Fake news in Poland about Zuk’s death threatens an important outbound market

Fake news in Poland about Zuk’s death threatens an important outbound market: The Polish media’s coverage of the death of Magdalena Zuk — the 27 year old Polish tourist who died in Hurghada — is unnecessarily causing a diplomatic rift between Egypt and Poland and contributing to the slump in tourism, writes Edmund Bower for the Independent. In an interesting investigative piece, Bower dives deep into the many wild (and often racist) conspiracy theories promulgated in the Polish press on the circumstances surrounding Zuk’s death. Motivations are said to include a desire by some TV charlatans to boost ratings, and a desire by neo-Nazi groups to play this as a nationalist cause. The spread of fake news is having a real and tangible effect on people in Egypt who rely on tourism, he argues. Bower states that the backlash now includes pressure on the Polish government to take unwanted, drastic diplomatic actions against Cairo.