Many news outlets, including NDTV, carried a report claiming that Saudi Arabia has barred its citizens from marrying women from Pakistan, Bangladesh and two other nations. The news published on Saturday is actually an ANI news agency write-up based on a story that dated back several years ago – to August 3, 2014.
NDTV which carried the ANI report returned the message: “The story has been withdrawn by ANI.”
According to fact-checking website Altnews, ANI published a seven-year-old report as recent. The news was carried by Pakistan-based Dawn in August 2014, when multiple media outlets had also reported on the changed marriage laws in Saudi Arabia including BBC and India Today.
Nevertheless, India Today stated that there was no official announcement by the Saudi government and BBC published its report based on Saudi newspaper Makkah and Pakistani outlet Dawn. However, Makkah newspaper has since deleted its report.
ANI’s now-deleted report had taken several portions from the 2014 report in Dawn. However, the news agency had omitted to mention that the report is old.
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Rushda Fathima Khan is the Staff Reporter for The Cognate.
