Fake news, broadcasted by an obscure YouTuber from the Czech Republic, ended up on Republika Srpska’s public service three years after publishing.
On July 25, an article was published on the online media outlet of Radio Television of Republika Srpska with the following title:
A WARNING FROM GERMANY: Doctor’s letter reveals the horrifying truth about migrants!
The article tells the story about the “horrific experiences from an unnamed clinic in Munich which receives migrants from all over the world,” allegedly told by a doctor from the Czech Republic who’s employed at the clinic. There is no name, date, or evidence for any of the claims made in the text – the doctor reportedly described her “terrible experience” in a letter “read on Czech television”, but remained anonymous because she was “forbidden to talk” about it. These are some of the parts of an “anonymous confession” published by the entity’s public service:
“The police are guarding the clinics, hospitals, and ambulances, because those people are very unpredictable,” she reveals. It is amazing what Czech doctors have to deal with in German clinics, she continues and adds that Muslim and African migrants are extremely difficult people to work with. This Czech doctor is longing for retirement after working with migrants because the situation is unbearable. In a short-form letter read on the Czech television, a woman they called a “migrant crisis whistleblower” warned on the horrific chaos in hospitals. Many migrants, infected with AIDS and syphilis, also bring many exotic diseases to Europe, and we do not know how to deal with it. We do not know how to treat these diseases, she warns. Many migrants have AIDS, syphilis, and many exotic diseases that we have never seen in Europe, and if they by any chance get a prescription drug that needs to be paid for, a breakdown occurs, characterized by fighting, shouting, violence, and this is especially the case if the medicine is for children,” it is stated in the letter. Migrants often leave their children alone in the ambulance and just say: “The children are treated for free here”, and if they are not given the cure, they are ready to kill. This is why the police are now overseeing hospitals and asylums, but also bigger hospitals as well. It is forbidden to talk and write about this, but these people are animals.
Raskrinkavanje contacted RTRS with a question regarding the sources of information they used in this article, but no response was provided. The text itself cites Srbija portal as the source of this news, where the article was first published on April 5, and then on July 30, with two different headlines:
A HORRIBLE WARNING FROM GERMANY: A Letter from a German doctor reveals the horrifying truth about migrants and it’s forbidden to talk about it!
CHZECH DOCTOR HAS SHOCKED GERMANY: Discovered a horrible truth about migrants, many have…
This online media outlet has, however, cited Dnevno.hr, which is known for conveying fake news and conspiracy theories. Dnevno published the same article in October 2015, which was then shared by dozens of online media outlets in the region. This media outlet has most probably taken the article from a page, called The Right Shoop which published the article on October 8, 2015 (The fact-checking media outlet Snopes wrote about this article). This version also states that the source is an “independent Czech television”.
However, a “letter” like this was never read on any Czech television.
The real source of this whole story is a person named Petr Černý, owner of a YouTube channel called Czech Independent Television (česká nezávislá televize). A clip from the entire “informative program” in which Černý read an “anonymous letter” is still available on the channel CNTV Česká nezávislá televize – Czechnewstv.
According to the Czech media, Černý worked as a journalist for a local television station until 2011 but then decided to launch his own media outlet that would provide the audience with “real” information. His first project was Unbuntu radio, and in 2015 he created a YouTube channel under the pseudonym Petr Richard Ortek, where he published “informative programs” outlining various conspiracy theories about geopolitical events, modelled on Alex Jones, who is probably one of the most famous internet conspiracy theorists. In a statement for the Czech online media outlet Blesk, Černý cited Jones and Sputnik as sources he consults in the preparation for his so-called “news”, while from Jones he borrowed the name for one of his “programs” on his YouTube channel (“Info Wars”).
At the beginning of the year, Černý gave up on his “internet television” because the interest for it was low. After that, he only published one more video, in which he “clashed” with another obscure YouTube “journalist” (the owner of the “Free Television” channel), whom he accused of stealing Czech Independent Television logo, and he wrote about this on his Facebook profile.
However, it must be admitted that Černý, from the point of view of disinformation disseminating, has shaped the story quite cleverly – without stating the name of the doctor or the hospital, or the time when the events occurred, the “letter” was designed so that it was practically impossible to check when, where and how did any of the described events happened. A series of online media outlets used the deliberate “news” to make a story that can be published anytime, anywhere, because it essentially does not provide anything that can be verified or proved. Therefore, it is not surprising that the same text, which we rate as fake news and conspiracy theories, has been recycled for three years.
The story of the source of “a letter from a Czech doctor who quit because of migrants in Germany” is, on the one hand, comical and grotesque; however, the fact that such “news” ended on a public service – with open hate speech about migrants referred to as “animals” – is not funny at all.
