Importance of information group increased manifold in age of narratives: Solangi

ISLAMABAD, Dec 23 (APP): Minister for Information, Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs Murtaza Solangi has said that in the age of propaganda, narratives and counter narratives, the importance of the job of the officers of Information group had increased manifold. Delivering his keynote address at “Graduation Ceremony of Training Programmes Domain Specific 38th MCMC and 40th Specialised Training Programme”, here the other day, he said the responsibility of officers of this group was countering propaganda of inimical forces and promote and project Pakistan’s soft and positive image.

He said unlike many other groups of civil service, the information group officers had to work hard to improve their skills by continuous study. “You have to love your job to improve your knowledge. You have to learn not only about media, media laws but politics, history, geography, art, culture, music and languages of the country,” he added. He said that the focus of the officers of the information group should be to adopt to rapidly changing media landscape.

The minister said that when internet and social media were introduced, it was thought that new window of knowledge had been opened and the dependency of mainstream media would end. But unfortunately, now a new “political economy” has been invented at the social media and affluent persons could hire services of a few dozen people to spread fake news and create bogus trends. He urged the officers to learn languages of Pakistan which had diverse culture as conveying a message to someone in his own language was always easy.
He said that in this age of advanced technology, there was no scope of laxity as any delay in dissimenting truth would give others to fill the vacuum with fake news and propaganda. Speaking on the occasion, Secretary Information and Broadcasting Shahera Shahid said that efforts were afoot for restructuring of the information group as per requirements of the modern times. She opined that restructuring of the information group was imperative to meet the challenges of modern times. Shahera Shahid urged the officers and probationers of the group to work hard to improve the standing of their group.

Executive Director General of Information Service Academy Dr Tariq Mehmood in his welcome address, threw the light on the aims and objectives of the two courses. Minister for Information and Broadcasting Murtaza Solangi distributed the certificates among the participants of the two courses.

Senior officers from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting including Additional Secretary Information and Broadcasting Syed Mubashar Tauqir Shah and MD Associated Press of Pakistan were also present on the occasion.