It’s also being reported in CNN , Indian Times
It’s also all been all over reddit, Twitter and lots of other platforms before being in mainstream media
The mainstream media has increasingly having a problem in reporting rumours or unreliable information without checking if its credible.
If one person says its raining and the other says its not, it's not the job of journalists to report both sides, it's the job of the journalist to go outside and check if its fucking raining.
In this case it is admittedly more difficult to do this due to state secrets of China and nit having on the ground journalists. But if mainstream media does report unsubstantiated rumours they are running the risk of undermining their credibility and spreading panic especially if they are not heavily stressing its a rumour to a level where a reader is also repeating this.
The trouble here is there are a lot of people who are either scared or looking for a 'real life disaster movie' to watch who unconsciously or deliberately want to believe the higher numbers without properly questioning it.
Again, this is where watching what happens outside China is particularly important. Indeed the quarantined cruise ships are possibly small scale 'test tubes'.
Yesterday there were no new reported cases in Europe. That's a good sign. What's more worrying is potential signs of new localised hotspots in Thailand and the Philippines.
And the news that some African countries won't even get coronavirus testing kits until tomorrow.
Personally I do think China are downplaying figures but I'm not sure I think the 'leaked' figures are closer to the truth either.