Perception war: Western media outlets use misleading photos from Turkey in COVID-19 coverage

The West’s perception operation against Turkey continues as the BBC uses yet another misleading photo from the country during the news network’s coronavirus coverage despite the article bearing no relation to Turkey.

On Thursday, the BBC had also used a photo of a mosque from Turkey during coverage about stores closing in Italy due to coronavirus fears, while on Friday the same network used another photo from Turkey to illustrate an article about Canada’s President Trudeau’s wife testing positive for coronavirus, in watch can only be described as a baffling editorial choice since it goes against all media ethics.

The BBC is far from being the only Western new outlet to pull a similar stunt as both CNN and the New York Times used misleading photos taken in Turkey throughout their coronavirus reporting.

CNN on Thursday used a photo of a mosque from Turkey during coverage of the ban on visitors in California's prisons.

A great number of social media users criticized the American news outlet because of using misleading photos, many of them even left comments saying “CNN lost credibility with this photo,” or “CNN clearly proves it’s unreliable journalism.”

New York Times also used photos from Turkey when reporting about U.S. travel restrictions due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The U.S. on Wednesday announced it was suspending travel from Europe in an effort to stem the epidemic. The restrictions include EU and Schengen region countries, but does not include Turkey – a country which to date has only one confirmed case of the virus.

Despite these facts, the paper’s coverage of the measures featured two photos of Istanbul, Turkey’s tourism and commercial capital, a city American citizens are free to visit.

"Like coronavirus, this mentality must be quarantined," Turkish Minister Mustafa Varank said on Twitter.

The countries affected by the restrictions include Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

The virus originated in Wuhan, China last December and has since spread to more than 100 countries.

After months of successful containment of the COVID-19, Turkey has only confirmed a single case on the virus. On Wednesday, the health minister announced the male patient, who recently returned from Europe, and his family are in good condition but still under quarantine.

The worldwide death toll from the virus is over 4,600, with more than 124,500 confirmed cases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which has declared the outbreak a global pandemic.