Bengaluru violence: Hindustan Times incorrectly reports on '60,000-strong mob', later amends story

On Wednesday, a day after Bengaluru's Kaval Byrasandra witnessed violence that left three dead and many injured, Hindustan Times published a report that was headlined "Bengaluru violence: 60,000-strong mob had gathered, pelted stones at police, says eyewitness".

The report quoted an eye-witness who said there was a "strong mob of 50,000 to 60,000, which pelted stones at police personnel and damaged property at a police station during the violence on Tuesday night in Bengaluru."

Later in the day, Hindustan Times edited its report to remove the 60,000 figure. The updated story now says: "A previous version of the story had quoted an eyewitness who claimed 50,000-60,000 people were part of the mob that had gathered on Monday night. This figure was later found to be inaccurate and removed from the story."

Fact-checking website Boom quoted Prasad Sanyal, the editor of HT's web edition, as saying: "The eyewitness account could not be independently verified, and was removed." Sanyal added that the figure came from an ANI interview uploaded on August 12.

The fact-checker also quoted “a source in Bengaluru City Police” who said that “the rough estimate of the number of people in the mob was around 2,000.” An AltNews report cited multiple ground reports that put the strength of the mob between 1,500 and 2,000.

However, both Swarajya and right-wing blog OpIndia had picked up the Hindustan Times' incorrect claim by then. Swarajya reported on Wednesday that the mob that ran amok in East Bangalore on Tuesday consisted of 60,000 people. Both Swarajya and OpIndia did not issue corrections after Hindustan Times amended its report.

***

The media must be free and fair, uninfluenced by corporate or state interests. That's why you, the public, need to pay to keep news free. Support independent media by subscribing to Newslaundry today.