European Broadcasting Union: President Zelenskyy speaks to Eurovision News

To mark World News Day on September 28, 2022, the World News Day campaign is sharing stories that have had a significant social impact. This video, shared by the European Broadcasting Union, was released in March 2022.

In an exclusive interview for Eurovision News in Kyiv, Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, says any potential compromises to be agreed by Ukraine, including on NATO membership, would need to be put to the people in a referendum. He added that Ukraine will not submit to ultimatums from Russia, that all Ukrainians would have to be destroyed for that to be possible.

The face-to-face interview was conducted as a collaboration of European Broadcasting Union members. It was facilitated on location by Eurovision News Events and the Ukrainian public broadcaster, UA:PBC.

President Zelenskyy was interviewed by Angelina Kariakina, Head of News at UA:PBC; Michal Kubal, Chief International Correspondent at Czech Television; and Agnès Vahramian Jeru, International Correspondent at France Télévisions.

For more details on the full interview, please click here.

The Times and Storyful: Video explainer on the weapons that shaped the war in Ukraine

To mark World News Day on September 28, 2022, the World News Day campaign is sharing stories that have had a significant social impact. This story, shared by The Times (UK) and Storyful (Ireland), was published on April 13, 2022.

When confronted with conflicting accounts and abundant false or misleading information during events as complex as the Russian invasion of Ukraine, people may give up on understanding what is really happening. Uncertainty prevails, a global audience remains uninformed.

By combining expert analysis with open-source verification, The Times and Storyful were able to provide clarity and certainty on videos of weapons systems deployed in Ukraine.

Storyful was able to confirm the use of a multitude of foreign weapons by both Ukrainian and Russian combatants through a methodical process of verifying the locations, sources, and dates for dozens of pieces of footage from across Ukraine. From a panoply of social media posts, Storyful derived concrete, precise, and verified points of information.

This, combined with expert analysis from The Times, cut through the fog of war.

At the start of the invasion on February 24, Russia was a more capable military power than at any time since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The overall size of its armed forces was 900,000, against Ukraine’s military of 196,600.

Straight out of the Russian playbook, Moscow opted initially for overwhelming force and a multi-axis invasion from land, sea and air, with forces moving in from the north, south and east simultaneously attacking ten regions. But the operation did not go as planned. Russia failed to destroy Ukraine’s ability to co-ordinate assets and gain control of the skies.

In this video, Defence editor Larisa Brown describes – through animations and the use of footage from the ground – how Ukraine has skilfully used advanced weaponry to hold off the invasion by its much larger neighbour.

To read the full story behind the video on The Times’ website, please click here.

Storyful: Six Months into Russia’s War in Ukraine, Newsgathering is Reshaped

Zelensky released a video with top Ukrainian officials as Russian forces threatened Kyiv.

To mark World News Day on September 28, 2022, the World News Day campaign is sharing stories that have had a significant social impact. This particular story, which was shared by Storyful (Ireland), was first published on August 23, 2022.

A detailed exploration of the changing nature of newsgathering amongst the backdrop of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, this article highlights the evolving role of social media in telling first account stories on the ground, while also acting as a potential vessel for misinformation.

Meme culture and social media strategy are also explored, highlighting its usage by both government officials and local people documenting the building of tensions on the ground. In the weeks leading up to the war, the clearest picture of events along Ukraine’s borders came via Tiktok.

Journalist Joanne Stocker-Kelly conveys the techniques Storyful journalists use to source, verify and license the user-generated-content powering broadcast headlines, supporting a truthful first-hand account of a harrowing war which played out on social media weeks before.

The piece also highlights the need to be vigilant about exposure to graphic content (whether from Ukraine or elsewhere), and resources to support journalists covering this vital, but often traumatizing, work.

The war in Ukraine has killed, wounded, and displaced thousands of people and devastated the countryside and cities across the country. It has disrupted global supply chains; upended notions of the so-called rules-based international order; prompted countries like Germany to boost military spending; and Finland and Sweden to take the extraordinary step of joining NATO. The conflict has also highlighted shifts in social media for newsgathering and content verification, forcing newsrooms to adapt to new platforms and tackle savvy propaganda.

Storyful has so far verified more than 1,650 videos and images relating to the war, spanning the buildup of tensions ahead of the February 24 invasion to the latest events.

Ukraine winning information war 

As Russian forces threatened Kyiv on February 25, President Volodomyr Zelensky and members of his cabinet stood in a darkened street to reassure Ukrainians they had not fled the capital. Zelensky pointed to the leadership of the Ukrainian government and said each was “here”, including Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, who held up his mobile phone with the date and time visible. It was a video tailored for social media, and Ukraine’s social media strategy has been savvy throughout the conflict.

Zelensky released a video with top Ukrainian officials as Russian forces threatened Kyiv.
Zelensky released a video with top Ukrainian officials as Russian forces threatened Kyiv.

