Hyderabad, Dec 1: Eminent Pakistani journalist Najam Sethi on Tuesday said media in both India and Pakistan is trapped in “narrow nationalism” and is part of the problem in relations between the two countries.
Speaking at the inaugural session of World Newspaper Congress after receiving the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) Golden Pen of Freedom award here, Sethi said the media in both the countries was too intensely nationalistic and had pushed them to the brink of war after last year’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai. “After Mumbai last year, both the media put on the war paint and pushed their governments to the brink of war,” said Sethi, the editor-in-chief of the Friday Times and the Daily Times.
Contending that media is part of a problem rather than solution in India-Pakistan relations, he gave instances of media stalling the peace dialogue at critical points. “In 1989 when the then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi visited Pakistan, the Pakistani media stopped (the then Pakistan Prime Minister) Benazir Bhutto’s government from implementing the far-reaching cultural accords that were signed on that occasion. When Mr Gandhi went back, the Indian media stopped him from moving ahead on Siachen accord inked by the defence secretaries of the two countries in Pakistan,” he said.
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