Recently, a comment attributed to Khaled Khaled Muhiuddin, head of Deutsche Welle’s Bengali department, has been spreading on Facebook. The comment, described as ‘Achieving 40% in exchange for 70 wickets, with 38% being fake and only 2% valid, represents their achievement over the last 15 years! I am ashamed as a journalist’.
See related Facebook posts here (archive), here (archive), here (archive), here (archive), here (archive), and here (archive).
Watch TikTok videos related to the same claim here (archive) and here (archive).
Watch a YouTube video related to the same claim here (archive).
Fact Check
The Rumor Scanner Team investigated and found that Khaled Khaled Muhiuddin, a journalist with Deutsche Welle, did not make this comment. On January 7, he stated that approximately 2% of votes had been cast by noon in Dhaka’s voting centers, excluding two particular centers, according to the DW Bengali team.
The investigation uncovered multiple posts with the aforementioned title. Some included a DW Bengali video, but initially, these posts did not claim the comment came from Khaled Muhiuddin. However, the narrative later changed, and the comment began to be attributed to him.
The circulating video mainly features a live session from DW Bengali on January 7 at 1:53 PM, titled “What does the voting situation look like? Watch live, share your opinion.” (Translated title) In it, Khaled Muhiuddin states that around 2% of votes were cast by noon in Dhaka’s voting centers, barring two specific ones.
However, this video does not contain the statement “Achieving 40% in exchange for 70 wickets, with 38% being fake and only 2% valid, represents their achievement over the last 15 years, or ‘I am ashamed as a journalist.'”
The Rumor Scanner Team noted that the 2% voting figure mentioned in these posts appeared after the live session. This suggests that the 40% figure mentioned in the claims likely comes from the Election Commission’s post-voting data.
Muhiuddin’s video from this session was widely shared in the evening with various headlines. Subsequently, some posts criticizing the election referenced the 2% figure. One such post is shown in a screenshot below. This post seems to be the first to use this headline.
Although the post from January 7 at 7:30 PM had the same headline, it did not attribute the statement to Khaled Muhiuddin. Instead, it claimed that 38% of the votes were fake.
The 38% figure might have been derived by subtracting the 2% figure from Khaled Muhiuddin’s afternoon live session from the 40% total votes reported by the Election Commission. However, Khaled Muhiuddin’s 2% figure was based on his observations in some Dhaka centers until noon and did not reflect nationwide or all-day voting.
When Rumor Scanner reached out to Khaled Muhiuddin for clarification, he confirmed he had not made the statement.
Bottom Line
On January 7, during the live coverage of the 12th national parliamentary elections in Bangladesh, Khaled Khaled Muhiuddin provided updates on the voting process at various centers in Dhaka until midday. He reported that approximately 2% of the votes had been cast by that time and shared additional insights on the election. His video gained significant traction and was widely shared. However, some posts criticizing the election misquoted a headline as “Achieving 40% in exchange for 70 wickets, with 38% being fake and only 2% valid, is their 15-year achievement,” and falsely attributed the statement “I am ashamed as a journalist” to Khaled Muhiuddin.
Therefore, the claim that Khaled Khaled Muhiuddin made a statement described as “Achieving 40% in exchange for 70 wickets, with 38% being fake and only 2% valid, represents their achievement over the last 15 years…! I am ashamed as a journalist” is entirely false.
Sources
- Rumor Scanner Investigation
- DW Live Video
- Statement from Khaled Muhiuddin
