Pakistan desirous of promoting cooperation with British media

ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Murtaza Solangi said on Friday that Pakistan was desirous to promote cooperation with Britain in the field of media.

During a meeting with the Political Counsellor of the British High Commission Miss Zoe Ware, the discussion was held on Pak-UK relations, hate speech, misinformation, elimination of disinformation, promotion of cooperation in media sectors and the Safe Digital Environment Programme of UNDP.

The minister said that Pakistan highly valued its relations with Britain. He expressed the hope that UNDP’s Safe Digital Environment programme will help counter misinformation and hateful narratives. The project, he added will further improve the knowledge, capacity and skills of key government agencies and officials in identifying false and hateful narratives in the online space.

The minister said that misinformation, disinformation and fake news was a problem of the whole world which should be controlled. The biggest challenge on social media was fake news, he opined.

He said that help would be taken from the UK’s Modern Media Curriculum for providing training to journalists and Information Service Academy will play an important role in this regard. He said that awareness sessions on hate speech and misinformation would be organized at the ICA.

Cooperation between Pakistan and Britain in the fields of film and drama was also discussed in the meeting. “Film and drama play an important role in highlighting the culture and positive identity of any country,” Murtaza Solangi remarked. The minister while informing the British Political Consul about the activities related to the elections in the country, said Elections will be held on time and the Election Commission of Pakistan would announce the date of polls.

The British Political Consul assured her full support for the development of bilateral relations between Pakistan and the United Kingdom.