Authors
An Electronics & Communication engineer by training, Arjun switched to journalism to follow his passion. After completing a diploma in Broadcast Journalism at the India Today Media Institute, he has been debunking mis/disinformation for over three years. His areas of interest are politics and social media. Before joining Newschecker, he was working with the India Today Fact Check team.
The translocation of eight cheetahs from Namibia to India’s Kuno national park in Madhya Pradesh generated a lot of news coverage this past week. PM Narendra Modi released the cheetahs into the wild on his 72nd birthday and was captured trying to photograph them as they explored their surroundings immediately after leaving their cage.
The event provided many photo op moments and a lot of them went viral on social media. One such photograph is being circulated claiming that the PM was using the camera with its lens cover implying that either he doesn’t know how to use a camera or that he wasn’t actually clicking photographs rather posing for one.
Taking a dig at PM Modi, retired IPS officer Vijay Shanker Singh (@vssnathupur) tweeted the viral photo and wrote “who clicks photo without removing the cover of the camera lens? But, Modi hai to mumkin hai”. Some Congress leaders and handles also posted the picture while making fun of the PM.
Fact Check/Verification
With the help of some keywords like ‘Modi’, ‘Cheetah’ ‘Camera’, we found a report on the news website Firstpost carrying a similar picture of PM Modi with the camera. While comparing Firstpost’s picture with the viral image, Newschecker figured out that the latter one is morphed. The cover on the camera lens has been added digitally. Also, the viral image is the flipped version of the real photo.
Firstpost has credited the original image to Press Information Bureau (PIB). The same picture can be seen on the Instagram handle of PIB.
Apart from this, DD News also uploaded a video on its YouTube channel showing Modi clicking pictures of Cheetahs.
Conclusion
Here, it can be concluded that the viral picture is edited. The original image shows PM Modi taking pictures of Cheetahs with the camera lens cap off.
Result: Altered Photo
Our Sources
Report of Firstpost, published on September 17, 2022
Instagram photos of PIB, posted on September 17, 2022
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Authors
An Electronics & Communication engineer by training, Arjun switched to journalism to follow his passion. After completing a diploma in Broadcast Journalism at the India Today Media Institute, he has been debunking mis/disinformation for over three years. His areas of interest are politics and social media. Before joining Newschecker, he was working with the India Today Fact Check team.
