Govt gurus set to win media support
ISLAMABAD – Besides ‘Lal Masjid’, the government is also fighting a war on media front and its so-called information gurus are working to handle the electronic channels and national dailies to win people’s hearts on the issue.
Well placed sources in Ministry of Information and Broadcasting told this scribe on Monday that the authorities have activated all its information managers to maintain a close liaison with national media and facilitate them for pro-government coverage in the whole episode of mosque showdown.
These instructions were passed after Sunday’s incident when few officials of security agencies misbehaved with journalists and sealed the Press Club in order to launch final phase of military operation over Jamia Hafsa compound.
The government moved quickly when few TV channels retaliated this action and transmitted harsh comments against the government. “Actually the visit of Director General Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Maj. General Arshad Waheed to Press Club Islamabad office was first attempt to counter the situation and government accelerated its efforts to please media after that,” said a source.
“The President General Musharraf also passed special instructions to media managers for facilitating media and putting in every effort for conveying government’s point of view to masses on the issue,” the source added.
He said that the government had established a media camp near Lal Masjid on Sunday to avoid any risk to journalists during cross firing but later it converted it to a full-fledged facilitation center to earn maximum sympathies of media. “Serving food and beverages at a battle field is nothing else but an effort to please media”, he added.
He said that the authorities also passed the instructions for providing maximum positive information to media persons and cooperate with them as much as possible.
“The top brass of the country including President General Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and other notables view that winning the war on media front should be the main objective of the ongoing operation and they presented separate suggestions for handling media during the recent top level meetings of the government,” the source added.
He said that President Musharraf has ordered his media managers (Muhammad Ali Durrani, Senator Tariq Azeem and Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad) to work as a team and evaluate a joint strategy to win media support.
The source said that the government also improved its strategy because it was under pressure due to heavy media campaign of Abdul Rashid Ghazi who continued sending messages to journalists even during the massive cross firing at the venue.
“It seems that both parties are fighting their original war at the front of media and not at the mosque,” the source said adding that the government will further accelerate its media campaign in near future.
He also revealed that the government has directed its ministers to issue separate statements in favour of military operation for evacuation of the mosque and Jamia Hafsa.
Source: The Nation
Date:7/10/2007
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