Claim: Three “major newspapers of Pakistan” — including Dawn, Tribune, and The News — did not publish on their front pages news about the hundreds of Pakistanis who drowned in the Greece boat disaster in June 2023.
Fact: All three papers reported news of the June 2023 Greece boat disaster on their front pages, as is also corroborated by their respective e-papers available online.
On 18 June 2023, Twitter user @mustafa_wynne posted a picture (archive) showing three Pakistani newspapers — namely Dawn, Tribune, and The News — saying none of them reported on the Greece boat tragedy.
@mustafa_wynne — whose Twitter bio says they are an activist and a writer — captioned the image as follows:
“Front pages of three major newspapers of Pakistan & no mention of the news regarding the 300 odd Pakistanis who drowned & died in the Greece boat disaster.”
A ship carrying hundreds of migrants — allegedly illegally — had sunk off the coast of Greece, media outlets reported (archive) on 15 June 2023.
“About 400 Pakistanis were on board,” The Guardian’s Observer (archive) reported, citing an estimate, saying the country’s foreign ministry “has so far confirmed that only 12 of the 78 survivors were from Pakistan”. It added that approximately “500 people [are] still feared missing”.
Fact or Fiction?
Looking closely at the image shared by @mustafa_wynne, Soch Fact Check identified that all three newspapers carried a story each on the Greece boat disaster, as is shown encircled in the visual below:
Moreover, we also found that the relevant stories from each of the three papers — Dawn (archive), The News (archive), and Tribune (archive) — are also available in their respective e-papers here (archive), here (archive), and here (archive).
The digital versions are available here (archive), here (archive), and here (archive).
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the same visual and caption here, here, and here on Twitter.
It was also shared here, here, here, here, here, here, and here on Facebook.
Conclusion: All three papers reported news of the June 2023 Greece boat disaster on their front pages, as is also corroborated by their respective e-papers available online.
Background image in cover photo: Hellenic Coast Guard
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