By Shahid Shah  

Fake news in Indian media against Pakistan armed forces influencing the democratic process is no surprise. ANI, Business Standard, CNN18, and others have been peddling disinformation & propaganda by concocting fake stories that there are tensions between Pakistan Army & government, wherein Prime Minister Imran Khan and Pakistan’s Army Chief were attempting to get rid of each other. Continuous peddling of this naïve and laughable propaganda is nothing but a pack of lies. It is a failed attempt of Indian media to divert attention of its own masses from grave issues Indian government is facing related to internal security, treatment of minorities and failing economy.

The attribute of disseminating lies is in-built in Indian media. The propaganda machines that spread disinformation across the globe have been exposed multiple times. “It is the largest disinformation network we exposed” said Alexandre Alaphilippe the executive director of EU DisinfoLab that exposed the fake Indian media outlets working to discredit Pakistan and influence European parliament and United Nations Human Rights Commission. The report by EU DisinfoLab exposed around 265 fake Indian media outlets operating across 65 countries. Disinformation network expert, Ben Nimmodeclared Indian news agencies as “one of the most persistent and complex operations”.

Many international news platforms cited Indian media outlet as fake and propaganda tools of the Indian government. In a story published by DW, German republic news agency declared Indian media outlets as fake and fueled by digital illiteracy. The diplomat cursed Indian media for its elite competition that poisoned the internet. According to research conducted by Indian analysts from June 2016 to December 2019, roughly 4,803 fake news incidents from Indian media were reported. Saba Naqvi a famous Indian journalist declared Indian media as “the news channels run by clowns, and they are dangerous clowns.” Foreign Policy another international platform made a story that declared Indian media a source to bring journalism in trouble.

Srivastava Group as exposed by many Indian sources as well as the EU DisinfoLab report is alleged to be is the main force behind the Indian disinformation campaigns. Some media outlets in India such as ANI (Asian News International) work with the funding of Srivastava Group to generate fake news sources and spread it to other media outlets. All the fake media outlets exposed by EU DisinfoLab report were connected with Srivastava Group. One such example is that the Belgium office of Srivastava Group and EP today (a Europe based fake news agency) have the same address on their websites. The IP address of EP today was registered by an NGO of Srivastava Group.

Many fake news agencies have disappeared that were listed in EU DisinfoLab report after it was issued. The agenda is not over yet, and therefore the propaganda campaigns are still alive. Indian fake media outlets are trying to exploit the current political situation prevailing in Pakistan to further their smear campaigns. They are trying to defame the Pakistan Armed Forces by portraying their role in politics with no evidence at all. No action has been taken against the fake outlets of Indian media even after strong links with proofs have been exposed. This proves that the Indian government and military officials are behind this propaganda.