Fake news and narratives a big challenge in presence of social media: Fawad

KARACHI: Information and Broadcasting Minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain on Sunday said fake news and fake narratives were a challenge, particularly in the presence of a vibrant social media with large number of users.

The proposed Pakistan Media Regulatory Authority would also regulate social media, he said, while speaking here at a panel discussion on “There is no Truth only Narrative”.

The panel discussion was part of a two-day conference on “A World of Tomorrow Re-imagined” organised by the Beacon House Schools System.

The minister told a questioner that private television channels daily broadcast a number of news as breaking ones, which later proved as fake.

He said Pakistan was an open country when it comes to expression of information. “We have a very powerful media and an independent judiciary.”

Answering another question, he said no one had the license to incite others for violence. Pakistanis were a self-critic nation. “We ask so many questions and also criticise ourselves.”

The minister said that social media was mostly controlled by the developed countries, which would have to realise its impact on the Third World countries.

Taking part in the discussion, Beyond the Classroom Education’s CEO, Qasim Aslam, said, “We should teach our next generation the ways to trace the sources and learn procedures to analyse the truth about news or narratives coming to them.”

A British-Pakistani television journalist, George Fulton, said, “We analyse authenticity of narratives through two methods, either we rely on our closer social circle or we discover it ourselves.”

He said, “We learn so many things and get news from social media, especially in the time of blackout on electronic and print media.”