FactKhuji team finds that Italy’s PM was quoted what he did not say by a prominent Bangladeshi daily
On 11 June 2020, the online version of a Dhaka-based Bangla daily Ittefaq published a story in which Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte was quoted saying each Bangladeshi citizen is a virus-bomb. Some other online portals also published such stories with similar headlines, — making Italian PM’s unuttered comments a viral on Facebook in Bangladesh.
Soon after spreading of such stories on Facebook, some friends of FactKhuji asked us to scrutinise the authenticity of Italian PM’s comments involving the Bangladeshis who were returning to Italy from Bangladesh during this Covid 19 pandemic. In response to friends’ request, the FactKhuji team investigated into the matter and understood that Italian PM Giuseppe Conte did not make such comments involving the Bangladeshi nationals.
As part of checking facts, the FactKhuji team communicated with a journalist working in Italy and several expatriate Bangladeshis living in Italy for a long period. They informed FactKhuji that Italian PM Conte did not say anything like this involving the Bangladeshi citizens. Rather, as they mentioned, the Italian police and an official from Italy’s health ministry came up with such remarks regarding the Bangladeshis.
FactKhuji team also did not find existence of such comments made by the Italian PM that was reported on any Italian or international media outlets.
Ittefaq’s Incorrect Headline:
A story titled “Ekekjon Bangladeshi Ekekta Bhairus Boma: Italir Prodhanmontri” [each Bangladeshi is a virus-bomb] was available on Ittefaq’s online version at 11:00am on Saturday (11 June 2020). This very story reached many Facebook users when it was posted on Ittefaq’s official Facebook page. The daily Ittefaq wrote this story based on a television interview of Italy’s PM. The interview was on-aired on 10 June 2020. While replying to a journalist’s query, PM Conte talked about the scenario of corona virus detection among the Bangladeshi who had been returning to Italy from Bangladesh. He also mentioned his government’s decision of postponing flights between Italy and Bangladesh.
Against this backdrop, daily Ittefaq changed headline of the story on its online version on Saturday afternoon. However, digital footprint of the earlier version of the story and its headline was available online as some Facebook users were uploading screenshots of the earlier version of the story and headline on their Facebook profiles.
While asked, daily Ittefaq’s online team in-charge SM Amanur told FactKhuji that the mistake was a result of poor translation by newspaper’s Italian correspondent. It was a journalist who mentioned Bangladeshis virus-bomb while he as asking the Italian PM a question. “Unfortunately, our correspondent to Italy could not follow it properly and wrote the story mentioning that Italian prime minister made this remark. However, we examined Italian PM’s interview later on and removed the earlier version of the headline”, Amanur said.
Interestingly, this very story was published with a different headline on the print version of the newspaper on Friday night. Published on page no 11, the Italian PM Conte was quoted: “Each Bangladeshi is a virus-bomb. We have postponed flights for the time being in order to keep our country away from bombs.”
Many online news portals operated by the Bangladeshis from home and abroad published this story as well following the Ittefaq’s footstep. Later, stories of these online news portals went viral too. The online news portals that ran similar stories include Bangla Channel NY, xpress24.news, British Bangla Travel, bijoyerbangla.com, and poribortan TV.
