AKEED, Amman

Over the past two days, newspapers and news sites have published a headline, suggesting that Qatari assistance would be extended to families harmed by the collapse of buildings in Jabal Al Jofeh, which overlooks downtown. It later turned out that the story contained no mention of this intervention and that it was nothing more than an offer of help made by Qatar Charity.

The beginning was a story carried by the Jordan News Agency (Petra) on 3 February 2017 under the headline "Qatar Charity To Support People Harmed in Collapse of Residential Buildings in Jofeh." The story included a press statement attributed to an official of the charity, in which he spoke about "discussing ways of cooperation" with the Ministry of Social Development to support and provide relief for families harmed as a result of the collapse of residential buildings in Jabal Al Jofeh.  

Al Rai published the story as reported by Petra. Al Ghad did the same thing. Meanwhile, electronic sites kept the body of the item, while changing the headline, which increased confusion. Two days later, Petra carried a story, in which the Ministry of Social Development denied receiving any external funding or support to help the people harmed in Jofeh. News sites republished the story. However, other sites published the denial, along with accusations by harmed persons against the ministry, in which they claimed that the ministry had seized the assistance extended by domestic and external parties. 

The AKEED Monitor noticed that certain sites intentionally published identical reports about the accusations attributed to harmed people without making a reference to the original source of the report, which is against the standards of accuracy. Also, these reports did not contain the reply of the concerned entity (Ministry of Social Development) to these accusations, which is against the standard of balance in presenting a news story.