With the furor over fake news spreading each day, it seems that no one is safe. Falling victim to the latest false allegation and downright absurd story reported by an ailing British news website was Pakistani singer, Hadiqa Kiani, who was alleged to have been caught at London Heathrow Airport with drug possession. However, Something Haute reached out to the singer to rubbish the false claims.
“I said almost everything yesterday, but all I can say is that newspapers who have big names should not do this kind of mistake,†Kiani said.
Despite the rumours clearly being doctored, a lot of media outlets went on to run the story without any background check. Talking about the damage it could have caused, the singer added,
“It would have caused serious damages if I had not dealt with it there and then. It was devastating for my family and me! All these years I carry a clean repute and it was upsetting for me to read all that now. However, in the end, truth prevails.â€
Interestingly, when Something Haute investigated the story further, where Metro UK had claimed that an individual named ‘Robert E. Perez’ –the ‘director of UK Border Agency’ had given them a quote, we found out that Mr. Perez does not work for any border agency in the Kingdom but in the United States.
Apart from the story copying blatant facts from other stories and doctoring it with Kiani’s name, Perez’s involvement in any such story remains false. The real Robert E. Perez works for the US Customs and Border Protection and his identity can be seen here in an older article with almost the same plot as the false story about the Pakistani singer.
The individual Robert E. Perez works for the US border agency and much like Kiani’s name, his name has been alleged here falsely.
Although the story has come to an end, thanks to Kiani’s swift reaction to the news, the issue of fake news has proven that once again the media rat race to be the first to report ‘breaking news’ has brought nothing but shame and embarrassment to its name.
On a parting note, the singer remains hopeful and said,
“My new journey of Wajd has begun, next month you’ll get to hear and see that. So, like I said before let the haters burn in their own created fire!â€
