Posts claiming to show Sky News describing Sydney attacker as ‘jihadi’ are fabricated

No evidence that Sky News published the posts to X

and

Apr 19, 2024

CLAIM

Screenshots purported to show that Sky News changed its description of the Sydney attacker from”Radical Islamic Jihadi Terrorist” to “Mentally Ill Man” after it emerged he was not Muslim.

BACKGROUND

Six people were killed and 12 injured when a man armed with a knife went on a rampage at a crowded shopping mall in Sydney on Saturday, April 13.

Images that were purportedly screenshots from the X account of Sky News were shared online in the aftermath of the attack and were used to suggest that the media inaccurately reported the religious background of the suspect.

The post claimed that after it was confirmed the attacker was not Muslim, Sky News changed their description of him from “Radical Islamic Jihadi Muslim Terrorist” to Mentally Ill Man” who had “Accidentally Caused Multiple Fatalities”.

Another account that shared the post asked: “Why do they work so hard to paint Islam and Muslims in a bad picture? In a nutshell, it’s bad for business.”

Versions of the post have also been found across Instagram and X, formerly Twitter.

Immediately after the attack on Saturday, April 13, there was a flurry of posts across multiple platforms containing various claims that the attacker was Muslim or Jewish, and that the incident was in some way linked to the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the broader tensions gripping the Middle East.

The British television presenter Rachel Riley faced calls to resign after she claimed on X that the attack was a sign of Palestinian uprising.

“If you want to know what ‘Globalise the Intifada’ looks like, see the Sydney Mall,” the post read. “Sydney mall, multiple times over is what they’ve been proudly calling for.”

The presenter deleted the post and later issued an apology.

METHOD

An initial look at the regular posts on the official Sky News account reveals that there are some style inconsistencies. The first letter of every word in the posts are capitalised in the purported screenshots, which is not the usual style for Sky News.

An advanced search of activity by the U.K. news outlet on X does not pull up any evidence that Sky News published the posts shown in the screenshot.

The Head of Digital Output at Sky News, Nick Sutton, can be found replying to some of the claims on X. He included a screengrab of a post schedule that shows what the outlet was sharing on X about the Sydney attack.

He wrote: “I’m not sure where you got these screenshots from. But they are not genuine Sky News tweets about the Sydney attack. These are the tweets we sent yesterday.”

Police in Australia confirmed in the hours after the attack that the perpetrator was a 40-year-old Australian, Joel Cauchi, and that they did not believe his actions were motivated by an ideology.

The authorities said there was evidence that the knifeman was suffering with mental health issues and targeted women. The majority of those killed and injured in the attack were women.

From this analysis, we can conclude that there is no evidence that the official Sky News account published the posts shown in the purported screenshot.

Furthermore, there is no suggestion that the incident in Sydney had any connection to religious or geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.

RATING

There is no evidence that Sky News published the posts to X in the aftermath of the Bondi stabbing attack.

SOURCES

X (formerly Twitter) (2024) Available at: Another day. Another terror attack by another Islamist terrorist. Six dead, others seriously injured, including a baby. [Accessed 18 Apr. 2024].

X (formerly Twitter) (2024) Available at: I am deeply skeptical of what we are being told about the Sydney attack. [Accessed 18 Apr. 2024].

Facebook.com.(2024) Available at: Why do they work so hard to paint Islam and muslims in a bad picture? In a nutshell, it’s bad for business. [Accessed 18 Apr. 2024].

Facebook.com.(2024) Available at: How the media brainwash people and cause hatred amongst communities [Accessed 18 Apr. 2024].

Murdoch, S. and Pal, A. (2024). Sydney knife attacker had mental health issues, ideology not motive, police say. [online] Reuters. [Accessed 19 Apr. 2024].

Regan, H. and Sidhu, S. (2024). Sydney mall attacker may have targeted women, police say, as more details emerge of his six victims. [online] CNN. [Accessed 19 Apr. 2024].

‌Phillips, J. (2024). Rachel Riley apologises for Sydney mall stabbings tweet as she faces calls to be sacked. [online] Evening Standard. [Accessed 19 Apr. 2024].

Clun, R. (2024). Bondi Junction stabbing as it happened: Multiple dead, injured in Sydney’s eastern suburbs; PM, NSW Police Commissioner speak. [online] The Sydney Morning Herald. [Accessed 19 Apr. 2024].

X (formerly Twitter). (2024). Hi. I’m not sure where you got these screenshots from. But they are not genuine Sky News tweets about the Sydney attack. These are the tweets we sent yesterday. [Accessed 19 Apr. 2024].

X (formerly Twitter). (2024). Advanced search: “mentally ill man accidentally causes multiple fatalities in public shooting” [Accessed 19 Apr. 2024].

X (formerly Twitter). (2024). Advanced search: “suspected radical islamic jihadi muslim terrorist attack underway” [Accessed 19 Apr. 2024].‌

A guest post by

George Powell

George Powell lives in Rio de Janeiro and works remotely for the Eurovision Social Newswire. He studied at the Cardiff School of Journalism. He previously worked as a freelance producer, camera man and journalist in Brazil.