DISINFO: A British spy admits to killing Princess Diana on the instructions of Prince Philip
DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS
  • Outlet: arabic.sputniknews.com (archived)*
  • Date of publication: September 07, 2019
  • Outlet language(s): Arabic
  • Reported in: Issue 163
  • Countries / regions discussed: UK
Tags:
fake news Conspiracy theory

DISINFO: A British spy admits to killing Princess Diana on the instructions of Prince Philip

SUMMARY

A former British intelligence agent named John Hopkins (80 years old) has confessed on his death bed to the assassination of 23 personalities, from activists to politicians and journalists between 1973 and 1999. He also confessed to assassinating Princess Diana after being instructed to do so by Prince Philip.

RESPONSE

This case is a well-documented fake. As Sputnik’s host Nawaf Ibrahim clearly stated, the source of this information, upon which he based his whole radio show, was the “YourNewsWire” website. According to “Poynter Institute” YourNewsWire is “one of the most popular fake news publishers in the world”. Several debunking websites, such as Snopes and the French website 20 Minutes have already proven that the "John Hopkins' Confessions" is false. Moreover, the image accompanying the story originated with a 2010 news report about a veteran’s hospital care in Australia, not a 2017 “deathbed confession” in the United Kingdom.

YourNewsWire, which has rebranded itself as NewsPunch, has taken down the article that was published in 2017.

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Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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