Several news outlets including News 18, The Tribune, IANS recently misreported about a Jammu and Kashmir government meeting minutes on steps taken to monitor its employees criticising the government on social media platforms and claimed that it was issued by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led Punjab government.
The same narrative was amplified by social media users who accused the Punjab government of censoring criticism of the state government.
BOOM found the claim to be false. The screenshot has been taken from the minutes of a meeting issued by the Jammu and Kashmir government and not Punjab as reported by several media outlets.
The News 18 report, featuring a screenshot of the circular on steps to curb social media outrage by government employee, mentions that Punjab Chief Secretary Vijay Kumar Janjua has directed the administrative secretaries to issue notices to such employees prior informing the General Administration Department (GAD). The screenshot has also been captioned as Punjab government order.
Punjab-based English daily The Tribune, too, published a similar news report, crediting that the information was received from its sources. However, the publication later retracted their story and issued an apology for its error.
Supreme court lawyer Prashant Bhushan, news agency Indo Asian News Service (IANS), BJP Gujarat Media Co-Head Zubin Ashara, Twitter handle Megh Updates also peddled the same false claim on social media.
Bhushan later made an apology for peddling incorrect information.
Right wing outlet OpIndia published the same story based on the report published by The Tribune.
Fact Check
BOOM found a tweet from AAP Punjab's official twitter handle terming the notification as 'FAKE' and mentioning it as a notification from Jammu and Kashmir administration and not from Punjab.
Click here to view the tweet.
Taking a cue, we reached out to Syed Junaid Hashmi, Managing Editor of Jammu and Kashmir-based news portal The Straight Line, to verify the authenticity of the circular.
Hashmi verified the meeting minutes issued by the Jammu and Kashmir government and sent us the entire copy of it. The meeting minutes can be seen below.
We noticed that Jammu & Kashmir Under Secretary to the Chief Secretary Farukh Paul signed the meeting minutes. Below is a comparison between the viral meeting minutes and a Jammu and Kashmir government circular signed by Paul.
BOOM also reached out to Punjab Chief Secretary Vijay Kumar Janjua's office for further verification. An official from the Punjab Chief Secretary office denied the claim and said no such circular was issued from their office to the state government employees.