Fact Check: Video of injured news channel cameraman shared with false claims
A video is being widely being shared on social media with the claim that a News18 cameraman was beaten up by farmers at the farmers’ protest.
By Tejal Sinha Published on 2 Aug 2021 2:12 PM GMT
Hyderabad: A video is being widely being shared on social media with the claim that a News18 cameraman was beaten up by farmers at the farmers' protest.
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The video was also shared by Amish Devgan, the managing editor of News18 India.
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In the video, Nagendra, a cameraman for News18, says some people at the protest were abusing the media. He was injured after they tried to hit him with a stick. The post further claims that farmers attacked media personnel and beat them up.
Fact Check
The claim is false.
We took a screenshot of the man in the video and performed a Google reverse image search. We were directed to a report by Bharat Times English from 22 July 2021. According to the report, a cameraperson of a reputed Hindi news channel was attacked by a freelance journalist during the Jantar Mantar Kisan protest.
The police identified the cameraperson as Nagendra Gosain. A senior police officer said Gosain was attacked by an independent journalist Prabhjot Singh. Singh was taken into custody, the officer added.
We then performed a keyword search and found a video posted by a YouTube channel called 'Pyara Hindustan'. The video shows a female correspondent from the same channel reporting on the farmers' protest. The camera then pans towards another freelance journalist who was filming the woman correspondent on his mobile phone. She approaches the man and asks, "What did you just call me?" to which the man replies "Shameless" and continues recording. Soon after, the two get into a fierce argument.
A few bystanders notice the incident and snatch the person's phone and stamp on it after it falls on the ground. The News18 cameraperson, Gosain, can be spotted at this point intervening.
The video was also uploaded on a Facebook page called 'Ambedkar Mission News Channel'.
We then found a report by Outlook India titled "News channel cameraperson attacked by a freelance journalist at Jantar Mantar during farmers protest". According to the report, a senior police officer said Gosain was attacked by Prabhjot Singh, a freelance journalist. Singh has been detained, the officer said.
Narendra Gosain said Singh was abusing mediapersons and was also recording it. Singh also used foul language against a woman journalist, he said. When other journalists objected and there was a tussle, Singh attacked them with a tripod. He attacked me thrice, Gosain said, adding his hand was injured in the incident.
Asian News also reported the incident in an article titled "Jantar Mantar Protests: Freelance Journalist attacks News channel cameraperson".
It is therefore evident that the claim that a News18 cameraman was attacked by farmers at a protest is false. The man was attacked by a freelance journalist who hit him with a tripod.
