Countering Pakistani Media Lies Is “Herculean Task” For U.S. Embassy In Pakistan

The Washington Post reported on Sunday that the growing Pakistani media is proving to be a challenge for the U.S. embassy in Pakistan, particularly given the media’s anti-American slant. For nearly eight months, the embassy has engaged in a public relations battle, issuing corrections and contradictions to claims made by the Pakistani media.

One the surface, the tension seems to be the product of simple upstart concerns among new Pakistani journalists. Pakistan has witnessed a dramatic rise in the number of media outlets in recent years. Television, for instance, has grown from one state-owned station in 2002 to over 90 today, to say nothing of the explosion in print media as well. Consequently, the media market is more competitive than ever and journalists are willing to capitalize on stereotypes. Huma Yussef, a columnist for one of Pakistan’s largest English-language newspapers, tells the Post:

If you can take even the slightest thing and turn it into a story that proves the U.S. is the evil demon, it’s going to sell papers.

However, the Post also notes that

the secretive nature of Pakistani-U.S. relations does little to dissuade the stereotypes.

Some observers, though, say the real problem is the two nations’ spy novel-like relations. Secrets surround so many aspects of the relationship that the resulting vacuum is easily filled by rumors.

The problem of misinformation is further exacerbated by the fact that the U.S. embassy’s media staff is too small (they hope to expand their media staff to five people next year) to chase down all errors in the Pakistani media. Moreover, the embassy staff focuses mainly on refuting articles in Pakistan’s English-language newspaper, yet these newspapers occupy only a small portion of Pakistan’s media market. Television is far more significant to public opinion, but with 90 plus channels, the embassy team rarely touches tackles that medium.

It’s difficult to write about foreign media without drawing attention to the differences between it and our own media. While the U.S. Embassy’s media staff numbers in the single digits, America’s domestic media comes hand in hand with a veritable army of individuals and organization fact checking its every word. And while a Pew Research Center poll finds that 77% of Pakistanis believe their media has a positive influence on their country, one suspects Americans, despite (or perhaps because of) the polarized nature of American media, are far more skeptical of what they encounter in the media.