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| Pressure on media and fake news in Pakistan: 'We were asked not to mention Imran Khan's name |
After the violent protests of May 9 in Pakistan, the crackdown against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf began, in which many leaders and activists of the former Prime Minister Imran Khan's party were arrested.
Almost all the top leadership of PTI was arrested and put in jail. A new series started in the coming days. Among the arrested leaders, whoever was released on a court order was arrested again.
Then a new series started. After a few days of this series of 'release and arrest', former leaders of PTI started being released from jail and every released leader would hold a press conference and then announce that he was quitting Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf.
In all this situation, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf chief and former Prime Minister Imran Khan took a clear stand that his party is being 'targeted especially because of the events of May 9' and at the same time, he also adopted a statement.
Imran Khan and his party said that the May 9 protests at military properties and residences "did not involve Tehreek-e-Insaaf workers." Do 'in which their own people were involved.'
He said that his aim was to frame the PTI. Former Prime Minister Imran Khan was particularly active on social media.
In support of his position, he continued to post pictures and videos on social media purporting to show how the administration was trying to force his workers and leaders to leave the party.
However, some pictures and videos were published from his social media handles which later proved to be 'fake'. That is, they were either not related to recent events, or they were very old or they were not from Pakistan.
For example, while sharing a video, he tried to show how women workers of PTI are being abused in jails. However, the authenticity of this video could not be confirmed.
He also tried to show that the management was trying to force his workers to leave the party. He shared a video in which a bus belonging to a PTI worker was allegedly being vandalized.
This video also proved to be fake. Similarly, trucks were shown on fire and it was said that PTI worker's trucks were set on fire, that picture also proved to be outdated.
Not only Imran Khan or PTI, but many such journalists were also found sharing fake videos, photos, or information on social media.
One of the reasons for this is that in the political scenario created after May 9, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and former Prime Minister Imran Khan's statements and positions are getting very little space and time in the local media of Pakistan. Shrinking more by the day.
For this, PTI and Imran Khan and their supporters turned to social media where there is a lack of tendency to publish information after verification.
Why do political parties and journalists turn to social media?
The main reason for this seems to be that these days most people rely more on social media than traditional media for news and information. It is especially common among young people.
Hasnain Raza, Mohammad Rafiq Qureshi, Mohammad Amar Ali, and Fahad Zafar are from Peshawar, Pakistan. Speaking to the BBC, he said that he mostly looks at social media for news.
Hasnain Raza said that I work in a shop, so most of the day I am out of the house, so I don't get a chance to watch TV. That's why I see most of the news on Facebook and Twitter etc.
Muhammad Ammar Ali also uses Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. But while Muhammad Rafiq Qureshi believes that 75% of the content on social media is accurate, all three other users told the BBC that they do not believe much in the news on social media.
Muhammad Imran says that I see news on social media all day but I don't believe it and to confirm this news I watch TV in the evening. Information news on TV is mostly true.
Is Imran Khan's position facing an unprecedented ban in the media?
One of the reasons why Imran Khan and his party relied heavily on social media after the May 9 events seem to be that their stance is not visible on most local TV channels.
Apparently, no official instructions have been given by the administration to the local TV channels that Imran Khan or his party will be banned from broadcasting. So the question is whether there are any such secret instructions.
Reporters and bureau chiefs working for various TV channels declined to confirm or deny this on record while speaking to the BBC. However, they must mention that they are under pressure while reporting on Imran Khan and his party.
However, Farzana Ali, Bureau Chief of Aaj News, a private TV channel from Peshawar, while talking to BBC, said that "Suppressing the voice of a politician in any democratic system is not welcome and it should not happen."
According to him, if this is happening, the politicians and political parties themselves are also responsible for itare We saw that when former Prime Minister Imran Khan was in power, the voice of PML-N was suppressed. Now if the same thing is happening with Imran Khan, then most of the fault lies with the politicians.
However, she believes that doing so is not benefiting the democratic system in the country.
Why don't journalists themselves adopt verification processes on social media?
Social media has been facing the problem of 'fake news' for a long time. It has also been seen many times that many journalists whose job it is to publish every piece of news after verifying it, sometimes share things that are not proven to be true after verification.
Farzana Ali, Bureau Chief of Aaj News from Peshawar believes that many journalists have committed this mistake. She says that she once fell victim to this when "I shared something but when more information came out about it, I found out that it wasn't the case, so I deleted my tweet."
Farzana Ali says that she made such an unwitting mistake after which she made it a habit to verify any information from multiple sources before sharing it on social media.
Journalist and anchorperson Jameel Farooqui faced arrest and jail some time ago, allegedly because he published news on social media about a PTI leader, Shehbaz Gul, that he had been arrested by the police. He was tortured in custody.
Speaking to BBC, journalist Jameel Farooqui says that the motives for the FIR and arrest against him were something else. had given
Jameel Farooqi says 'No journalist wants to give false news knowingly which will tarnish his career. And if he is sharing news forward, he is not necessarily endorsing it. He has written on his Twitter that retweet is not an endorsement.
Is it possible to stop fake news on social media?
Journalist and anchorperson Asma Shirazi say that as far as journalists are concerned, most journalists do not deliberately publish or spread fake news. It happens that such a mistake is made by a journalist unknowingly.
However, he believes that sometimes a few journalists become part of such campaigns run by someone for a specific purpose. "Such people become a part of propaganda, but then I leave it to you to decide whether it is right to call such people journalists."
Journalist Shahzeb Jilani is also part of a program 'Zara Hit K' on a local private TV Dawn News these days. He says that one of the benefits of social media been seen is that wherever there are authoritarian governments and they try to impose censorship, in such cases, social media has made it difficult for them to do so. Is.
But at the same time, we have seen how social media influences elections, undermines the democratic system. The election of former President Donald Trump in the United States and Brexit in the United Kingdom are examples of this.
Journalist Shahzeb Jilani says that social media platforms have created a fact-checking system, but there is a question mark on how effective this system is. He says that even in Pakistan Facebook company Meta has made a fact-checking system but is it practically possible for it to fact-check all the content.
This is why they believe that lies are winning over truth on social media. "They say that by the time a lie has traveled three times around the world, the truth is wearing braces."
Is there pressure on Pakistani media regarding Imran Khan?
Shahzeb Jilani says that in his opinion when Imran Khan was in government, there was a lot of pressure on the media in Pakistan.
"TV channels were shut down, many TV channels were given instructions to keep such and such anchor, to fire such and such, to talk about such and such in the program, to discuss such and such issues and to program such and such experts. I take Micro-management was done to this extent.
He says that after the departure of Imran Khan's government, the 'suffering environment' has improved a lot. I have been a part of a program on a local TV channel for the past seven months. During this period, I did not see that there was much intrusion.
However, Shahzeb Jilani says that the atmosphere is changing rapidly after the May 9 events recently.
For example, a request was made to us that you will not mention the name of Imran Khan. So we look for excuses on how to do it again. Call him ex-prime minister, Qasim's father, or ex-cricketer. After all, he is a former prime minister, how is it possible to discuss politics without his name.
Shahzeb says that now it seems that if the establishment of Pakistan has made a project regarding Imran Khan, then they will increase the pressure on the media for it.