On Tuesday and Wednesday, ANI Editor-In-Chief Smita Prakash was trending after the Noida Police shared a tweet accusing the news agency's Uttar Pradesh handle, @ANIUP, of spreading fake news.
It all began on Tuesday when ANI Uttar Pradesh deleted a tweet after Noida DCP said that they misquoted an official and ‘are spreading fake news on Tablighi Jamat members.’
Earlier on Monday night, ANI UP had tweeted saying that those in sector 5 Harola, Noida, who came in contact with Tablighi Jamat members have been quarantined. The news agency deleted the after Noida DCP said that ANI UP misquoted an official and are spreading fake news.
Noida DCP wrote: "@ANINewsUP people who had come in contact with the positive case were quarantined as per the laid procedure. There was no mention of Tabligh Jamat. You are misquoting and spreading fake news."
Following this, two trends happened on Twitter. The first was #SmitaPrakash_is_LadyGoebbels, the second was #ThooSmitaPrakashThoo.
Naturally, this did not go down well with a number of people, who accused fellow journalists of keeping their mouth shut. The matter was raised by Twitter user @RohitBJP, who even accused the Press Council of not taking a stand.
Not only that, the user has also accused National Commission for Women chairperson Rekha Sharma, and Delhi Commission for Women Swati Maliwal of not standing up to Prakash.
However, Smita Prakash isn’t the only woman journalist to face the wrath of Twitter. Nidhi Razdan, Barkha Dutt, Faye D’Souza are just some who haven’t been spared by the good folks on Twitter, who believe that they are experts on all topics.
It’s highly unlikely that the Press Council will respond to Rohit’s tweets, and it will be surprising if any statement is issued.
