Latest news with #NirupamaRao
Arab Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Arab Times
Fake News And Nationalism: India's Media War On Truth
NEW DELHI, June 8: India's mainstream news media, once celebrated for their fearless reporting and democratic spirit, are now facing a crisis of credibility that has drawn concern from international observers, rights organizations, and even their journalists. The decline is not just a matter of perception but is playing out in real time, with recent events exposing deep-rooted issues of sensationalism, political alignment, and the unchecked spread of misinformation. The latest wave of misinformation occurred against the backdrop of escalated India–Pakistan military tensions. Indian mainstream media like Aaj Tak, Zee News, NDTV, and Times Now were accused of disseminating unverified videos, AI-generated images, and false casualty figures. A report by a fake‑news watchdog exposed multiple instances of such errors—old or unrelated images being misrepresented as evidence of the Pahalgam tragedy A Shifting Landscape: From Watchdog to Megaphone Over the past decade, India's largest news channels and newspapers have come under fire for aligning too closely with propaganda narratives and sidelining dissenting voices. The shift has raised alarms about the erosion of press freedom in the world's largest democracy. According to Reporters Without Borders, India now ranks 159 out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index—its lowest position ever. 'India's media has gradually turned into an echo chamber for the state,' a senior RSF analyst observed, highlighting the growing skepticism both domestically and abroad. Behind this transformation lies a media industry dominated by powerful conglomerates with deep political and financial stakes. Critics argue that this ownership structure has compromised editorial independence, replacing investigative journalism with polarizing debates, celebrity coverage, and sensational rhetoric. The result is a press that increasingly prioritizes loyalty over accountability, as noted by a foreign correspondent based in New Delhi. The Misinformation Maelstrom: When Newsrooms Become Amplifiers The dangers of this new media reality were laid bare during a recent military standoff between India and Pakistan. In the early hours of May 9, a WhatsApp alert from the Indian public broadcaster falsely claimed that Pakistan's army chief had been arrested in a coup. The message was quickly picked up by an Indian journalist, broadcast across major news channels, and began trending on social media. The entire story was fabricated; no coup had occurred, and the supposed 'arrested' general was soon promoted. This incident was not an isolated lapse. During the crisis, Indian newsrooms became saturated with unverified claims and outright fabrications, shaping public perception at a time of heightened national security tensions. Channels broadcast images from unrelated conflicts, repurposed visuals from plane crashes and video games, and reported dramatic victories without evidence. Former Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao described the environment as one of 'hypernationalism and abnormal triumphalism,' fueled by a lack of official information and a rush to fill the vacuum with spectacle. Media critic Manisha Pande of Newslaundry called it 'the most dangerous version of what a section of TV news channels have been doing for a decade … completely unchecked.' Journalists admitted to airing stories based on unverified WhatsApp messages and influencer posts, while anchors declared dramatic developments with no factual basis. A Crisis of Trust—and a Glimmer of Hope The fallout from these episodes has been profound. The unchecked spread of misinformation and the willingness to prioritize sensationalism over verification have eroded public trust in mainstream media, both in India and internationally. Even as Pakistani media engaged in its own misinformation campaigns, the Indian press's lapses were particularly glaring given its democratic heritage. Yet, amid the spectacle, a core group of Indian journalists and independent platforms—such as The Wire, and Article 14 —continue to uphold the values of rigorous, ethical reporting, often at great personal and professional risk. Global outlets like The New York Times, BBC, and Al Jazeera have also expanded their India coverage, offering alternative perspectives and counter-narratives. Looking Ahead: Can Indian Media Reclaim Its Role? As India approaches future elections and navigates complex domestic and global challenges, the question remains: Can its mainstream media reassert its independence and restore public trust, or will it continue its drift into partisanship and spectacle? The answer may well determine not just the fate of the press, but the health of Indian democracy itself.
