Original article (in Montenegrin) was published on 04/08/2022
This July US President Joe Biden visited Saudi Arabia; the visit was hosted by the young Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other officials.
According to the White House statement, Joe Biden and Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman discussed issues relevant to stabilisation of bilateral relations. At the meeting they agreed for peacekeeping forces to leave Tiran Island in the Red Sea, and to open the airspace to flights from Israel, while Saudi Arabia expressed interest in investing in new US-led technology, intended to develop reliable 5G and 6G networks.
International media outlets were polarised about the most recent diplomatic visit, while regional media also took a position of their own.
The Nacionalist published an article titled as follows:
“May this scumbag be gone from our country”: Saudi prince BANNED Biden from entering the country!
The article further states:
“Saudi Arabia Crown Prince announced personal sanctions against president of the United States. This man smiles in my face and accuses me behind my back of the most heinous crimes. I swear I will never shake hands with Biden again and I won’t do business with him. Moreover, I will order that this scumbag never ever shows his face in our country“, Al-Jazeera reports the words of the prince“.
The visit was followed by a statement about Biden having initiated a discussion about the 2018 murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi committed at the compound of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul; this journalist was critical of the Saudi Arabia royal family. Biden said that bin Salman had denied responsibility and reiterated his previous position – that he believes he is responsible for the murder of this journalist, according to media..
Despite the post in question specifying that Al-Jazeera reported that after this meeting Mohammed bin Salman decided to ban the entry of the American president, analysis of the published content relating to this visit leads to the conclusion that this information is not true.
By searching the portal Al Jazeera it is not possible to find this publication or the statement of the Saudi prince, nor is not possible to find that in other global media outlets, although, had the crown prince announced sanctions against Biden and called him a scumbag, such news would have certainly made headlines.
Our assessment is that the analysed media reporting is fake news.
This kind of assessment is given to original media coverage (fully produced by the media outlet that published it) containing factually wrong allegations or information. The content assessed as fake news can be reliably determined to have been created and disseminated to disinform the public, i.e. present completely false information as a fact.