On October 4, Air Chief Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria addressed a press conference where he stated that IAF’s shooting down of its Mi-17 helicopter in Kashmir on February 27 was a “big mistake”. At the end of the press conference, the IAF ran a promotional video on the Balakot airstrikes in February this year. The video had shots of IAF jets and pilots and was accompanied by a voiceover.
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ContributeHowever, ABP News marketed this as the “first video of Balakot Air Strikes” on its YouTube channel.
“We are going to show you a video when Pakistan was shaken by India’s actions; actions that ruined the sleep of Pakistan’s terrorists. Watch the footage when the Air force struck Balakot,” said an ABP News anchor while introducing the segment in the YouTube video.
The channel’s website titled the video as “India presents proof of Balakot airstrike, Pakistan exposed.”
Contrarily, the video descriptions of both ABP reports mentioned that the IAF clip was a “promotional video”.
A journalist present at the press conference told Newslaundry that IAF chief Bhaudauria had specifically clarified that the video was not a footage of the Balakot airstrikes.
Navbharat Times and PTI also committed a similar faux pas. Navbharat published an article titled “Indian Air Force releases video of Balakot Air Strikes”.
A PTI copy on the press conference erroneously stated that “ahead of the press conference, the IAF also showed video clips of the Balakot strikes.”
On Twitter, journalist Manu Pubby noted that TV channels had erred in terming the video as “Balakot footage”.
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