/China influence operations and follows up on two previous investigations published in 2019 and 2020.
\n\u201cThe investigation looks into a number of non-existent organisations, bloggers and journalists who are regularly quoted by Asian News International (ANI),\u201d read the DisinfoLab\u2019s blog. It added that the content of ANI was also reproduced on well-known digital portals such as Yahoo News.
\nThe latest investigation revealed that ANI had been repeatedly quoting a think tank that was dissolved in 2014 and therefore no longer exists. \u201cANI has been using quotes from a journalist, as well as from several bloggers and supposed geopolitical experts, who do not exist,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
ANI had previously been accused of reporting the Indian government\u2019s \u2018version of truth\u2019 by independent magazine The Caravan. Moreover, two previous EU DisinfoLab investigations have revealed that ANI regularly quoted the defunct \u2018EP Today\u2019 and \u2018EU Chronicles\u2019, two fake media outlets supposedly specialising in EU affairs that were, in fact, created to push anti-Pakistan\/China narratives in India.
\nFake personae, self-described as James Bond fans, basketball players and management consultants, became geopolitical experts quoted by ANI numerous times on topics such as Pakistan\u2019s army doctrines and China\u2019s \u2018wolf warrior diplomacy\u2019.
\nA think tank, that we had previously linked to the Srivastava group and that was legally dissolved in 2014, is now quoted about twice a week by ANI. The think tank\u2019s website falsely mentions real Canadian university professors as participants in a conference that they never attended, even concocting false quotes by these academics. \u201cWe had already observed this identity-hijacking pattern in our previous Indian Chronicles investigation,\u201d it said.
\n\u201cThe narratives pushed by these fake personae and\/or organisations are almost entirely about criticising Pakistan and China, countries that are not India\u2019s greatest allies on the international stage. These fake experts or think tanks are quoted almost solely by ANI and then republished across several Indian media outlets,\u201d reads the blog.
\n\u201cWe assess that ANI has, at least, failed its readership by not respecting the fundamentals of the Charter of Munich. The fact that some of the \u2018organisations\u2019 mentioned use fake personae and are trying to hide their tracks while counting on being regularly quoted by ANI shows that ANI is, de facto, playing a key role in this influence operation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD The EU DisinfoLab, an NGO that focused tackling sophisticated disinformation campaigns, found that leading Indian media outlet Asian News International (ANI) was involved in using non-existent sources to spread propaganda against Pakistan and China. The organisation revealed it in its latest investigation into anti-Pakistan\/China influence operations and follows up on two previous investigations published […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-315828","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n