Fabricated magazine cover featuring Ukraine's Zelenskiy circulates online
Fabricated magazine cover featuring Ukraine's Zelenskiy circulates online
(Reuters) - A fabricated image purporting to show a cover of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo featuring Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy has circulated online.
The screenshot appears to show a special edition released ahead of the festive period, with the Charlie Hebdo logo visible across the upper-third of the image.
The image purports to show the cover of the magazine’s issue number 1,588, dated Dec. 22, 2022. Beneath the logo, a cartoon of Zelensky can be seen appearing to steal gifts from Jesus’ crib, with a speech bubble that reads: “Stop whining, we need it!!”
Examples of the fabricated screenshot can be found (here) and (here)
As of Dec. 23, the most recent issue of the magazine was released on Dec. 21 and is number 1,587, which features a cartoon on the Qatar World Cup (here), (here)
There has not been a 1,588th issue released at the time of writing. (archive.vn/CNYhh)
A search through the Charlie Hebdo Twitter account did not reveal any such cover (twitter.com/Charlie_Hebdo)
The December archive via Charlie Hebdo’s website does not reveal any such cartoon (charliehebdo.fr/2022/12/)
Archived versions of the magazine’s homepage saved on Dec. 21 and Dec. 22 did not reveal the supposed cover (here) (here)
A representative for Charlie Hebdo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
VERDICT
False. No such Charlie Hebdo cover featuring Zelensky was released on Dec. 22, 2022.
