Political victimization of media in Pakistan

NEW DELHI: The media in Pakistan has always played a crucial role in calibrating the political trends and the messaging, working closely with the government or the political parties they owe allegiance to. However, in the last year or so and specifically the last six months, the Pakistani media has not only been in the limelight for having been unusually vocal and expressive, but has also taken sides to create a vicious and unhealthy atmosphere. This has led to a clear rift within the media space among those who are supporters of the Imran Khan government and those against him. The latter category though dominate the media space in Pakistan today.

As the pitch of rhetoric and counter rhetoric increased over the last few weeks one witnessed the media shredding all ethics and journalistic values while resorting to use of strong language and aggressive posturing in emphasizing their point of view. However, one found the government responding with angst dealing with the so-called detractors with a strong hand. Handling of the media has been a weak spot for the Imran Khan government as it has failed to deal with the media tactfully, which in turn has resulted in creation of a strong anti-government lobby within the media land scape which the government will find challenging to deal with in these difficult times.

Soon after the formation of the Imran Khan government, the government invested significant resources on social media for publicizing pro-government narrative and to ensure a better outreach in the public domain. These platforms were used to unleash a tirade of rhetoric against the government's opponents through a carefully calibrated mechanism which included intelligence collected on them and their activities and exposing them in the public space. For a while, they worked fine by way of creating a positive image of the government in spite of its poor performance. However, reacting to the government's initiative, most political parties decided not to be left behind and the PTI, PML-N, PPP and others also upgraded their social media cells to counter PTI's offensive narrative.

Meanwhile, in its eagerness to push the media agenda, PTI placed Shehbaz Gill, Fayazul Hassan Chohan, Murad Saeed, Shibli Faraz and Fawad Chaudhary at the fore front while relegating to the rear some of the Party's seasoned and mature politicians. Similar trend was witnessed among the other parties as well with people lacking media ethics but ability to strike hard using rough and aggressive language, coming to the fore. The PTI clearly raced ahead in this regard using government resources at its disposal. The PTI media cell got integrated into the Information Ministry receiving financial and expert support from the best talent the government could afford. Advice was also sought by the government from foreign experts in this regard.

While on one hand the Imran government started spending huge resources targeting opponents and indulging in character assassination of those opposed to the governmentincluding people in the media, on the other hand the office bearers of PTI social media team were elevated to senior government positions. This process was also repeated in the provinces over a period of time.

As far as mainstream media is concerned, Imran Khan tried to convert every newspaper and TV channel into his own entity or beholden to his government. Media houses, prominent journalists and television channels who refused to tow the government line found it difficult to survive and operate, with a number of popular and well known journalists losing their jobs. There have also been instances of some journalists being physically assaulted by so called 'unknown' elements. As the tables begin to turn, skeletons in Imran Khan's cupboard seem to be rolling out. Imran Khan's erstwhile confidants like Mohsin Baig have revealed as to how Imran Khan had issued orders to implicate Jang and Geo group owner Mir Shakilur Rehman and Dawn Group's Hamid Haroon in various cases.

The anti-government media has at the same time been able to identify relevant topics on which to target Imran Khan. For instance, they point to how the Prime Minister has been rewarding failed politicians with the 'best performance' award. Similarly, while PM has repeatedly been mentioning of the relevance of the 'Riyasat-e-Madina' (religious ministry) and its exceptional role, at the same time the ministry never made it to the list of top ten performing ministries nominated for appreciation certificates recently.

On the issue of the government's harsh and often brutal attitude towards the media, Nawaz Sharif mentioned in an interview on February 18 that this was the outcome of Imran Khan's sentiments of vendetta and grudge against opponents. He mentioned that the Federal Investigative Agency should not be used by the government to settle such scores. He further mentioned that Imran Khan was trying to push Pakistan towards destruction and crushing his opponents ruthlessly in the process. However, Nawaz mentioned that Imran Khan would not succeed in his endeavour. IANS

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