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Swiss Embassy In China Urges Media To Remove Fake Science News
- By The Financial District
- Aug 12, 2021
- 2 min read
The Swiss embassy in China has urged Chinese media to take down articles and posts it says contain "false" news. In a Twitter post, the embassy said an alleged Swiss biologist who had been quoted in Chinese media in recent days likely did not exist, Suranjana Tewari reported for BBC News.
Photo Insert: The Swiss Embassy in Beijing
State media outlets were among those that carried articles with comments from "Wilson Edwards" on the origins of COVID-19 and the independence of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Many outlets have since removed any reference to him. "While we appreciate the attention on our country, the Embassy of Switzerland must unfortunately inform the Chinese public that this news is false," the Swiss embassy said in a statement posted on Twitter.
Organizations including CGTN, Shanghai Daily and Global Times, which is published by the People’s Daily, had cited the so-called biologist based on his Facebook profile. However, the Swiss embassy said the Facebook account was opened two weeks ago and only had three friends.
"It is likely that this Facebook account was not opened for social networking purposes," the Swiss embassy added. The mission said that there was no registry of a Swiss citizen with the name "Wilson Edwards" and no academic articles under the name.
In one article seen by the BBC before it was altered, "Wilson Edwards" is referred to as a biologist in Switzerland.
The line from the China Daily article reads: "[Wilson Edwards] said on his Facebook account: 'As a biologist, I've witnessed in consternation over the past months how the origin-tracing of COVID-19 was politicized.'"
Shanghai Daily's digital platform Shine had said in a post: "A European biologist has come to the fore with a startling claim that a World Health Organization (WHO) advisory group on tracing the origins of pathogens including the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, would become a "political tool."
