How British Media Invents Stories About the Wild Wild East

This investigation tackles a subject that’s on everybody’s minds nowadays: fake news. It talks about the relationship between journalists and their sources and fixers, and about the impact of unethical journalism.

In 2016, Sky News broadcast a story about “a Romanian mafia gang” that was “prepared to sell automatic weapons to anyone, including terrorists”. Award-winning correspondent Stuart Ramsay says: “These weapons are smuggled from Ukraine and could be used in terrorist attacks similar to the November 2015 Bataclan shootings in Paris.” The video of the so-called weapons sale shows a dirt road, a truck with no number plates and “smugglers”, who reveal the weapons from under a blanket in the back of their truck.

The story was so absurd — the dangerous mafiosos open-heartedly agreeing to being filmed and showing off their guns as if they were kids boasting about their Kinder surprise collection, the hunting weapons presented as AK47s — that the Romanian public’s first reaction was to lol. But then everybody got angry — some because Romania’s name and image was trashed, others because of the poor quality journalism.

The investigation provides a detailed account of how Sky News’ story actually happened, from the fixer’s and the “smugglers’” perspective versus what they showed. The Romanians who appear in the video are the fixer’s cousins. They are hunting fanatics who were told they’re filming a fictional documentary about weapon traffic. Also, two other shaky Sky News reports from other countries are reviewed.

This model of journalism is easily found in poor countries: foreign journalists come with the story already made up in their heads, based on trending keywords, they look for fixers who can find them someone to support their story, they go home and publish it. This kind of journalism only confirms the audience’s fear and “helps” to radicalize their positions to the general other.