India-Pak leaders keep cool, journos talk war

CREATING WAR HYSTERIA: Experts believe when journalists give their analysis, they must not create war hysteria.

          

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Indian and Pakistani leaders have ruled out war as an option to end the stalemate created by the Mumbai terror attacks but the media in both countries has been taking a bellicose stand and some say that Indian and Pakistani journalists have been acting like nationalists instead of like journalists.

Are Indian and Pakistani media creating jingoism? CNN-IBN’s Sagarika Ghose asked this on Face The Nation to senior Pakistani journalist and the Editor Geo TV news channel Hamid Mir; Strategic Affairs Editor of The Hindu newspaper Siddharth Varadarajan; and a former editor of the Panchjanya, the magazine of the Hindu nationalist organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Tarun Vijay.

NO DEBATE

“People were outraged after what happened in Mumbai, but there is no doubt that media has contributed to heightening the sense of helplessness and jingoism in the society,” said Varadarajan.

“The media created a sort of spectacle and suggested that now is the time for war. Media has the responsibility of generating an informed discussion but many such discussions were not informed,” he said.

Journalists are being arrogant when they take up the task of framing public opinion - they must reflect it, said Vijay. Indian journalism hasn’t got a bad name because of war mongering but because of secular journalists acting as “apologists” for terrorists.

“The so called secular press has been behaving as apologists for Afzal Guru (Parliament attack convict on death row) and other such people. Who are you (journalists) to guide public opinion? You are there to reflect public opinion,” said Vijay.

Should then journalists report that public opinion wants to bomb Pakistan? Yes, said Vijay. “The duty of the journalist to report that this what the people of India want.”

THE PAKISTAN VIEW

The Indian Prime Minister on Tuesday ruled out war with Pakistan. Other senior officials of his Government have spoken with restraint before. How does the Pakistani media react to their statements?

“I am very thankful that Manmohan Singh gave this statement but very journalists and media outlets in Pakistan will appreciate this,” said Mir. “Very few newspapers will make it a headline and I apprehend that in India too this statement of the Prime Minister will not be appreciated in many media outlets.”