DAVOS: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in a panel address at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos discussing ‘Fake news vs real politics’ said the big business models pose a threat to real journalism in Pakistan.
Discussing the concept of fake news, Bilawal said that fake news recently gained popularity primarily through US elections, though it has existed for decades.
Responding to questions raised during the discussion, Bhutto said, “When fake news is disseminated in Pakistan it can have major issues – the point is to have the media come through as transparent as it can. Coming from a fragile democracy, attacking and demonising the media can have adverse effects.” Bilawal said that there’s no concrete way to ask who runs fake news in Pakistan. “They are far more commercialized and push out their monetary interest. A lot of actors are involved in this, especially the commercial owners,” he said. The PPP chief stated that it is big business models and industrial giants who own and run media houses which pose a high possibility of the news being biased.
On western media propagation, he said, “Let’s not forget weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was fake news … we have to be able to see that we don’t recognise our own faults. They pitched US intelligence narratives which turned out to be fiction.”
Published in Daily Times, January 25th 2018.
