Fighting fake news

Twenty UN member states signed the International Partnership on Information and Democracy at the UN General Assembly last week — a historic inter-governmental accord initiated by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) to promote democratic principles in the online public arena. The accord commits signatories to promote online access to news and information that is freely and independently reported and is diverse and reliable. It establishes democratic principles, including political, ideological, and religious neutrality for algorithms and transparency in the way they function.

The list of signatories makes for interesting reading — both for who has, and who has not signed it. Pakistan, with its burgeoning forwarded-Whatsapp-message-equals-journalism culture, is unsurprisingly absent. But also absent is the United States, which might also be unsurprising, as the country’s president was elected in no small part because of fake news and who remains, arguably, the most prominent source of fake news in the US, having told well over 10,000 lies during his presidency, according to The Washington Post.

Another oddity was India, which did sign the agreement. No matter how anyone views Kashmir — as a multilateral, bilateral, or internal Indian issue — the fact of the matter is that around 12 million residents of the region, all citizens of India, have been denied access to information in a media lockdown that is now in its eighth week. Hardly the actions of a country committed to promoting “independently reported, diverse and reliable” information.

And this is without even commenting on the absolute propaganda machine that Indian media has degenerated into, as many once-sane voices also beat the propaganda drum of the ruling party, either in a chameleon quest for survival under a fascist regime, or having honestly fooled themselves. The BJP has also been using state ads as a weapon for a long time. The party itself is among the biggest advertisers in the country, which would be fine, except for the fact that it has also enforced a policy of withholding state ads to ‘unfriendly’ media outlets, choking the independent media in places like Kashmir, even before the lockdown.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st, 2019.

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