On 11th August, India’s public broadcaster Prasar Bharati issued a sharp rebuttal to allegations published by the Washington Post on 4th June 2025 in an article by Karishma Mehrotra titled “How misinformation overtook Indian newsrooms amid conflict with Pakistan.” The public broadcaster called the charge that it spread misinformation during Operation Sindoor “highly serious and baseless”.
Prasar Bharati asserted that DD News and DD India followed a stringent fact-checking process throughout the operation. The broadcaster relied only on credible sources and shared no unverified content. Washington Post had claimed that Prasar Bharti sent a WhatsApp message to an Indian journalist claiming Pakistan’s army chief was arrested and a coup was underway. Upon investigation, Prasar Bharti found that no such message was sent. Washington Post claimed Prasar Bharti did not respond to requests for comment however no senior official was contacted before publication by the Washington Post.
Specifically, it claimed: “Shortly after midnight on May 9, an Indian journalist received a WhatsApp message from Prasar Bharati, the state-owned public broadcaster. Pakistan’s army chief had been arrested, the message read, and a coup was underway.”
— DD News (@DDNewslive) August 11, 2025
On investigation, it has…
Prasar Bharti said, “Prasar Bharati is India’s public broadcaster, well regarded for its credibility, trust and high journalistic ethics. Its news channels DD News and DD India have a stringent in-house mechanism of fact checking, which has been very credibly demonstrated in the reporting on Operation Sindoor. Not only did both news channels put out factually correct information during the entire operation, verified from credible sources, but also ensured that no unverified information is shared on any of their platforms. Any claims to the contrary, not based on facts, as in the article of Washington Post, require an unconditional apology as such false claims besmirch Prasar Bharati’s impeccable reputation. It is reiterated that Prasar Bharati did not put out any such information as attributed by Washington Post and no senior official of Prasar Bharati was contacted prior to publishing of the said article.”
The public broadcaster has demanded an unconditional apology while accusing the Washington Post of tarnishing its reputation.
Notably, in its report, the Washington Post had targeted Indian media and officials, including senior figures, over alleged misinformation. However, it retracted some of its content after objections were raised against the misleading and fake content in the report.
