Media fabrication: PIA refutes in-flight childbirth reports

Sensationalism and running after breaking news is hurting the image of media outlets, a CAA spokesperson said.

KARACHI: News of the birth of a baby aboard a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight was termed “preposterous and unfounded” by the national flag carrier’s spokesperson, Mashhood Tajwar. “The news was given enough airtime without verification,” added Tajwar while talking to The Express Tribune. “It is extremely unethical on the part of media organisations that they caused a great stir with the fabricated news story, which was removed from the television screens without any formal acceptance of omission.” Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) spokesperson Abid Kaimkhani said sensationalism and running after breaking news is hurting the image of media outlets. “I do not even know how media can morph that one message, which was circulated through the control tower about a male asthma patient into a nine-month pregnant woman giving birth to a baby in the flight that has to travel the distance of over 11,600 kilometres from Toronto to Karachi.”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 20^th, 2013.