随著，早前世界各地尤其是在美国和印度的英语和兴都语纸媒和社交媒体，所引起轰动的报导，指在新冠肺炎疫情爆发后，首次出访的中国国家主席习近平，从乌兹别克斯坦官访回国后一段时间没公开露面，而炒作中国发生军事政变，习近平主席被捕故事，不仅让这些媒体看起来很愚蠢，而且不负责任，缺乏他们不断吹捧的客观和中立的品质。
有关习近平下台的毫无根据谣言始于9月23日，其根源可追溯到据称为宗教团体法轮功的追随者兼自称记者的曾铮，以及其背后那些位于美国的网络，对散播反华的阴谋和叙事深具影响力。
法轮功的可信度可从其创始人李洪志身上验证，李洪志现居美国，公开表示他相信来自其他维度的外星人活在地球上，并带来了技术、战争和不道德价值与活动。他还声称，他是来帮助人类摆脱猖獗邪恶力量所带来的毁灭。
法轮功和李洪志建构的媒体网络中，最突出的要数《大纪元时报》，据《纽约时报》报导，自2016年以来，大纪元利用脸书策略和右翼错误讯息，创建了一个反华、亲特朗普的媒体帝国。《纽约时报》进一步指出，拥抱特朗普和脸书使大纪元成为具有浓厚党派色彩的力量。它还打造了一个全球范围的虚假讯息传播机制，一再将偏颇叙事推向主流。
正如资深记者努雷·维塔奇（Nury Vittachi）所说：许多东方和西方的记者，竟然认真看待一个明显捏造的关于中国领导人习近平被捕的故事。“正如他们所说，哪里有烟，哪里就有火，而此次北京冒出的‘烟柱’，就类似公元64年7月罗马那一场关键大火（该场大火成了罗马帝国对基督教展开迫害理由）”英国周刊《旁观者》（The Spectator）澳洲版如此指出。
有关习近平主席被捕的荒谬故事，就这样在全球互联网上传播开来，在谷歌主导的互联网下，吸引了数百万读者。在印度，这新闻竟然进入了前三名最热新闻榜单，尽管这新闻里没含有一个真实的字眼。
这个荒谬新闻有许多版本，包括引用没有获证实消息——进而忽略了一个事实，即根据新闻业的最基本规则，没有证据的故事通常都不应刊登出来。社交媒体上许多声音就批评说，这个荒谬新闻如此广泛报导，无疑是对主流媒体可信度的另一个重击。
维塔奇也在其文中也援引一些明智评论：
驻中国的英澳评论员杰里·格雷（Jerry Grey）：“老实说，我不敢相信有人会愚蠢到在没有先证实确实发生的情况下，就炒作中国发生政变。”
英国教师Curt McArdle 说：“对于曾铮、新唐人电视台/大纪元时代和其他任何散播这样不靠谱故事者言，这样炒作只是让他们被视为愚蠢或不值得信赖的……”
Jerry Wang在推特上问道：“为何我们——不仅仅是中国或美国，实际上是整个世界——对记者散布未经证实的谣言如此软弱？”
在中国担任教师的戴维德·梅利亚（Davide Melia）：“我非常嫉妒那些拿了高薪的人只是坐在那里，偶尔制造一些完全虚构的东西，而不少人则完全不加质疑的接受。 ”
小题：印度反中情结
观察家最近注意到印度媒体在传播恶毒的反华虚假信息和假新闻方面的作用。这一次，印度推特用户（全球第三大推特用户）与印度的数码媒体一起不遗馀力地传播政变谣言。当然，不了解世界政治的普通民众散播类似的谣言是可以理解的。
可是，拥有著专业记者，可接触世界上讯息和资源的著名媒体，如印度时报、印度ZeeNews、今日印度、每日新闻和分析、Livemint等，却不断在国内炒作中国军事政变故事，这是令人担忧的。
中国和印度自独立后，就因边界战争和区域竞争，长期以来关系不佳。中国与印度独立以来的头号敌人巴基斯坦的密切关系，仍然是印度政府和公众关注的主要问题。
但许多新的因素也导致印度与中国的关系不佳，更经常陷入敌对局势。这些因素如下：
●羡慕和嫉妒中国的崛起和发展
●与中国相比，印度取得的成就，让其自觉形秽
●印度政府煽动民族主义情绪，以转移国内施政的失败
●印度媒体通过反华新闻和分析丑化中国，以赢得更大的市场份额，同时也可视为支持政府的政策
因此，中国习近平下台和军事政变的故事，在印度有广大的受众，也许并不令人奇怪。然而，这次的出丑，不只破坏了印度在国内外新闻报导中的公信力，其能否也成为回归更高新闻标准和价值观的起点？
林德宜《制造中国军事政变假新闻》原文：
Fabricating the Fake China Military Coup Story
English and Hindi language print and social media around the world especially in the US and India have ended up not only looking foolish but also irresponsible and lacking in the qualities of objectivity and neutrality that they constantly tout.
