On the night of Sunday, December 15, the Union ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) posted on X (formerly Twitter) that tabla maestro Zakir Hussain was no more. Within minutes, news agencies and media outlets rushed to publish the news and offer condolences.
The ministry’s post was quickly amplified by news agency ANI. State-sponsored Doordarshan News also published a report soon after.
Mainstream media houses including the Times of India, The Hindu, Economic Times, Zee News, India Today, Deccan Herald, NDTV, Times Now, News 18 and Republic followed suit.
These reports were also all over their social media handles. However, several of them backtracked on them within minutes of posting. Turns out, these reports were prematurely published without thorough verification of the news.
Fact Check
Earlier on Sunday, several media outlets citing his manager, friends and family had reported that the world-renowned musician was hospitalised in San Francisco owing to some heart-related issues. In contrast, the reports of his alleged passing do not clearly mention a source. Publications either attributed it to social media updates or other media reports. None of the reports seen by Alt News mentions a family or hospital statement. Many of these reports have since been deleted or updated.
A post by X user Ameer Aulia (@AmeerAulia) was what shed light on the misinformation regarding Hussain’s health. Alt News found that in response to a condolence message for Hussain, Aulia posted that this was false information.
Aulia, who identifies as Hussain’s nephew, insisted that his uncle had not passed away.
My uncle Zakir Hussain is very much alive and we would ask the news media not to post mis-information. We ask for prayers and we ask for everyone’s well wishes.
— Ameer Aulia (@AmeerAulia) December 15, 2024
In a different post, Aulia says that while Hussain is critical and serious, he remains alive.
I am Zakir Hussain nephew and he has not passed away. We ask for prayers for my Uncle’s health. Can you please remove this misinformation. He is in a serious condition and we ask for all his fans around the world to pray for his health
— Ameer Aulia (@AmeerAulia) December 15, 2024
We also found an Instagram account with the same username followed by Zakir Hussain’s brother Taufiq Qureshi and Hussain’s daughters Bella and Anisa Qureshi.
On December 15 evening, hours before the misinformation regarding Zakir Hussain’s death began, Aulia, from his Instagram account, posted an image of his mother (who is Hussain’s elder sister) with the tabla player. In the caption, he wished for his uncle’s well-being and prayed for his health.
View this post on Instagram
After Aulia’s post refuting Hussain’s death, news outlets as well as the MIB deleted their X posts. ANI also issued a clarification, with a screenshot of the original MIB post, that it was deleting the news of Zakir Hussain’s passing since the ministry had removed it too and would update it only after “official confirmation from family, hospital or the consulate in San Fransisco (where there are reports he is undergoing health checkups)”.
Meanwhile, speaking to news publication Mid-Day, Hussain’s sister Khurshid Aulia (Ameer Aulia’s mother) confirmed that reports of his passing are false. “He is very much alive, but he is in a very, very critical condition,” she said. She added that Hussain’s wife had said a statement would be released only if his condition changes or he passes away. “We request people to pray for him during this difficult time because he is a star of the world and a genius. He is my brother.”
Note that this is not the first time Indian media has published outright false reports of an eminent personality’s death without properly verifying. This happened previously in the cases of former President Pranab Mukherjee and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen. Alt News called out misinformation by news publications in both instances.
UPDATE: Ustad Zakir Hussain breathed his last at a hospital in San Francisco on Monday, December 16, 2024. Hussain died due to complications arising out of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, his family said. He was 73. The National Public Radio, America’s public broadcasting organization, reported his passing around 6 am IST on December 16.
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