As deadly protests rocked Bangladesh in July 2024, an altered video circulated that falsely purported to show a foreign journalist crying during a live broadcast as she described the government`s brutal crackdown following the unrest. The posts were shared online weeks before the student-led uprising toppled prime minister Sheikh Hasina. The original footage shows a broadcaster speaking on a Syrian television channel in 2019.
"While Bangladeshi yellow journalists are hiding, foreign journalists are crying watching Bangladeshi news," read a Bengali-language Facebook post alongside the video on July 18, 2024.
It has been viewed more than 263,000 times.
The video emerged as protests in mid-July against a civil service job quota system, which reserved some government jobs for certain groups, descended into some of the worst unrest of Hasina`s 15-year tenure.
Hasina, accused of widespread human rights abuses including the jailing of political opponents, eventually fled to neighbouring India on August 5 as masses of protesters flooded Dhaka`s streets.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus was sworn into office three days later as Bangladesh`s interim leader, AFP reported.
The video made the rounds in similar false Facebook posts about the protests here and also circulated on YouTube.
A similar video has been debunked by AFP Fact Check in Arabic.
The original footage shows a broadcaster crying over the crisis in Syria in 2019.
Syrian report
A reverse image search on Google found a similar video in a YouTube account of Syrian Orient TV -- an anti-regime outlet broadcasting outside the country -- published on July 25, 2019 (archived link).
It features the same news anchor but shows different footage in the inner box of the frame.
The Arabic-language post translates as, "The picture that made the Orient TV presenter cry: She burst into tears and the programme was cut off live!"
The original video shows presenter Daleen Mehrat crying while reading a report about Syrian government forces bombing northwestern Syria.
At the time Syria and its ally Russia had been pummelling northwestern Idlib city, unleashing a ferocious campaign aimed at retaking the jihadist-run stronghold area.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the false posts (left) and the original footage from Orient TV (right):
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Bangladesh footage
Another reverse image search on Google found the footage digitally added onto the screen behind Mehrat was filmed in Bangladesh.
It appeared in this segment on the Bangladeshi channel Jamuna TV on July 16, 2024 (archived link).
The video`s caption read, "Police action in Rangpur, what happens in the Quota protest."
Below is a screenshot comparison of the footage shared in the false posts (left) and the video shared on Jamuna TV’s YouTube page (right):
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AFP confirmed the Jamuna TV footage (left) was filmed in Rangpur by cross-referencing the same location (right) on Google Maps street view (archived link):
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AFP reported at least six people were killed on July 16, including one in the northern city of Rangpur as police dispersed rallies with tear gas and rubber bullets after a significant escalation in violence with demonstrators and pro-government student groups. AFP
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