Fact Check: Old Speech of Sheikh Hasina As a Recent Live Speech From India

 Claim

A video recently circulated on the social media platform TikTok, claiming that Sheikh Hasina spoke live for the first time from India. 

In the video, Sheikh Hasina is heard saying, “Dear countrymen and those at the grassroots level in Bangladesh who are living in extreme hardship, all leaders and workers of our beloved organisation Bangladesh Awami League and its allied organisations, and all countrymen, I extend my sincere greetings to you. I pay tribute to the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, pay homage to the four national leaders, the 3 million martyrs, and 200 thousand mothers and sisters.”

See the circulated post here.

Fact

By conducting a reverse image search of a keyframe from the viral video, we found a video titled “PM Modi & Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina at the Joint Press Statements in New Delhi” on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official YouTube channel, uploaded on April 8, 2017.

Part of this video matches the visuals of the viral video in question. However, despite the visual similarity, there is a clear mismatch in the audio of the two videos.

In the original video, then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina can be seen speaking on various topics of mutual interest between the two countries. However, nowhere does she address Awami League leaders and workers in the original audio. This indicates that the TikTok video has edited out the original press briefing audio and replaced it with a different audio track.

Furthermore, relating to that visit, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs website has a joint statement released on April 8, 2017, titled “India – Bangladesh Joint Statement during the State Visit of Prime Minister of Bangladesh to India (April 8, 2017).”  According to the joint statement, during Sheikh Hasina’s April 2017 visit to India, several agreements and memorandums of understanding were signed between the two countries on security, defense, trade, energy, transportation, and science and technology.

Notably, various audio clips allegedly of Sheikh Hasina have previously gone viral on social media. We have tested those with our Deepfake Analysis Unit. However, due to inconclusive results, no reliable conclusion has been reached regarding the authenticity of those audios.

Therefore, the video claiming that Sheikh Hasina recently gave a speech from India is edited.

Result: Altered Media

Our Sources:
Narendra Modi’s Official YouTube Channel
MEA India