Viral Letter Claiming Pak PMO Barred Media From Reporting on Iran Strike Is Fake

A journalist from Pakistan confirmed that no such announcement had been made by the PMO or the government.

Fact-check: A fake letter is going viral to claim that Pakistan PMO has barred media outlets from reporting on the Iranian strikes.

(Photo: The Quint)

A letter, purportedly issued by Pakistan's Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has gone viral on social media.

• The letter instructs media houses to avoid reporting the recent Iranian strikes in Pakistan and also bars media personnel from entering the affected areas.

• This comes after Iran admitted carrying out a missile and drone strike in western Pakistan on Tuesday, 16 January, which claimed two lives.

An archive can be seen here.

(Source: X/Screenshot)

(Archives of similar claims can be found here, here and here.)

But the letter is fake: This letter is not issued by the Pakistani government.

• Pakistan's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting clarified that this letter is "fake and fabricated".

How did we find out the truth?: We checked the official website of Pakistan's PMO and did not any such announcement or press release.

• We also checked PMO's official X (formerly Twitter) account and did not find the viral letter.

• We came across a post by Pakistan's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting posted on 17 January 2024.

• The post clarified that this letter is "fake and fabricated".

Pak's response to the blast: The official account of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Pakistan, operated by Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, shared a post on X condemning the attack.

Claim dismissed by Pak journalist: We reached out to Lubna Jerar Naqvi, a fact-checker and a journalist from Pakistan who clarified that no such official announcement has been made by the Prime Minister or the Pakistani government.

More context: According to the officials in Islamabad, two children were killed and three others were injured in the attack in Balochistan.

• Iran's foreign minister stated that this operation was targeted at the "Iranian terrorist group" Jaish al-Adl.

• Islamabad has struck back at targets in Iran on Thursday, 18 January as part of "Operation Marg Bar Sarmachar."

• The attacks come at a time that the Jaish al-Adl claimed responsibility for a police station attack in the southeastern border province of Sistan-Balochistan, which killed 11 Iranian security personnel.

We have reached out to the Pakistani officials for more context and the story would be updated once we receive a response.

Conclusion: A fake letter is going viral to claim that Pakistan PMO has barred media outlets from reporting on the Iranian strikes.

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