By Shazia Anwer Cheema
Islamabad, Pakistan: Former prime minister Imran Khan is one of the most fortunate persons who enjoys immunity and can meet over 1,500 guests in a year while living in jail. He enjoys opportunities to spread venom against the country because he is free to talk to the media and the media platforms are free to spread his words of hatred against the state.
The new bait he is offering to youth is that the situation of Bangladesh and Pakistan are similar and the youth should throw the sitting government out of power like what happened in Bangladesh. He is also free to be in touch with his foreign masters through his guests (family members and his legal team) and the words he speaks against Pakistan are being provided by his foreign masters who have the best experts in the narrative building at their disposal in the Western world. Khan is trying again to spellbind his cult followers and the new catch is the Bangladesh uprising. Everybody knows that what happened in Bangladesh was a result of the autocratic rule of Hasina Wajid and her Indian-centric administrative structure in which she divided society. What happened in Bangladesh has a history of lust for power Hasina and the same kind of lust for power is part of the personality of Imran Khan he is trying to use Bangladesh’s events to plan another violent incident like May 9 to save his submerged politics. All efforts of him through lobbying at the global level are not bearing fruit but his chaotic personality is not ready to accept the reality that he has failed to exploit the youth of Pakistan against the state of Pakistan. However, his desire to see Pakistan as a failed state like Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Haiti is constantly supported by the Western world therefore he still has hope to create a civil war situation in Pakistan as the Western media successfully did in Haiti, Libya, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
Chief of Pakistan Army Gen Asim Munir called ‘digital terrorism’ and he rightfully believes that Pakistan has been a target of this digital terrorism for long
Those who know the philosophy of Communication can well understand that media manipulation is an integral tool of “Cognitive Warfare” that has become a new security threat and new technological means are being used to spread disinformation to change people’s perceptions and thus alter their self-identity.
Disinformation campaigns against democracies in the developing world come from famous Western media platforms such as BBC, CNN, Fox News, Reuters, AFP, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal
Launching cognitive warfare against any country needs the content to create ‘selective blindness’ and ‘misleading expectations’ among the public and these are usually injected through mainstream media platforms, social media, and NGO networking. This is what Chief of Pakistan Army Gen Asim Munir called ‘digital terrorism’ and he rightfully believes that Pakistan has been a target of this digital terrorism for long. There is a popular opinion that major producers of disinformation are those who are not trained and bona fide journalists, however, things are more complex because famous and well-established Western media platforms are mostly involved in creating false narratives against developing countries like Pakistan for gaining political interests of their respective countries.
Last year’s data mapping shows that lobbying firms hired by PTI manage several campaigns against Pakistan. Interviews of Khan were published during the time he was in jail and all of his interviews were against the Pakistan Army
There are several media pieces of research are available that indicate academicians, media practitioners, and media consumer groups are clear that disinformation campaigns against democracies in the developing world come from famous Western media platforms such as BBC, CNN, Fox News, Reuters, AFP, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and many of such western media hubs who treat news and spread through Western televisions, news agencies, and newspapers. Last year’s data mapping patterns of dissemination of disinformation against Pakistan show that lobbying firms hired by PTI manage several campaigns against Pakistan and interviews of Imran Khan were published during the time he was in jail and all of his interviews were against Pakistan Army, sitting government and most of interviews spread the message of mutiny. A review of material published in Western media through PTI lobbying firms shows how Western media manipulates political events by providing wrong and sometimes fabricated information about the economies and political personalities of Pakistan and building cases of (alleged) corruption and alleged human rights violations with self-serving rhetoric.
The ability to critically evaluate, use, and create information is a key skill that enables consumers (people) to make the right choices regarding news in the information environment. Unfortunately, the teaching of logical thinking is usually denied in Pakistan and curriculum structures do not give priority to telling the students how to do data analysis youth are not conversant enough to test the data (information, etc.) logically and empirically and this lack of knowledge with semiotics sciences help the attackers (media platforms) to launch false narratives against Pakistan.
There is no doubt that ‘Information’ is a very powerful tool, but the key question today faced by consumers is how it is being used. The most dangerous thing is that disinformation has turned into manipulation and psychological warfare that is ‘digital terrorism’ as disinformation has become a means to achieve vested interests of global powers and this situation is “a media attack” that is sometimes mingled with NGO financing to destabilize society and deliberate media attacks and calculated attempts are launched to discredit governance and democracy in Pakistan.
The educational system of Pakistan should be equipped to tell the consumers (public) that they should keep facts in mind while reading, watching, and listening to any content from Western sources of information that Western media is a weapon against developing countries and against those who do not follow instructions from the West and the Western media works on a communication model of creating false narrative building based on syndicated, coordinated, deliberated moves to attack certain developing countries like Pakistan.
Western world banned Russian television broadcasting in European countries two years ago claiming that RT and other Russian platforms were ‘spreading pro-Russian propaganda’
Since Pakistani institutions understand that the country is facing digital terrorism, this is the foremost responsibility of the state to sensitize youth about media manipulation techniques such as fake news, deep fact, cheap fake, fabricated news, concocted news, cooked news, digital terrorism, and so on. In this world of polarized media, the responsibility lies with the state to protect the public from the flood of disinformation campaigns and fabricated content (audio-visual and text-formed) and the state must use all available resources to guard the public while forgetting what the Western media would call it. It is pertinent to mention that the Western world banned Russian television broadcasting in European countries two years ago claiming that RT and other Russian platforms were ‘spreading pro-Russian propaganda’ and several times correspondents of Al-Jazeera and TRT were banned from covering the Russia-Ukraine conflict from Ukrainian regions. It is also being noted that no one else than Western media can enter bordering areas of Israel with Palestine. It should also be kept in mind that the entire Western media is using one ‘style sheet’ of adjectives about the Gaza war and Western media is not allowed to use the word ‘genocide’ for the killing of Palestinians.
If Western media can censor news by using the word ‘ban’ why should Pakistan not ban all media platforms that spread hatred against Pakistan among its public?
The state of Pakistan should understand that Imran Khan would never stop spreading hate against the state and the decision lies with the state institutions whether to ban Imran Khan’s discussions with the media or not.