United News of India
2 days ago
- Business
- United News of India
Ex-foreign secy optimistic of breakthrough in India-US trade talks
Bengaluru, June 6 (UNI) Former foreign secretary Nirupama Rao has indicated that a major breakthrough in Indo-US trade negotiations may be within reach, asserting that the two countries are working through tariff and regulatory challenges as part of a broader strategic convergence. Speaking at Frontline India, an event orgainsed FICCI FLO, Nirupama Rao said the resilience and depth of the India-US relationship had enabled both sides to adopt a "problem-solving approach" to contentious issues like market access and protectionism. "In the face of rising tariffs and creeping protectionism, India has found ways to navigate the pressure. Given the strength of our relationship with the United States, I sense that a forward-looking agreement is truly within reach," Nirupama Rao said, while stressing that discussions were addressing both tariff and non-tariff barriers. She further underlined India's commitment to strategic autonomy and responsibility in global affairs. "We march to the beat of our own drum, but we act with responsibility — and that is our reputation globally," she said, citing India's leadership during its G20 presidency as an example of its growing stature. Nirupama Rao criticised the erosion of the World Trade Organization's effectiveness, suggesting that some major powers had contributed to weakening multilateral mechanisms. "This is a challenge not just for India, but for all countries in the Global South," she remarked. These comments come in the wake of US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick expressing reservations about India's trade policies. While reaffirming his admiration for India, Lutnick flagged concerns over India's high tariffs and its historical defence procurements from Russia. "India has very high tariffs — it needs to bring those down to build a fair and strong relationship," he said. However, Lutnick also acknowledged the evolving alignment between India and the US, especially in the wake of shifting global power dynamics. He noted that India's previous defence ties with Russia had been a source of tension but recognised that "trends are changing" as New Delhi and Washington increasingly align economically and strategically. Despite the reservations, Lutnick sounded optimistic about the path ahead, suggesting that a bilateral trade agreement was possible "in the not-too-distant future." Nirupama Rao, meanwhile, urged a national effort to rebuild manufacturing capabilities lost over the last three decades. "Our trade deficit with China stands at over USD 100 billion. We used to make our own APIs and electronic components — that capacity must be restored," she said, calling it a generational challenge. UNI BDN PRS
Washington Post
5 days ago
- General
- Washington Post
How misinformation overtook Indian newsrooms amid conflict with Pakistan
NEW DELHI — Shortly after midnight on May 9, an Indian journalist received a WhatsApp message from Prasar Bharati, the state-owned public broadcaster. Pakistan's army chief had been arrested, the message read, and a coup was underway. Within minutes, the journalist posted the information on X and others followed suit. Soon enough, it was splashed across major Indian news networks and went viral on social media. The 'breaking news' was entirely false. There had been no coup in Pakistan. Gen. Asim Munir, far from being behind bars, would soon be elevated to the rank of field marshal. It was the most glaring — but far from the only — example of how misinformation swept through Indian newsrooms last month during several of the most violent nights between the nuclear-armed neighbors in decades. The Washington Post spoke to more than two dozen journalists from some of India's most influential news networks, as well as to current and former Indian officials, about how the country's information ecosystem became inundated with falsehoods — and how it warped the public's understanding of a crucial moment. The journalists spoke on the condition that their names and employers remain anonymous, fearing professional reprisals. Most of the officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information. As the fighting escalated night after night, few Indian officials were put forward to explain what was happening, said Nirupama Rao, India's former foreign secretary. The vacuum was filled on television newscasts by 'hypernationalism' and 'abnormal triumphalism,' Rao said, creating what she called a 'parallel reality.' Times Now Navbharat reported that Indian forces had entered Pakistan; TV9 Bharatvarsh told viewers that Pakistan's prime minister had surrendered; Bharat Samachar said he was hiding in a bunker. All of them, along with some of the country's largest channels — including Zee News, ABP News and NDTV — repeatedly proclaimed that major Pakistani cities had been destroyed. To support the false claims, networks aired unrelated visuals from conflicts in Gaza and Sudan, from a plane crash in Philadelphia — and even scenes from video games. Zee News, NDTV, ABP News, Bharat Samachar, TV9 Bharatvarsh, Times Now and Prasar Bharati did not respond to requests for comment. 'It's the most dangerous version of what a section of TV news channels have been doing for a decade, completely unchecked,' said Manisha Pande, media critic and managing editor of Newslaundry, an independent news outlet. 'At this point, they're like Frankenstein's monsters — completely out of control.' India has one of the most expansive and linguistically diverse media landscapes in the world. Nine hundred television channels attract millions of viewers each evening across Indian towns and cities; newspapers still have a wide reach in rural areas. Over many decades, the country's independent press has played a critical role in exposing government corruption and holding power to account. In the past decade, however, particularly in television news, that independence has been eroded. Some of India's largest channels now routinely echo government talking points, analysts say — out of ideological alignment with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, or as a result of pressure from the state, which has prosecuted journalists under terrorism, sedition and defamation laws, as well as by using regulatory threats and tax probes to silence critical voices. Pande also attributes the shift to opportunism. 