News agency Dawn has become the latest media outlet to be used as a puppet by political operatives in Pakistan. In a story published on Monday, October 12, Dawn stated that Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, would be dismissed within 48 hours and he would take over as Presidential spokesperson from Farahtullah Babar.
This report was based on some “Well informed official sources,” and appears to have been first put out by the news service Online. It was given quite a bit of fanfare, and major international new sources like BBC and CNN quoted Dawn in their reporting.
Well, 48 hours have passed and Ambassador Haqqani is still very deeply ensconced in his position.
So why did a leading Pakistani daily publish this false news? Was the aim to apply psychological pressure on the Zardari-Gilani administration? Or was there some deeper ulterior motive?
The story appears to have been first put out by the news service Online. As is well documented, Online was started under and subsidised by the Musharraf regime. It is quite possible that Musharraf loyalists have planted the rumours in an attempt to destabilize the government. If the report was truly based on information from well informed official sources, it would seem that there has been some attempt to mislead the media and create controversy.
In fact, this is not the first time news media have been used to engineer events instead of reporting them. Rumours have been similarly floated about the removal of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer and Interior Minister Rehman Malik. Others have been used to create the impression of differences between army and civilian government and between President Zardari and PM Gilani.
Whatever the reason behind the rumour, this was not the right thing to do. Even if Ambassador Haqqani resigns or leaves the post sometime in the near future, Dawn will have been proven wrong in an embarrassing lack of professionalism.
This lack of professionalism, though, creates more than just embarrassment for Dawn. In order to properly make decisions about matters of politics, citizens rely on a free and fair media to report well researched facts. If news media are willing puppets for political scheming, the citizens cannot make informed decisions. This is a real threat to the nation.
Today it is Dawn, but tomorrow it could easily be Geo or ARY or any other news source. Let us hope that they all learn from Dawn’s embarrassing mistake and from now on only publish well researched and substantiated facts. No more rumours, please.
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