Not just Indo-Pak
The media is now at the forefront of every conflict. Print traditionally chased war stories till electronic’s coverage of the First Gulf War stood the equation on its head. First it made live coverage a possibility. Then, soon enough, it became a potent weapon, usually employed for relentless, focused bombardment just prior to the actual bombs and bullets flying. We have seen this trend on shameless display right through this so-called international war against terrorism. And we have seen it employed even more blatantly as the media, more than anything, created conditions conducive to deliberate international perversion of the Arab Spring.
For quite a while it became possible to foretell how different news agencies would interpret landmark events in the Syrian civil war. Anything even remotely connected to US, EU, Nato, GCC or Turkish interests would speak only of Iranian and Russian efforts to help keep a criminal government in Damascus even as it killed hundreds of thousands of its own people. It successfully sold a marriage of convenience between Nato and Saudi sponsored al Qaeda hordes in Libya’s uprising as a people’s war for independence. Even al Jazeera happily lost its hard earned reputation of impartiality as the Qatari royalty took a clear stake in the Syrian war. The less corporate of the international media, however, repeatedly warned against using Islamist militias as proxies in larger regional disagreements.
Indo-Pak media hostility is no different. After the Uri incident, as every time tension breaks out, the Indian media has gone on a blatant, hysteria-inducing frontal offensive against Pakistan. It is effectively urging the government to initiate military strikes; be they surgical airstrikes or movement across the LoC. Pakistani media, unfortunately, has been little different. Yet neither realises that urging armed action under the influence of reactionary nationalism risks upsetting and uprooting lives of millions of people, with all the associated spillovers and costs. Unlike proxy conflicts, this one does not involve alien territories, but their own respective countries. Prudence should dictate caution, but the media is too drunk on ratings and one-upmanship.