Bengaluru: A letter issued from the office of Karnataka Energy Minister and Congress leader KJ George to media houses on Tuesday has called for the deletion of ‘fake audio’ clips circulating through unverified news handles on x.com for sharing news about Ministers Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Telangana State Government.
In the letter, George denies the authenticity of an audio clip circulating on social media platform X, first posted by @TeluguScribe. “The audio clip being circulated is false, malicious, and desperate. This is a desperate act by opposition parties involved in spreading the audio clip to tarnish the Congress and Hon’ble Energy Minister K J George’s image in the eye of the public,” he wrote in the letter.
The public is advised to disregard such news until the Assembly polls on 30 November 2023, he said.
“The energy minister and his team have conducted an in-house enquiry about the news clip aired by your channel on Nov 28, 2023, and have found that it is entirely false and malicious. The news report is part of a mala fide, a vicious and vexatious campaign to tarnish the reputation of Energy Minister K J George,” reads the letter addressed to various media houses.
Had all journalistic ethics and fact-checking processes been followed by @TeluguScribe, which one would have expected of a publication, then it would have been established that there is no shred of evidence against the Energy Minister. “Therefore, we request that you stop airing the clip immediately and resolve the matter immediately,” read the letter.
