Daily Times

Independent media is a weapon for democracy. It acts as watch dog to protect public interest against institutional malpractice and creates public awareness. Media helps citizens fight corruption, nepotism and cronyism in institutional machinery by carrying out relentless campaigns against them. Media has become the fourth pillar of a modern state. It has a huge impact on people.

There is an increasingly popular view that the media should be responsible in what and how it reports, and how it ought to distinguish between giving information and editorializing. The multifaceted nature of the media is determined by its involvement in almost every walk of life. It has a power to transform all things through scrutiny and debate.

Propaganda and psychological warfare through are relatively old concepts. The media houses in both India and Pakistan are important “stakeholders” during times of intense tensions between the two countries. Previous studies have documented a “nationalistic” role of the media in relation to India-Pakistan conflicts.

Ever since the suicide attack in Pulwama, Kashmir, killed more than 40 paramilitary soldiers on February 14, India’s television news networks have been howling for blood, as have been many on social media. The attack was apparntly carried out by a suicide bomber from the Jaish-i-Muhammed, which India accuses Pakistan of nursing and sponsoring. The Indian media has done nothing but cause confusion and spread misinformation regarding the events that followed the Pulwama attack, including an Indian Air Force strike in Pakistan and downing of two Indian jets.

Many in the Indian media did not pause to verify or investigate the official statement that 300 militants had been killed in an Indian strike in Pakistan’s Balakot region. They went with the story based solely on a military press release. However, Pakistan denied the reports. The military spokesperson maintained that the Indian jets had hit nothing but some trees.

Eventually some Indian citizns too called out their media for “spreading hate” soon after Prime Minister Imran Khan announced in his address to the parliament that the captured Indian pilot was being handed over to Indian authorities as a gesture for peace. Social media users posted pictures of journalists, who rallied for war, with captions “boycott fake media” and “boycott hate speech”.

The Indian media has assigned to itself the role of an amplifier of the government propaganda that took two nuclear states to the brink of war

The Modi era in India has coincided with an exponential rise in the use of social media in India, a medium the government has exploited to the hilt to target its critics and to mobilise public opinion in its favour. Tags like “anti-national” are used frequently to discredit anyone showing a trace of circumspection with regard to the state narrative. It is estimated that between 2016 and 2018, the number of Indians using social networks grew from 168 million to 326 million. This made it a handy tool for the ruling party to spread half-truths and fake news through a cobweb of unofficial accounts and unleash trolls to attack journalists who tried to expose the truth.

The Indian media has assigned to itself the role of an amplifier of the government propaganda that took two nuclear states to the brink of war. The Indian media refers to Azad Jammu and Kashmir as Pakistan-occupied Kashmir or PoK. The phrase propagates a sense of illegal occupation, even though the status of the region has been in dispute since 1947.

By comparison, the Pakistani media has been responsible, accurate and factual. Its reporting during the recent standoff between Pakistan and India was highly professional.

Prime Minister Modi’s war mongering posture is losing India prestige on international front.

On behalf of the Pakistani Armed Forces, the Inter Service Public Relations has done a great job of responding to the Indian propaganda and exposing the falsehoods it has sought to promote. The ISPR director general has warned that in case of a misadventure by the Indian forces, battle-hardened Pakistani forces would come up with a military response that would catch India unprepared. The ISPR DG pointed out that 64 per cent of Pakistan’s population conisted of youth. He said it was the target of fifth generation warfare by India. He said his statements were directed at the youth for it was his job to provide them context to understand the events. “We have a 72-year history… since our independence in 1947, India has struggled to accept the reality.”

In October 1947, India sent its army into Kashmir. For 72 years now its military and paramilitary forces have let loose a reign of terror in the occupied state.

The ISPR DG said that becoming a nuclear state had given Pakistan strong deterrence. He said it had deprived India of the advantage of threatening a conventional war with its superior size. He said the Mumbai attacks had happened during a period when Paksitani forces were reaping great success in their campaign against extremists. He said Pakistanis were united in their position on the issue. He warned, “Don’t mess with Pakistan. India is the biggest democracy in the world. Two democracies should not go to war. Democracies never fight wars.”

The international community has lauded Pakistan Army’s success in the Radd-ul-Fasaad operation, which has helped neutralise many terrorists and terror abettors. Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the general staff of the armed forces of Russia, is thought to be the key proponent of its hybrid war philosophy, first delivered as part of his address to the Academy of Military Sciences in March 2018. The Print, an Indian publication recently referred to the ISPR DG as Pakistan’s Gerasimov.

The writer is a Peshawar-based freelancer