A News Article By The News Minute With edited Headline Goes Viral

A screenshot of a news report by the The News Minute has been going viral. The headline reads, “Kerala born Muslim boy blasts Mumbai.” The screenshot also shows a picture of Mohammad Azharuddeen, a Kasargod-born cricketer representing Kerala, who scored a century of 37 deliveries against Mumbai hitting nine fours and 11 sixes in the domestic T20 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy game on 13 January 2021.

Some social media posts are been shared only with the headline creating Islamophobia while the others also includes the image of cricketer Mohammad Azharuddeen. Netizens having believed the viral screenshot are accusing the publication of misinterpreting and misrepresenting the muslim population in Kerala.

According to the screenshot the news report was published on 14^th January 2021 by the TNM staff. 

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Fact Check-

Fact Crescendo found that the viral screenshot on social media is digitally edited to mislead people. The original headline states that “Kerala opener Azharuddeen who scored century in 37 balls wins hearts”

We started our investigation by running a keyword search on Google which led us to the original news article. The original headline of TNM’s story, published on January 14, 2021, reads as, “Kerala opener Azharuddeen who scored century in 37 balls wins hearts”. This clearly means that the viral screenshot on social media is digitally edited.

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Below you can see a comparison image between the viral photoshopped screenshot and the original news report. The headline has been digitally edited. The original headline states “Kerala opener Azharuddeen who scored century in 37 balls wins hearts”.

We also found a clarification on the Facebook page of Dhanya Rajendran who is the Editor-in-Chief of The News Minute which further confirms that the viral screenshot on social media is Fake. She has posted the comparison image between the two headlines and has written “Extremely disappointed with people who made a fake screenshot, even more disappointed with journalists here spreading it. This was our original headline. If nothing else, have some trust that we would not have such a headline”.

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Conclusion- Fact Crescendo found the above-mentioned post to be False. The News Minute has not published any news report misrepresenting Muslims in Kerala. The viral screenshot on social media has been digitally photoshopped to mislead people. The original news report was about Kerala opener Azharuddeen who scored a century in 37 balls.