Pakistani media's conspiracy theories

By: Subhadeep Bhattacharjee

The aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks have not only exposed the true picture of Pakistani democracy but has also given an insight into Pakistani media. When General Pervez Musharraf was in power we witnessed severe protest for restoration of democracy. The Pakistani media played a pivotal role in these protest like the media of a free nation should do. But their recent stand towards the Mumbai terror attacks has raised several question marks on their ethics.

Barring a few news channels and newspapers most of Pakistani media went into a Pakistani defensive mode even when the operations were going on in Mumbai. They were conspiring nonsense theories which they themselves would not have believed. They blamed the Indian media of sensationalising the entire issue. True the Indian media sensationalised the entire terror strikes to a certain extent but unlike our Pakistani counterparts we did on forget the greatest ethic of journalism that of reporting the truth.

I happened to see some of such conspiracy television news programmes by the Pakistani television channels on YouTube and other sources. Some of such conspiracy theories are:

Ajmal Amir Kasav's actual name is Amar Singh and he is a resident of Indian state of Punjab and a RAW agent. (Wonder why they framed his name as Amar Singh and not LK Advani)

The Mumbai Terror attack was staged by RAW and there was no Pakistani involved directly or indirectly with it. (It won't be surprising if Pakistan claims that there is no district such a Faridkot in Pakistan)

The terrorist caught alive was also a RSS member as he was wearing a saffron band in his hand. (In very shady pictures shot at night they were able identify the colour of the band. They would have been sure of the band colour even if it were a B/W image.

The Indian foreign policy is prepared by the Israeli spy agency Mossad. (We surely know who runs the finance ministry in Pakistani)

Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by India to prevent restoration of democracy in Pakistan. (As if elections and so called democracy has changed the centre of power in Pakistan)

Maulana Masood Azhar was a journalist who was captivated by India without any criminal charges. (If Pakistani journalists are capable of forming terrorist outfits than we surely know whom to be scared of.)

Any society will grow and mature when people are free to express their opinion. But when freedom of press is synonymous to sheer nonsense even divine intervention can do very little for betterment of such a nation.