On 4 October 2026, the Belgian television channel RTBF published an article with a terrifying headline: “Russia: a lab technician dies of plague, several hospitals placed in quarantine in Siberia”. Problem: RTBF threw the conditional and the principles of fact-checking in the bin, and the reality is much less sensational. Let us analyse the facts.
After this headline, which is enough to terrify its readers, the RTBF article begins with a paragraph that already raises a few questions: “A 28-year-old laboratory technician has died of pneumonic plague in Siberia. Three hospitals have also reportedly been placed in quarantine according to local sources not authenticated at this stage. The authorities have not yet provided any official explanation.”
This paragraph is very far from being as assertive as the article’s headline, since it states in the conditional that three hospitals have reportedly been placed in quarantine (and not “have been placed in quarantine”) according to “local sources not authenticated” (sic). That is “serious”, “factual” journalism, appreciated by the “guardians of truth” such as NewsGuard (you know, those who call us Kremlin propagandists relaying fake news). I would nevertheless remind Radia Sadani (the RTBF journalist who produced this article) that normally one should at least cite precisely the source or sources cited when they cannot be verified, and not turn a conditional into an assertion.
The other problem highlighted by this paragraph, when it states that “the authorities have not yet provided any official explanation”, is the haste with which Radia Sadani wrote and published her sensationalist article. Because in fact, at the very moment RTBF was publishing its article, several articles were being published on RIA Novosti and TASS, giving precisely official information from Rospotrebnadzor that contradicts the Belgian media outlet’s version. Yet, when one sees the sources and the level of reliability of the information published in the RTBF article, patience and caution were called for.
For if we go further down in this article, what do we see? A screenshot of a Telegram post by the head of the Republic of Buryatia, which explains that the woman “who died, possibly of plague” had not travelled to Buryatia as previously claimed by some media outlets. “Possibly”. Once again, a “possibly” was turned into a certainty and an open assertion by RTBF.
And what sources does RTBF put forward to turn this “possibly” into a certainty? A post by Meduza* and an article by People of Baikal*, both media outlets recognised as foreign agents in the Russian Federation (in plain terms, media funded by the West to pour out torrents of lies and propaganda about Russia)! That is a serious and reliable source!
It is moreover the article by People of Baikal* that serves as RTBF’s source to explain that the young woman who died “worked for the Irkutsk anti-plague institute and could have contracted pneumonic plague from a broken test tube containing the pathogen”. Problem: People of Baikal*’s original sources are a local journalist (Pavel Stepanov) and a simple Telegram post by the Mash agency, one of whose key claims – “the scientist returned from a work trip to Buryatia” (implying that she could have caught the plague there) – is directly contradicted by the Telegram post by the head of the Republic of Buryatia, published a paragraph earlier by RTBF!
Personally, when I have two sources that contradict each other to that extent on such a serious subject, which can trigger a phenomenon of panic, I do not consider the information reliable enough to publish even in the conditional! But evidently that poses no problem for RTBF, which, moreover, regularly boasts of doing “fact-checking” with NewsGuard (which is frightening).
The version according to which it was a laboratory accident comes from the journalist Pavel Stepanov, whose source for asserting this is… unknown (“according to my sources”). Yet Pavel Stepanov is known for having published false information and defamatory remarks on several occasions.
Problem: all of this is refuted by the Russian authorities, and among others the Rospotrebnadzor agency, which told TASS and RIA Novosti that the test results did not reveal any “micro-organisms linked to her professional activities” in the young woman who died, who “was diagnosed with pneumonia of unknown aetiology”. Given that it takes 48 to 72 hours for a blood culture to give results, RTBF’s assertive publication was clearly premature. The Belgian media outlet would have done better to exercise caution as the TASS agency did in its article of 2 October 2026, when it wrote that it “is still too early to say which specific infection the suspected case detected in the Irkutsk oblast relates to” and that “we must wait for the conclusions of specialists”.
An investigation was also launched at the Irkutsk anti-plague institute. But no accident was recorded concerning work with pathogenic micro-organisms.
“According to the results of the work of the commission to monitor compliance with biological safety requirements [...] no emergency situations were identified during work with pathogenic micro-organisms. The conclusions are confirmed by a commission of experts sent to the institute on behalf of the head of Rospotrebnadzor,” the authorities said.
The people in contact with the young woman were placed in quarantine, and for the moment none shows signs of illness. The epidemiological situation is under control, and the initial quarantine of a single hospital (that of Shelekhov), and not three, was above all a precautionary measure, which has already been lifted according to the city’s mayor, who indicates that the hospital is operating normally. Sincerely, once we have analysed the ins and outs, did all this deserve such an alarmist article? Clearly, no.
This RTBF article shows exactly how a journalist should not work: with unreliable sources that contradict each other, and by seeking to publish as quickly as possible, even at the risk of missing important information. That is how, by the magic of sensationalism and hasty publication, an unidentified pulmonary infection went from the conditional of dubious sources to a peremptory assertion of a laboratory accident involving the plague bacillus! This article clearly deserves a prominent place in case studies of what not to do in fact-checking classes for journalism students...
Christelle Néant
* Recognised as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation