'These people give journalists an appalling name': France24 fact-checks India's 'mainstream media'

"Rife with misinformation" and "absolutely dreadful stuff" – this is how news channel France24 English described misinformation broadcast by some Indian news channels on the Afghanistan crisis.

On the channel's daily fact-check segment last week, anchor James Creedon highlighted two instances of India's "mainstream media", as he called it, peddling fake news. The channel said that since the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan, "Indian mainstream media have been rife with misinformation".

The first instance was a segment broadcasted by India Today and Aaj Tak earlier this month on how a Pakistani jet was "shot down" by resistance forces in Afghanistan led by Ahmad Massoud. Both channels referenced a Twitter account purportedly belonging to Massoud, but it was later discovered that the account was fake.

This news was broadcast with "great pomp" by Indian networks, Creedon said. The other anchor replied, "To go with that from Twitter just seems a bit flimsy, doesn't it?"

The next instance involved Republic World, TV9 Bharatvansh and Zee Hindustan broadcasting purported visuals of military conflict between resistance fighters in Afghanistan's Panjshir and the Pakistani airforce.

Sadly, the visuals were actually footage from a video game called Arma-3.

When Creedon dropped this bombshell, the other host said, "You're kidding me. A video game? And this is a news operation broadcasting that as a news story?" He then turned to the camera and said, "Glory be...That's a bit of a fail."

France24 English pointed out that this isn't the first time TV9 Bharatvansh used video game footage to show real-life events. "These people are giving journalists an appalling name," the host said. "Absolutely dreadful stuff."

Props to Alt News, whose reports were referenced by France24, for painstakingly sifting through various video games. Read their story here.