'For most of these anchors, aligning with power is a calculated career move,' she said. Journalists in these newsrooms were dismayed by the lack of fact-checking during the conflict. 'Journalism has just become anything that lands on your WhatsApp from whoever,' said one journalist with a leading English-language news channel. 'You realize the cost of that at times like this.' Just before midnight on May 8, in a WhatsApp message exchange seen by The Post, a journalist with a major Hindi-language network messaged colleagues: 'Indian navy can carry out an attack imminently,' citing unnamed sources. Another staffer responded simply, 'Karachi,' but gave no details on sourcing. Within minutes, the channel was falsely reporting that the Indian navy had struck the port in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city. 'The channels were taken over by bad fiction writers,' a network employee said. A journalist in a different newsroom said their channel ran the story after confirmation from the Indian navy and air force. India's military did not respond to a request for comment. Others admitted to airing the story based on claims from social media influencers closely aligned with the ruling party, or posts from open-source intelligence accounts. Sweta Singh, a popular anchor on India Today, declared on air that 'Karachi is seeing its worst nightmare after 1971,' referring to the most devastating war between the two countries. 'It completely finishes Pakistan,' she added. Singh did not respond to requests for comment. Around 8 a.m. on May 9, the Karachi Port Trust posted on X that no attack had occurred. But some Hindi newspapers had already published the news on their front pages. As erroneous reports ricocheted across Indian channels, retired military officials gave them credence in freewheeling panel discussions. Breaking-news banners were accompanied by the swoosh of illustrated fighter jets. At one point, the government issued a public advisory urging broadcasters to refrain from using air raid sirens in their graphics, warning it could desensitize the public to real emergencies. Across the border, Pakistani media pushed its own falsehoods — that India had bombed Afghanistan and that Pakistan had destroyed India's army brigade headquarters. Some of the false claims came directly from Pakistani military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry during live news conferences; in one, Chaudhry showed a clip from an Indian news conference that had been misleadingly edited to remove a phrase, giving the false impression that India hadn't accused Pakistan of hitting civilian infrastructure. 'We stand by the information shared and press releases issued based on verified intelligence and digital evidence available to us,' the media wing of the Pakistani army said in a statement to The Post. Competition drove much of the chaos in India. On NDTV, the country's most-watched news channel according to the Reuters Institute at Oxford University, a hot mic caught a reporter in the field venting his frustration to the control room: 'First you keep saying, 'Give an update, give an update,' and then later you say, 'Why did you give something fake?'' During a talk show on the Hindi news channel Aaj Tak, a young man in the audience asked about 'the embarrassment we have faced from the international community when our news channels were spreading unverified information.' The reporter swung the microphone away before he could finish the question. A head of public relations for TV Today, which runs Aaj Tak and India Today, did not respond to requests for comment. 'I felt depressed at the state of affairs,' an anchor at a leading English-language news channel told The Post. 'It's time to introspect.' As strikes between the countries intensified each night, Indian officials, led by Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, would generally wait until morning to brief the press. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first public remarks on the conflict came two days after the May 10 ceasefire; Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar shared only a one-line post on X during the clashes. The vacuum was filled by television anchors. 'We've lost the information war to these characters,' said a former Indian navy admiral. But one senior Indian national security official said the misinformation played to India's advantage. If lower-level government sources deliberately spread false claims, it was to 'take advantage of the information space' and create 'as much confusion as possible because they know the enemy is watching,' the official said. 'Sometimes the collateral is your own audience, but that is how it is,' the official added. 'That is how war has evolved.' The problem, said Rao, the former foreign secretary, is that 'television channels were using a megaphone. We need to use a microphone with a voice that is obviously viewed as credible.' The frenzy of falsehoods has led to private soul-searching in many newsrooms, journalists said, but few public apologies. In a rare admission on Aaj Tak, an anchor said in Hindi that 'despite our vigilance,' there had been 'incomplete' reporting. 'For this, we seek your forgiveness,' she said. Other journalists have doubled down. Sushant Sinha, an anchor for Times Now Navbharat who declared on air that Indian tanks had entered Pakistan, posted an eight-minute monologue defending his coverage. 'Every channel did make at least one mistake, but not one of our mistakes was against this country,' he said. Niha Masih in New Delhi and Rick Noak in Bangkok contributed to this report.
