RabzonKhan
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Editorial: Media and myth-making
After the Punjab law minister declared that the hand of India could not be ruled out in the Police Rescue-15 attack, the media kept repeating that there was a possibility that India had organised the suicide-van. One TV anchor actually concluded that it was indeed India (and also America) that intended to create chaos in Pakistan to such an extent that it may allow them to strip Pakistan of its nuclear weapons. He went to say that the terrorists dying in Swat were all Indians.
Gradually, and unfortunately, the trend seems to be to move the focus away from the Taliban and Al Qaeda and bring it on to America and India. The link established is through the Taliban, however. Now that the Pakistan Army is fighting Baitullah Mehsud and his terrorists in Bajaur and Malakand, it is acceptable to say that he has sold out to the Americans and Indians. Every explosion that takes place therefore is immediately attributed to the foreign hand of America and India. This is a self-damaging policy as it will finally derail our national direction and let the terrorists go scot-free.
The biggest damage from this kind of myth-making is inflicted on the government in power. People ask: if you are being attacked by the Americans why do you approach them and their allies for assistance? Those expert commentators and writers who spread around the American-Indian conspiracy against Pakistan must realise its psychological impact on the people at large. The world press has already taken note of this trend.
One Pakistani daily is supposed to have taken an e-mailed comment to the Fox News website to concoct a scenario in which a secret US commando force was ready to infiltrate Pakistan to secure its nuclear weapons. Another paper claimed that former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by a special death squad formed by former US vice-president Dick Cheney. The American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, to whom this was attributed, immediately denounced the report as complete madness. What is even more alarming is that at times government spokesmen actually encourage this kind of falsehood.
After the Punjab law minister declared that the hand of India could not be ruled out in the Police Rescue-15 attack, the media kept repeating that there was a possibility that India had organised the suicide-van. One TV anchor actually concluded that it was indeed India (and also America) that intended to create chaos in Pakistan to such an extent that it may allow them to strip Pakistan of its nuclear weapons. He went to say that the terrorists dying in Swat were all Indians.
Gradually, and unfortunately, the trend seems to be to move the focus away from the Taliban and Al Qaeda and bring it on to America and India. The link established is through the Taliban, however. Now that the Pakistan Army is fighting Baitullah Mehsud and his terrorists in Bajaur and Malakand, it is acceptable to say that he has sold out to the Americans and Indians. Every explosion that takes place therefore is immediately attributed to the foreign hand of America and India. This is a self-damaging policy as it will finally derail our national direction and let the terrorists go scot-free.
The biggest damage from this kind of myth-making is inflicted on the government in power. People ask: if you are being attacked by the Americans why do you approach them and their allies for assistance? Those expert commentators and writers who spread around the American-Indian conspiracy against Pakistan must realise its psychological impact on the people at large. The world press has already taken note of this trend.
One Pakistani daily is supposed to have taken an e-mailed comment to the Fox News website to concoct a scenario in which a secret US commando force was ready to infiltrate Pakistan to secure its nuclear weapons. Another paper claimed that former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by a special death squad formed by former US vice-president Dick Cheney. The American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, to whom this was attributed, immediately denounced the report as complete madness. What is even more alarming is that at times government spokesmen actually encourage this kind of falsehood.