Pakistan’s media reinforcing nation’s paranoia: Time Magazine

[Naveed Yaseen]

* Report published in Time magazine claims rumour reported as fact has become epidemic in Pakistan

LAHORE: Sections of Pakistan’s media are reinforcing the nation’s paranoia at a critical time when the country faces a threat to its very existence, a report released on the website of Time magazine has claimed.

Written by Aryn Baker, the report claims that during a recent gathering of Pakistani journalists, foreign correspondents based in Pakistan, and visiting representatives of the Washington-based think tank Centre for American Progress, the journalists criticised US concerns that Pakistan was failing as a state. The report quotes on journalist as claiming this was part of US propaganda “to weaken us, so the US can fulfil its agenda to break Pakistan into pieces”.

Epidemic: According to Baker, rumour reported as fact has become an epidemic in Pakistan. Quoting a recent article published in a leading English-language daily, the report states that it took e-mailed comments to a Fox News website to concoct a scenario in which a secret US commando force was ready to infiltrate Pakistan to secure its nuclear weapons. Noting that the story mentioned no sources, Baker says it fuelled hysterical discussions on TV chat shows and cemented a national conviction that the Americans want to eliminate Pakistan’s “Islamic bomb”. Another leading English-language daily claimed former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated on the orders of the special death squad formed by former US vice-president Dick Cheney, sourcing the story to an interview by an unnamed Arab TV channel with American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. Hersh immediately denounced the report as “complete madness” to the Daily Times. Yet, Information Minister Qamar Zaman did not rule out the possibility.

Baker states that when former president Pervez Musharraf permitted private TV stations to broadcast news in 2002, the journalist argued increased competition would force the emergence of an ethical and responsible media corps. He stated that he also assumed that consumers would gravitate toward truth. Instead, he notes, the bulk of Pakistanis seem comfortable with sensationalism and xenophobia — as reflected by an April Gallup Pakistan poll revealing 76 percent of Pakistanis “believe Pakistani media [are] unbiased to a great or somewhat extent”.

Richard Holbrooke, the US envoy to the region, is working on a media plan for Pakistan that would develop the government’s ability to disseminate information via new technologies such as cell phones. However, Baker argues, this is not enough. He states that the Pakistani press can only live up to its potential and give the nation the media it deserves if it takes a good look at itself and examines its level of professionalism.

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