Indian Express
28-05-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
On Operation Sindoor, a case of oppositioniitis
Nirupama Rao, whom I have held in regard for several decades, is seriously wrong on a couple of scores about why Pakistan succeeded in taking control of the narrative during Operation Sindoor. However, she does make some good points in her piece. It needs to be stated, with requisite — and imperative — eclaircissement, that, in its hallmark style, our neighbour was offering absurd falsehoods as fact; and that the better part of the world, predictably, was lapping it up. Rao unfairly accuses the Indian media of 'hypernationalism' and levels a gamut of other allegations against it, while, in reality, large swathes of both print and broadcast media did a sterling job covering India's Operation Sindoor. Terms such as hypernationalism are deeply offensive, and it is intellectually lazy to simply throw them at the Indian media — and that is now a go-to strategy for a certain enclave — as they end up being patently uncharitable. Rao is now saying that the Indian government 'must' develop a real-time crisis communication mechanism with strategic partners. That is what I have been requesting of our diplomatic corps for 30 years. Rao might easily have tackled the odious disinformation campaign against India when she was Foreign Secretary, between 2009 and 2011; or, if she had considered a weekly briefing of the hostile American press at her office, when she was India's Ambassador to the US between 2011 and 2013. Rao's suggestions come a few decades too late. Pakistan said it won the 1971 war when, in reality, it had capitulated to India and General A A K Niazi handed over 93,000 prisoners of war to General Jagjit Singh Aurora. Ditto with Operation Sindoor. This is Pakistan's 'perennial volte face narrative', in which it commits — tragically — the most lethal error of all: That of consistently fooling itself. Polonius's advice would fall flat on a country that lacks a self, and whose raison d'être for 77 years has been obsessing with and perpetrating terrorist attacks on India. It is not quite enough that India gave Pakistan to Pakistan — that is, a million square kilometres of its own precious territory — but an edacious Pakistan wants more. Kashmir has been an integral part of India for millenia: Think of Anandavardhana (820-890 AD), Bhallata (who wrote during the reign of King Shankaravarman in 883-902 AD), Kshemendra, Abhinavagupta, Utpaladeva and the glorious Kashmir Shaivism — India does not need to prove that Kashmir belongs to it. J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's word on the Indus Waters Treaty is the final word: 'We have always believed that the Indus Waters Treaty has been the most unfair document to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.' Sitting onstage at prominent conferences with serial — and truculent — maligners of India, and, thereby, lending them credibility, is not what we expect of former diplomats of distinction. Why destroy India, our treasured homeland, on foreign shores or at home? The best media briefings during Operation Sindoor were provided by India's armed forces, whose strategic knowledge, confidence, command, and extraordinary capability reduced nine of the enemy's terror bases to smithereens in 20 minutes. Eleven of Pakistan's air bases were also damaged, in short order. No volume of praise for India's armed forces is hyperbole. India is not in need of cute filler words used as pilasters to try and shore up perfunctory arguments. The resounding and almost aesthetic Indian victory — owing to its finesse, brevity, and perfection — of Operation Sindoor robs the West of its inordinately long exercise of hegemony. What is lost is 'the ideological rationale for reducing and reconstituting the (Indian) as someone to be ruled and managed'. That is the inconvenient truth. You might recall Immanuel Kant labelling Indians — and others — as being incapable of 'moral maturity'. Operation Sindoor was a retaliatory act in response to Pakistan's cold-blooded and well-planned terrorist invasion of Pahalgam, which led to the massacre of 26 civilians. What was India supposed to do? Sit back and munch on nuts and sip Cinzano? Our neighbour has launched dozens of terrorist attacks on India, in which over 20,000 innocent civilians have been killed (a figure cited last Friday by Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish at the UN) and