ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan on Thursday said media played an essential role in shaping international diplomacy and in safeguarding national interest.

Speaking at the inaugural session of the two-day national conference on ‘Media as a Soft Power in the 21st Century’ at the National University of Modern Languages (Numl), Ms Awan said the government considered media as the fourth pillar of the state, and had decided to set up a media university to address the issues of mediapersons.

She said the recommendations of the conference would be included in the charter of the media university. The special assistant also said that youth were the real asset of Pakistan and Numl was not only empowering youth but also equipping them to fight against fifth generation hybrid warfare.

The conference was organised by Numl’s mass communication department.

The university’s rector, retired Maj Gen Mohammad Jaffar, Numl Director General Brig Mohammad Ibrahim, deans, directors, heads of departments, participants from various universities, faculty members and large number of students attended the session.

Speaking on the occasion, retired Maj Gen Mohammad Jaffar said Numl was proud to host the conference which in its own way addressed a very pertinent and contemporary issue.

In the present age of media warfare, he said nations with weaker media strategies were highly vulnerable to the forces of propaganda, misinformation as well as disinformation.

“Today, we are facing the battles of discourses and wars of narratives. These wars are exceedingly more subtle and more delicate than the armed conflict and open military standoffs. Such wars are fought in the virtual and simulated battlefields of media,” he said.

According to organisers of the event, as many as 70 papers on different aspects of media will be presented in the conference by the research scholars from across the country.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2019