Media is the weapon of democracy. Media acts as watchdog to
protect public interest against malpractice and create public awareness. Media
helps in fighting against corruption, nepotism, cronyism of institutional
machinery and carrying out relentless campaign against them. Media, that has
become the fourth pillar of state considering its huge impact on people, has
achieved supreme importance in the modern world and is widely considered as the
fourth pillar of the state. There is also considerable awareness 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 media is determined by its involvement in almost every walk of life.
It has a power to make things undergo into conversion. Propaganda and
psychological warfare through the media is an old belief. The media in both
India and Pakistan are important "stakeholders" during times of intense tensions
between the two countries. Previous studies conducted have suggested the
"nationalistic" role of the media in relation to India and Pakistan conflicts.
Ever since a suicide attack in Pulwama, Kashmir, killed more than 40
paramilitary Indian soldiers on Feb. 14, India’s television news networks have
been howling for blood, as have ordinary citizens on social media. The attack
was carried out by a suicide bomber from the Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist group,
which India blames Pakistan for nursing and sponsoring. The Indian media has
done nothing but created confusion and spread misinformation regarding the
events that materialized after the Pulwama attack, including Indian Air Force
intruding into Pakistan’s airspace and in retaliation Pakistan downing two
Indian military jets.
Indian media, without further investigation or official statement, ran that 300
militants were killed in an Indian bombing in Pakistan’s Balakot region, citing
government sources. However, Pakistan denied the reports and maintained that
India had hit nothing, but trees. Indians also called out their media for
“spreading hate” soon after Prime Minister Imran handed back the Indian pilot as
a peace gesture. Social media users had posted pictures of journalists, who
rallied for war, with captions “boycott fake media” and “boycott hate speech”.
The Modi era coincided with an exponential rise in the use of social media in
India, a medium that this government exploited to the hilt to target critics,
mobilise public opinion, and use tags like “anti-national,” to discredit anyone
showing a hint of circumspection with the state narrative. It is estimated that
between 2016 and 2018 alone, the number of Indians using social networks grew
from 168 million to 326 million, making 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 counter them.
It is estimated that between 2016 and 2018 alone, the number of Indians using
social networks grew from 168 million to 326 million, making 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
counter them.
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. Indian media terms
Pakistan-administered Kashmir as “Pakistan-occupied Kashmir” or PoK. The
phrasing of territories as “occupied” or “held” by mass media propagates a sense
of illegal occupation, even though the status of the region has been in dispute
since the 1947 partition that split India and Pakistan. Pakistani media had
performed a positive role in a responsible manner during recent Pakistan-India
situation.
Pakistani media has been doing responsible, accurate and factual reporting
during current standoff between Pakistan and India contrary to India media which
is hell bent on war mongering and panic-driven reporting. Today is the age of
promoting ideas and media is an important vehicle to meet this task. Pakistan
proved that it is responsible nation, which retaliated to Indian aggression in a
very calculated manner. Modi’s war mongering posture is defaming India on
international front.DG ISPR warned that the Pakistan Army's battle-hardened
forces would provide a military response that would catch India unprepared if
and when necessary DG ISPR pointed out that 64% of Pakistan’s population is
youth, which is the target of fifth generation warfare, and his statement is
directed at the youth, in order to provide them context to understand the
events. “We have a history of 72 years, and since our independence in 1947,
India has been struggling to accept this reality till this date.
In October 1947, India attacked Kashmir, and for the past 72 years, their reign
of terror is spreading violence in Kashmir. DG ISPR noted that becoming a
nuclear state provided Pakistan a stronger deterrence because it deprived India
of the advantage of threatening us with a conventional war. Mumbai attacks
happened during a period when our war against terror was reaping great
successes, while stating that Pakistan is united in its stance on the issue, it
is important for India not to undermine our military capacities, he warned,
“Don’t mess with Pakistan. India is the greatest democracy in the world, and two
democracies cannot go to war. “Democracies never fight a war, and being a
secular country and the greatest democracy in the world, it is important to
safeguard minorities.
International community lauded Pakistan Army’s success in the Radd-ul-Fasaad
operation, which has helped eliminate multiple terrorist and terror abettors,
and safeguarding the borders of Pakistan against terror activities and their
sponsors. 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. Indian Media published in “The Print” DG ISPR as Gerasimov of
Pakistan.
(Mehr writes freelance, currently based in Peshawar)