VIDEO: Media used to hide politicians’ corruption in Pakistan: Imran

Tariq Butt, Correspondent

Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that some sections of the Pakistani media were not doing journalism on the basis of facts.

Speaking to a group of owners of private YouTube channels and social media activists at his office, he highlighted how some media houses and anchorpersons have flourished with the passage of time and how others were wiped out, a participant said.

Imran said that he had witnessed the highs and lows of Pakistani media.

“I have seen ratings of TV anchors go up and also, go down,” he said. “Respect and dishonour both are in Allah’s hands. If someone thinks he can bring dishonour to another person, he is wrong.” He said that if human beings could bring honour or dishonour upon someone, only the rich would be respected. “You cannot hide or suppress the truth for long,” he said.

The prime minister said that Pakistani media was used to hide politicians’ corruption. “(TV) anchors were given money to do planted programmes,” he said, adding that current affairs shows had become “meaningless” for people. “Current affairs programmes produce no results,” he said.

Imran said that Hollywood and Bollywood are promoting vulgarity in society. “Vulgarity destroys the family system,” he said. His remarks came a day after Maulana Tariq Jameel criticised Pakistani and international media for peddling lies.

When some attendees told the prime minister that they had blocked many “fake” news items of formal media, Imran said that those who did not do journalism on the basis of facts vanished from the market while those who did factual reporting survived.

He said there were many credible journalists and anchorpersons in the media who always did responsible journalism.

Speaking about the PTI’s social media team, Imran said that his party is the first one that realised the importance of digital media. “I started the PTI’s social media team with Dr Arif Alvi,” he added.

Giving details of the meeting, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan told reporters that the government has devised a new policy under which a due role would be given to social and digital media. She said the prime minister encouraged youth to open their YouTube channels so that they could earn by themselves.

She said a special quota of advertisement was being allocated for the digital media and YouTube channels would be registered with the Press Information Department (PID). She said owners and reporters of digital media would be given accreditation cards by the PID.