ON Saturday night the private electronic channels constantly flashed news about capturing of a government building on outskirts of Peshawar by some 500 armed militants.

Soon the national and international print and electronic media also picked up the breaking news and it spread like jungle fire. Some reporters standing about 10 kilometres away from the said spot started giving details mostly based on hearsay while others gave reports of the emerging situation right from their offices around midnight.

The news of 500 militants armed with sophisticated weapons, as the reporters (mis)informed created terror and panic among the people who were watching the news on their TV sets at homes. Some cable operators in adjacent areas even stopped their service due to fear of an attack by the militants.

The footage of the police and Frontier Constabulary personnel moving towards the Regi area, shown on TV channels further substantiated the impression of a large-scale operation against the militants.

However, within one and a half hour the cat was out of the bag. It turned out that the news channels created the hype after a security man passed a massage about the movement of some armed persons in the area. Not a single militant could be found when the police conducted a thorough search operation.

The reports about the militants taking the government staffers as hostages and capturing the building also turned out to be false. Although the entire situation was inflated out of proportion, it created panic and fear in residents of Peshawar especially those living in the areas adjacent to Regi area. The entire episode is a classic example of ‘irresponsible reporting’ and negative implications of the electronic media.

The police officials were rightly irritated with the irresponsible reporting of the TV channels which were mostly staffed with insufficiently trained reporters.

Many instances like the one mentioned above have proved that ill-trained reporters are spreading information without verifying it from the concerned quarters in a competition for airing ‘breaking news’ as there are more than a dozen news channels. On the other hand, the news channels start the discussion and analysis on the emerging situation without confirming such reports.Most of the reporters who were not well-acquainted with background information connect every incident to the ‘war on terror’ and ‘Taliban’ as any report or photo which contains these elements attracts the foreign wire-agencies and newspapers. Peshawar has been business-wise a profitable city for the mediapersons since the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. The foreign media organisations have hired local journalists who easily can earn in dollars if they are able to connect any incident or report to the Taliban militants. The situation has become worse with the mushroom growth of electronic media channels as their (mis)reporting and glorification of militant organisations has resulted in a situation where even kindergarten kids are familiar with the terms like Taliban, beheading and suicide bombing. Children see gruesome images on these news channels which is sheer violation of media ethics.

In a situation where society is fretting with inflation, food shortage, lack of sanitation, substandard education and health facilities, instead of airing reports on such issues the TV channels are mostly focusing on militancy related news. Most of the time they are so obsessed with Taliban and militancy that try to create news. The electronic media has become news manufacturing factories. Instead of just reporting an event after confirmation from officials and factual situation, they break the news by creating such a situation and then confirm it afterwards.

One media critic says that truth is the first casualty of the war on terror from both sides i.e. militants and media which has almost become mouthpiece of such proscribed organisations. A Pashto saying, “Chey rikhtiya razi no darogho ba killat wran karhay we”, which means that lies would have destroyed villages by the time truth arrives suits best the situation the TV channels sometime creates. Before the TV channels lose their credibility, it is high time they report responsibly.