By | Atta R. Malik
Islamabad
Indian, ZEE NEWS, the mouth piece of BJP and RSS has launched a new project, WION, which is aggressively publishing foul propaganda against many South Asian countries including Pakistan.
WION (World Is One News) is a mobile friendly online platform. Its stated aim is to report global news and issues from a South Asian perspective. The website which was launched in Jun 2016 is growing mature and its contours are now clearly visible. The news content is available to audiences at their convenience, on their preferred screens; laptop, desktop or smart phones. WION is aimed to use voice of commoners through their mobile video and short reports.
To add credibility to its content, recently WION has started hiring disgruntled individuals from many South Asians countries; ready to work against their own state for money. These people are being named as bureau chiefs and reporters. WION has not been successful in attracting many.
In today’s world, subversion is being carried out through new tools of modern technology. Subversion is the process and an effort to change loyalties of significant political and social groups within the victim state, to the symbols and institutions of the aggressor. With reference to Media, subversion is to support and propagate narratives of adversaries. A few greedy journalists resort to shortcuts and unethical practices to make their profiles. They work against their own state for money and fame. They produce fake stories to discredit own state institutions and fuel instability.
Few Pakistani journalists are involved in subversive activities. They exploit nonexistence of explicit legislation on these important subjects and make for unethical but easy money. One such case is, Mr. Taha Siddiqui, a 30 years old Pakistani, IBA graduate of 2006. He has started working for WION as a “Pakistan Bureau Chief” and producing short video clips furthering the narrative of ZEE News/ Hindutva. He is producing misleading videos on Balochistan. Such people also capture raw footage of various incidents in Pakistan to be used later by their sponsors/donors abroad for unrelated purposes. This is open espionage and an act of subversion being committed by few journalists working for foreign media houses. I am amazed our FIA and so called most powerful spy agency of the world, ISI has no clue about them. Technology is changing and so are spying tools. Our state institutions should have some arrangements/mechanism to identify such individuals.
These individual are causing unimaginable loss to state integrity and in fact inciting insurgency in many parts of Pakistan notably Balochistan. They want to divide and create chaos / turmoil in the society for easy invasion by their enemies. They are supporters of terrorists’ hell bent upon causing instability of Pakistan.
My take on the subject
A. A secure online website should be developed which should encourage reporting by common citizens against journalists involved in creating online anti-state content. Ministry of Interior under FIA or some other institution to manage such website/database.
B. A pool of well-read and patriotic academia should be hired to distinguish between constructive criticism and deliberate subversion. Then suspected individuals should be continuously profiled for their articles, tweets, Facebook posts, videos, irrespective of the medium they choose to proliferate their ideas worldwide. This can be easily done with a
customized software. It will help identify who is criticizing for betterment and others engaged in subversion.
C. Pakistani Journalists working for foreign media should be identified and listed as such in the software. Their access to information and sensitive locations should not be at par with Pakistani nationals. They should be seen as extension of foreign media.
D. FBR has leading role in combating enemy agents. Income tax returns of suspected journalists should be annually audited and their accounts monitored.
E. Necessary legislation should also be made to try such rogues in court of law.
F. Foreign Media Houses and famous institutes should also be profiled for their content creation about Pakistan. Only then the elite of Pakistan would discover that Al Jazeera of “brother Islamic country” is more hostile than BBC and CNN.
We the people of Pakistan have given more than required sacrifices and now it is the time ‘not to grow a snake up in our sleeve.
Author holds M Phil degree in International Relations from National Defence University Islamabad. He can be reached at : attarasul@hotmail.com