This follows the sensationalising of a story about a military coup in China and the arrest of President Xi following his non-public appearance for some time from his first overseas trip to Uzbekistan since the Covid pandemic began.
The baseless rumours of Xi’s ouster began to take shape on September 23 with its origins traced to Jennifer Zeng, a self proclaimed journalist and follower of the supposedly religious group Falun Gong and its media backed network based in the United States which has been influential in disseminating conspiracy and anti-China stories.
The trustworthiness of Falun Gong can be gauged from its founder, Li Hongzhi who now lives in the US, and has gone on record to state that he believes extraterrestrial aliens from other dimensions walk the Earth and are responsible for introducing technology, war, and immorality. He also claims that he is a being who has come to help humankind from the destruction it could face as the result of rampant evil.
Prominent in Falun Gong’s and Li’s media network is The Epoch Times which according to The New York Times, has used Facebook tactics and right wing misinformation to create an anti-China, pro-Trump media empire since 2016. Further NYT notes that embracing Trump and Facebook has made The Epoch Times a partisan powerhouse. It has also created a global-scale misinformation machine that has repeatedly pushed fringe narratives into the mainstream.
小题：How The Coup Rumour Spread
As veteran journalist Nury Vittachi noted：
Huge numbers of journalists, east and west, took a clearly invented tale about the arrest of Chinese leader Xi Jinping seriously. “Where there’s smoke there’s fire, as they say, and there is a column of smoke the likes of which we haven’t seen since July 64 AD pouring out of Beijing,” said the Australian edition of The Spectator, a UK title.
The ludicrous tale spread through the Internet worldwide, reaching millions of readers as it rose sharply on Google trends worldwide. In India, it reached the list of top three biggest news stories, despite not containing a word of truth.
Many versions included the information that there was no evidence for the story – but omitted the fact that under the most basic rules of journalism, stories with zero evidence would normally not be considered printable. The fact that it was so widely reported is yet another nail in the coffin of mainstream media credibility, said numerous voices on social media.
Vittachi has also noted the comments of more sensible voices on the story,
Jerry Grey, British-Australian commentator based in China: “Honestly, I can’t believe anyone would be so stupid as to discuss a coup in China without first verifying that it actually happened.”
Curt McArdle, a British teacher, “The whole thing seems like a massive own goal for Zeng, NTD/Epoch and anyone else sharing it. All it does is paint them as either gullible or untrustworthy…”
Jerry Wang on Twitter, “Why are we—not just China or the US but practically the whole world—so soft with journalists spreading unverified stories?” asked Jerry Wang on Twitter.
Davide Melia, who works as a teacher in China: “I am quite jealous of people who get paid good money to just sit around and occasionally churn out completely made-up stuff that a not-insignificant number of people will take totally at face value.”
小题：Indian Media’s Anti China Obsession
The role of India’s media in spreading virulent anti-China disinformation and fake news has been noted by observers in the recent past. This time round Indian twitter users (the third largest number of Twitter users in the world) together with the country’s digital media went to extraordinary lengths to disseminate the coup rumour. Ordinary citizens who do not have a grasp of world politics can be excused for spreading the story.
However, the way in which prominent media with professional journalists and all the information and sources in the world available such as The Hindustan Times, ZeeNews India, India Today, Daily News and Analysis, Livemint and others contributed to making the coup story the talk of the country is especially worrying.
China and India have long had a turbulent post colonial relationship marked by border wars and rivalry in the region. China’s close relationship with Pakistan, India’s arch enemy since the days of independence continues to be a major source of concern to the Indian government and public.
But many new factors are contributing to the unfavourable and often hostile attitude of India towards China. They include the following
●Envy and jealousy with the rise and development of China
●Fragile self confidence with what India has achieved in comparison with China
●Government efforts to whip up nationalist sentiment to make up for domestic failures
●Indian media role in tarnishing China with anti-China news and analysis to win greater market share and to be seen as supportive of the government
Perhaps it is not surprising that the Xi ouster and military takeover story should find its largest audience in India. However, can this egg on the face which has only undermined India’s domestic and international credibility in news reporting become the starting point of a return to higher journalistic standards and values?
评论: 林德宜（公共政策分析学者）