From Zelensky’s nightly addresses – which typically show him dressed casually and without visible trappings of office – to the military orchestra’s ode to Bayraktar drones, footage of strikes on Russian tanks set to rock music, and governors announcing air raid sirens with custom Telegram stickers, Ukraine has embraced social media to spread information, shape public opinion, and boost local morale.

The Ukrainian military has embraced memes and social media culture: for instance, after Russia said that an August 9 fire at an ammunition depot in Crimea was caused not by a Ukrainian attack but an errant cigarette, social media exploded.

Ukrainian military accounts have since repeatedly referenced the claim, even sharing a video poking fun at it and Russian tourists who holiday in Crimea. On the other side, Russian attempts at social media messaging have often fallen flat…

To continue reading on the Storyful website, please click here.

Dawn: A hawker’s twilight years mirror newspapers’ slump

‘I’ve seen the rise and fall of newspapers,’ says visually impaired Essa Sarparah — Photo by the writer.

MASTUNG: The early morning breeze is pleasantly cool before the reddish rays of the sun appear over the hills of Mastung. The meandering roads leading to the main bazaar, situated on an embankment opposite the Hammach mountains, are completely silent.

One of them leads to the Bolan Hotel, where Mama Essa Sarparah reaches at his usual time of 7am sharp.

The elderly newspaper hawker and his childhood friend, Mullah Qayyum, both in their 70s, sit across from each other sipping tea and munching on a roti. It is too early in the morning in this small town and there isn’t much activity around. But Mama Essa has already broadcast a message: a Dawn journalist is in town to meet him.

Upon entering the tiny hotel, I catch the first glimpse of Essa: clad in a traditional cap and shalwar kameez, sporting a grey beard with the sun shining on his face. He’s busy munching on his roti as I approach him. He holds my hands and says: “I used to distribute 30 copies of Dawn at Cadet College, Mastung in a day in the 1990s.”

On this World News Day, Dawn tells the story of a visually-impaired man whose livelihood is tied to the print industry

Mastung is one of the neighbouring districts of Quetta, situated 54km southeast to the provincial capital. Local newspapers arrive early morning by passenger vans, as the main town is located on the Quetta-Karachi highway. With no dearth of transportation, Essa receives his copies after 8:30am.

The visually impaired Essa initially struggled to find a job in Mastung, forcing him to beg. “I changed my mind during Gen Zia’s rule,” he tells Dawn while sipping his tea. “I was afraid I would be arrested as I was told Zia had banned beggars.”

He pauses for a bite and continues his story: he was the sole breadwinner in a family with five dependants; a stepmother, two younger brothers and an elder widowed sister.

“I used to beg to earn enough to feed them,” he recalls. “But one day, a man approached me out of nowhere and took me to Quetta.”

In the provincial capital, Essa was introduced to Inayatullah, a Pashtun newspaper dealer on Fatima Jinnah Road. “The man handed Inayatullah Rs500,” he recalls, which became the initial capital investment that funded his foray into the world of newspaper hawking.

Essa started selling newspapers in 1988 and has been at it since. From selling a good 300-400 copies a day, he says that now, his sales barely make it into the double digits.

“Back in the day, people would queue up to buy newspapers, but now the newspaper waits for buyers. Unlike the past, nobody bothers reading a newspaper now,” he adds, blaming social media for the decline in demand.

“I’ve seen both the rise and fall of newspapers. When people can read papers for free in their beds on social media, why would they spend Rs20-30 on it?”

By now, Essa’s tales have attracted an audience. Almost everyone at the Bolan Hotel has joined in around the table, harking back to the old days when newspapers, magazines and Urdu digests were all the rage. One of the listeners adds nostalgically that there was a time when everyone, including political workers and the elderly, would be visiting hotels and sitting on pavements to read newspapers.

Every day, from 9am to 12 in the afternoon, Mama Essa is out on the roads and streets of Mastung city, dedicatedly selling newspapers, despite the dwindling demand. When the time for his paper route rolls around, he leaves to pick up his daily stash. I decide to follow him, surreptitiously.

Even at 70 years of age, it appears he remembers the streets, roads, and turns of Mastung bazaar by heart.

IntekhaaaabMashriq,” he calls out to attract customers, his voice hoarse from years of yelling the names of the papers he holds. He walks slowly with his cane leading the way. He hands over a few copies to some of his regular clients — shopkeepers and roadside hotel owners. Other than that, he gets no customers.

I try to pose as a customer and buy a few copies from him. I speak to him in Brauhi, one of the local languages, but even then he hangs on my words, as if trying to place my voice.

His route eventually leads him to the crowded Quetta Bazaar in Mastung city. The sun is now high in the sky and the hustle and bustle of the marketplace gradually drown out the hawker’s cries.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2022

Dawn: World News Day

In 1896, The New York Times introduced on its masthead the words which went on to become not only its own manifesto but also set the standard by which other newspapers would be judged. The words ‘All the News Fit to Print’ were reportedly chosen in response to the scurrilous content of its two main competitors who were peddling news deemed ‘unfit’ for publishing or what came to be known as ‘yellow journalism’.

