On March 16, 2024, Emmanuel Macron spoke for the second time about potentially sending French troops to Ukraine. The statement led to increased interest in the politician from the Belarusian pro-government media outlets.
Two days later, the website of state-run Belteleradiocompany published a piece of fake news with the headline “The French are openly laughing at their Macron-Napoleon” paired with a picture of a fake French magazine’s cover.
“The French channel France 24 is cheerfully discussing the “long-awaited” magazine cover, where Macron is depicted as a plucked angry rooster,” the fake news says.
Belteleradiocompany refers to the Telegram channel “Shkvarka 2.0”, which also published the fake cover's picture and a video from the France 24 TV channel. On it, guests in the studio allegedly discuss the magazine's release.
Journalists from Weekly Top Fake discovered the original video on the channel’s website. There's a different magazine cover. There is no Macron on it and the chicken is not plucked.
Thus, the messages on the Belteleradiocompany website and on the Telegram channel “Shkvarka 2.0” both are fake news.
