archive: Pak media lament lost opportunity
Pak media lament lost opportunity
UNI
Rediff on Net
July 19, 1999
Title: Pak media lament lost opportunity
Author: UNI
Publication: Rediff on Net
Date: July 19, 1999
Pakistani journalists envy the performance of the Indian media during
the Kargil crisis while regretting that their own media failed because
of the government's policy to keep it in the dark.
At a seminar in Karachi on ''Media in crisis: international and
cross-border dimensions'' participating journalists said the press as
a whole remained ignorant because the information ministry and other
concerned agencies either misled them or refused to guide them at all.
On the other hand, they said, India had realised the significance of
using the media to project the crisis in such a way that the world
public opinion went in favour of India. The Indian government had
taken the media and the people into confidence.
But in Pakistan, they said, the Sharief government had totally failed
to anticipate the media requirements in such a situation. Suffering
from the hangover of military rule, civilian governments continued to
gag the press.
It is significant to note that the preparations for the invasion of
Kargil late last year coincided with a crackdown on the press and the
arrest and humiliation of journalists by the Sharief government. The
press was totally confused about the government's objectives.
While the government claimed that its army was not involved in the
infiltration of Kargil, the press wrote proudly that Pakistani troops
had captured Indian posts in Kargil. Similarly, while the Pakistan
government was telling the world that the militants involved were
Kashmiris, the press was carrying interviews with militant leaders who
boasted that the intruders comprised men ''from Morocco to
Indonesia.''
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