many more wounded. It helps to remember that India has about 200 million Muslims. Rao says that India also failed in what she calls the 'financial domain.' Rao's official tenure in Washington, DC should have alerted her to the fact that the Americans simply don't listen to anyone once they have made up their minds. I remember Senator Edward Kennedy — with admiration and gratitude — because he repeatedly accused Pakistan of genocide on the floor of the US Senate in 1971. He blamed the Nixon administration for the unfolding horror show: 'Nothing is more clear, or easily documented, than the systematic campaign of terror — and its genocidal consequences — launched by the Pakistan army on the night of March 25 (1971).' Kennedy said that it was the Bengali Hindus who were being meticulously targeted, 'systematically slaughtered, and, in some places, painted with yellow patches marked 'H'.' Comparing one of the greatest humanitarian tragedies to the Holocaust, Kennedy said: 'America's heavy support of Islamabad is nothing short of complicity in the human and political tragedy of East Bengal.' Then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken enriched Pakistan on 28 September 2022 with a staggering $450 million sustenance package for its F-16 fleet, right in the middle of 'dialogue' with India. How did Blinken justify this? Pakistan needed that package to 'fight' ISIS and al-Qaeda. That is ominously similar to the IMF dispatching $1 billion to Pakistan right after its heinous terrorist attack in Pahalgam. Never mind, then, that the butcher and the surgeon are the same entity. President Donald Trump now repeatedly takes credit for having negotiated a 'ceasefire' between India and Pakistan, which India has refuted. More irksome is the constant equation of India to Pakistan: Bogus equivalences are vexatious. The much-maligned Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ascertained that India is no longer a blank slate on which anyone can scribble, and India is not indigent. Ultimately, it is India the Trump administration will be forced to turn to, to keep its arch-enemy, China, in check in the South China Sea. Language comes to you as naturally as your breath; thus, notes of artifice generate unbearable dissonance (ativa dussaham). Russia unfailingly gets its messages across to the world. As John Mearsheimer recently said: 'The Russians are unequivocal on what has to be done to satisfy their demands.' India needs to get there too, without tarrying. I am delighted that India has dispatched the peerless, eloquent, and intellectually rigorous Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament, to the US and a few other countries, to brief leaders on the incessant and barbaric terrorist attacks Pakistan launches on India. India needs to be left alone — a 5,000-year-old civilisation is finally reclaiming itself. Its economy has grown to now make it the fourth largest in the world; flagitious cross-border terrorism impedes the pace of its economic growth. If there is a toss-up between winning a narrative war and the actual war — and not a 'moral' war, as Rao mentions — it is obviously the greater victory to win the real war, instead of a psyop narrative battle, based on decades of insane concoction and terrorism. Many of us are chagrined to witness distinguished former members of India's diplomatic corps, and the bureaucracy, reposting material from 'X' by 'columnists' whose language blazes forth malapropisms, and who make a living out of India-bashing, and faux victimhood. Opposition for the sake of opposition is juvenile: That's Oppositioniitis. When that emanates from India's former top-line government officials, it inflicts a deep and irreversible gash on the country. That feels like stabbing one of your parents — the attendant sense of betrayal is excruciatingly powerful. (The writer was appointed distinguished fellow at Carnegie Mellon University in 1990. She is also a global adviser on public policy, communications, and international relations, and an award-winning Odissi and Bharatanatyam artiste and choreographer. Views are personal)
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Tariffs Are Like 'Running a Race With a Parachute': UMich's Rao
Nirupama Rao, University of Michigan Ross School of Business assistant professor, says the retaliatory tariffs against the US are like running into a headwind with a parachute. She speaks on "Bloomberg The Close." Sign in to access your portfolio
