D8 News has verified that Turkish daily Yeni Şafak attempted to cover up after publishing a falsified video which frames Beyaz Show audience members as PKK supporters using doctored audio samples.
The fake news video, published by Yeni Şafak at or around 5:10 PM Turkish time on Saturday, 16 January, consisted of a clip purportedly from Beyaz Show, where a group of studio audience members chant slogans in support of Abdullah Öcalan, leader of outlawed Kurdish separatist group PKK.
In fact, the chants were in support of Ayşe Çelik, a caller who dialled into the show a week earlier to highlight the human cost of violence in the country’s war-torn southeast regions.
The post reads “PKK supporters caused trouble at Beyaz Show, chanting slogans for terror organisation chief Abdullah Öcalan.”
D8 analysts synchronised the timeframe from the official studio recording with the video published by Yeni Şafak and a third recording from a member of the audience.
Although the visuals from each of the three video sources match, the audio in the Yeni Şafak video matches neither of the other two sources.
Original Studio Video
Yeni Şafak Video
The modified video from Yeni Şafak…
The original recording from the studio…
At the time of writing, a retraction or apology for incorrect reporting has yet to be posted and Yeni Şafak internet servers have been reconfigured to silently redirect the article’s web address to the paper’s home page:
However at 11:05 PM D8 News forensic analysts were still able to download the falsified video from the Yeni Şafak CDN (Content Delivery Network). A checksum is provided below for readers who wish to confirm the findings.
Evidence surrounding the fabricated Yeni Şafak video is likely to increase speculation that the paper’s editors knowingly published false accusations, executing the subsequent coverup once the situation came to light on social media.
