BBC avoids Egyptian social media trap

An article concerning the unrest in Egypt which appeared on the Middle East page of the BBC News website on July 8th informs readers that:

“There were conflicting reports over what happened outside the Presidential Guard barracks in Cairo on Monday morning.

The Muslim Brotherhood put the number of dead at 53, and said children were among the victims. [….]

Col Ali also disputed claims that children had died, saying pictures of dead children posted on the internet were in fact images taken in Syria in March.”

The reference to “pictures of dead children posted on the internet” relates to an image posted on the Muslim Brotherhood’s ‘Freedom & Justice Party’ Facebook account on July 8th, with some Egyptian sources claiming that this was not an isolated incident. The fraud was quickly picked up on the social media.

MB FB 2

How fortunate that no BBC reporter in Cairo succumbed to the temptation to retweet the Muslim Brotherhood’s propaganda. One has a hunch that such a scenario might have ended with rather more than a verbal ‘yellow card’

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