The Washington Post on June 4, 2025, published an article, titled “How misinformation overtook Indian newsrooms amid conflict with Pakistan”, authored by Ms. Karishma Mehrotra – (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/06/04/india-news-channels-misinformation-pakistan-conflict/).
The article contained a highly serious and baseless allegation against Prasar Bharati, India’s public broadcaster. Specifically, it claimed: “Shortly after midnight on May 9, an Indian journalist received a WhatsApp message from Prasar Bharati, the state-owned public broadcaster. Pakistan’s army chief had been arrested, the message read, and a coup was underway.”
On investigation, it has been revealed that no such message was sent from Prasar Bharati. The publication further claimed that “…..Prasar Bharati did not respond to requests for comment”. This claim too was denied by Prasar Bharati. No senior official of Prasar Bharati was contacted by The Washington Post for comment or verification prior to the publication of this falsehood.
Prasar Bharati’s full statement on the matter may be found below:
Prasar Bharati is India’s public broadcaster, well regarded for its credibility, trust and high journalistic ethics. Its news channels DD News and DD India have a stringent in-house mechanism of fact checking, which has been very credibly demonstrated in the reporting on Operation Sindoor. Not only did both news channels put out factually correct information during the entire operation, verified from credible sources, but also ensured that no unverified information is shared on any of their platforms. Any claims to the contrary, not based on facts, as in the article of Washington Post, require an unconditional apology as such false claims besmirch Prasar Bharati’s impeccable reputation. It is reiterated that Prasar Bharati did not put out any such information as attributed by Washington Post and no senior official of Prasar Bharati was contacted prior to publishing of the said article.