A full page advertisement in the The New York Times, calling attention to the lockdown in Kashmir, is being falsely shared as reporting by the US based newspaper.
BOOM contacted the New York Times spokesperson who said, "it was a paid advertisement submitted by the International Humanitarian Foundation Inc." When asked whether the newspaper wrote the content for the said advertisement, the spokesperson replied, "The advertiser submitted the ad for publication. The Times did not design or draft the advertisement."
The image of the advertidsement reads, 'Kashmir #EndTheSiege 8 Million under siege by a million soldiers since August 5th’ and ‘The seizing of Kashmir is blatant racism’ . It has also included numbers like the "60,000 plus deaths and one million injured while it has been under siege since 70+years".
The viral image of the advertisement shows it placed below the masthead of the New York Times leading several people to believe that it appeared on the front page of the newspaper.
How Media Outlets Reported The Advertisement
Wire agency, ANI, on September 27 published a story about the said advertisement in the NYT with the headline, "New York Times Carries Factually Incorrect Full Page Ad Towing Pak's Line On Kashmir'
The ANI report called the advertisement, "Pakistan's fake narrative"
The report published by ANI NewsX on its news website published a story titled, "New York Times, this is some Kashmir whataboutery!" about the advertisement while falsely calling it an "advertisement-cum-article". The article, reads, "...Content writers of The New York Times, who have been sitting thousands of miles away in their air-conditioned offices and luxurious desks, have penned an article on the topic which they have no idea and miles away from reality.". The article then claims to "fact check" the NYT because the newspaper, "has been spreading the wrong information and misleading the people across the world on such a sensitive issue."
Click here for an archive FACT CHECK
At first look, it is clearly visible that the page carrying the advertisement has been placed on top of the front page of The New York Times.
Two separate newspaper sheets are clearly visible in the image below
The viral advertisement in The New York Times A further closer look at the show image shows a line on the bottom left corner of the page - 'Sponsored by International Humanitarian Foundation Inc', with the website details of the organisation.
A search for International Humanitarian Foundation led us to their website which had details about a protest held on September 22, against Narendra Modi.
BOOM then contacted The New York Times for details about the advertisement. The spokesperson confirmed that the advertisement did not appear on the front page of the newspaper and said, "The ad ran in The New York Times print paper on September 27, 2019 on the A7 page in the print edition."
We looked at September 27 issue and September 28 issue of The New York Times and did not find the advertisement on front page of any edition.
(L-R)Front page of the September 27 issue and September 28 issue of the New York Times