This week on Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Manisha Pande, and Anand Vardhan are joined by The Hindu’s Dinakar Peri, who covers defense and strategic affairs.
The episode opens with a discussion on the India-Pakistan military escalation, focusing on both the media narrative and strategic implications of the recent strikes.
Critiquing Indian news media’s coverage of the conflict, Manisha says, “In the middle of operations… the Army… was putting out fact checks, contrary to what these channels were doing.”
She underscores how the media acted counter to national interest. “PSYOPs are directed at enemies. They're not directed at your own people drowning them down in misinformation.”
Responding to a few journalists' arguments that the ‘misinformation’ was part of India’s warfare, Abhinandan adds, “It suddenly appears that it is somehow a journalist's job… to become cheerleaders for the military.”
Dinakar, speaking as a defense journalist, emphasises how this hinders real reporting, “Nowadays, the bigger part of journalists is to actually defer the real news from the fake news… You spend a lot of time trying to find what is correct… because social media goes to a different level.”
Anand adds, “Even if you are pedaling falsehoods, you have to look serious… If you are doing it in a melodramatic tone… no one is going to take you seriously.”
The panel agrees that much of the media coverage undermined India's credibility. As Abhinandan puts it, “If you cannot trust them at war time, why should you trust them in peace time?”
The conversation then shifts to military strategy and diplomacy. Dinakar says, “From a military sense, it kind of sets up a threshold… a differential between the two countries in terms of military symmetry.”
Anand sees strategic gains for India, “One obvious gain… it has called out Pakistan’s nuclear bluff… and it’s a good advertisement for India’s weapons set.”
This and a lot more. Tune in!
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Song: Sahir Ludhyanvi - Aey Sharif Insano
Timecodes
00:00:00 – Introductions
00:05:26 – Headlines
00:12:26 - Journalism and conflict
00:33:28 – Breaking down the 5 days of conflict
01:11:56 - Special AD break
01:14:06 – Letters
01:25:42– Recommendations
References
Hafta x South Central feat. Kunal Kamra: A crossover episode on free speech
Is posting fake news really part of ‘information warfare’? Here’s what experts say
He ‘stood by army’, was killed by Pak, framed by Indian media: The tragedy of Qari Iqbal
Recommendations
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He ‘stood by army’, was killed by Pak, framed by Indian media: The tragedy of Qari Iqbal
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Abhinandan
Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters
Produced and recorded by Priyali Dhingra and Ashish Anand.
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