As World News Day is observed today, it is interesting to note that terms such as ‘yellow journalism’ are now considered belonging to another time, another generation. So is the case with the idea of ‘objective’ reporting. Current news consumers (no longer necessarily readers) are more familiar with the terms ‘fake news’, ‘keyboard warriors’ and ‘trolling’ and all that they entail. So what is the significance of the day in a contemporary context? Organised primarily by the Canadian Journalism Foundation and WAN-IFRA’S World Editors Forum, with over 500 newsrooms participating, the objective of observing this day is to bring the focus back on journalism that is committed to being fact-based and credible.

However noble the intentions, the current challenges to credible news seem almost in­­surmountable. At the same time, in today’s crisis-ridden world the need for credible sou­rces of news — and credible voices that convey the news — is greater than ever before. Perhaps even greater than during days of censorship of which journalists in Pakistan have particularly painful memories.

While the phenomenon of fake news has been known to be around for over a century, it was Donald Trump who made it part of the mainstream discourse. He accused critics of peddling fake news about him, while at the same time used it as an effective propaganda tool against his opponents, including journalists. His aide, Kellyanne Conway, went a step further by introducing in the lexicon the idea of ‘alternative facts’, which was actually a euphemism for lies.

The challenges to credible news seem almost insurmountable.

Fake news can only be defeated or countered with fact-based journalism and this is where the importance of professional newsrooms (in newspaper offices or TV/radio channels) is truly felt. However, at a time when social media is overtaking even the traditional electronic media — not to mention print — there is a scramble to be the first to break the news. This often entails compromising on fact-checking. TV channels, in competition for ratings, are also among those peddling fake news even if inadvertently.

So why should anyone care about the news? Does truth in journalism and in reporting actually make a difference in people’s lives? Just going by the threats and violence faced by journalists in the line of duty, fact-based and investigative reporting is upsetting the apple cart of corruption and repression in several parts of the world. The extreme response of those thus exposed earns many countries — including Pakistan — the reputation of being among the ‘most dangerous place for journalists’ by organisations promoting press freedom. In a world where populist leaders are increasingly trampling on people’s rights — and not only in Third World countries — the media’s adversarial and watchdog roles assume greater significance.

It is not only ground-breaking news that has an impact or makes a difference. Not every investigation on the part of journalists can lead to the resignation of a head of state as was the case with The Washington Post and the Watergate scandal involving Richard Nixon.

In the case of Pakistan, for instance, sustained reporting on an issue can achieve far-reaching positive results. We have seen how reports on honour killings (a vile practice unheard of some decades back) helped both in awareness and consciousness raising, leading to human rights groups taking up the issue and campaigning till ultimately the judiciary stop­ped condoning the practice. Si­­milarly, when the first group of agricultural labour managed to escape from the bondage of feudal landlords in Sindh, it was newspaper reporting that helped HRCP campaign for a law against bonded labour that was passed in 1992.

Journalists in Pakistan may not have covered themselves in full glory with their stories. However, they have shown resilience and resistance when it has mattered most. During the dictatorship of Gen Ziaul Haq, when journalists were not only imprisoned but also flogged they courageously covered the democratic movements — including the Movement for Restoration of Democracy and the nascent Women’s Action Forum. The pictorial coverage of women protesters in Lahore in 1983 being dragged into police vans has become an iconic part of Pakistan’s news history.

However, these are possibly the worst times for those whose jobs it is to convey news. In a highly divisive society and under attack, fairly or not, for being partisan or being a beneficiary of the ‘lifafa’ system, journalists must reiterate their commitment to speak truth to power.

The writer is a human rights activist.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2022

Dawn: The whole truth

The war on truth has never been more relentless than it is today. Authoritarianism is on the rise and purveyors of ‘alternative facts’ have multiple channels of communication whereby they can obfuscate, deflect and deliberately misinform. World News Day 2022 is an occasion to celebrate fact-based journalism and remind people why this calling is so critical to democracy and human rights, to all those values that make the world a more livable place. When journalism is done well, when journalists can do their job without having to second-guess themselves for fear of putting a step ‘wrong’, they have the power to shine a light in the darkest corners and hold governments’ feet to the fire. Granted, this may seem like a utopian fantasy, and many a time vested interests do come in the way of this objective — but it should nevertheless be at least an aspirational goal.

Unfortunately, in Pakistan we seem to be drifting in reverse. With hugely consequential decisions on the political landscape happening behind closed doors, it is fertile ground for conjecture and conspiracy theories. To that, add propaganda and ‘fake news’ wheeled out as ‘journalism’, and the result is a citizenry losing trust in mainstream media. Social media — the go-to news source especially for Pakistan’s massive youth demographic — erases context and shades of grey, fostering a correspondingly reductive thought process. Together, both have led to the extreme social polarisation that we can see today. Nevertheless, many journalists, despite threats and intimidation, continue to do stellar work, uncovering facts and asking the searching questions that all those who wield power and must be held accountable should face as a matter of course. Perhaps the media as a whole must do more to showcase such journalism. It could also do a better job of explaining to its audience why they, the people, must fiercely guard their right to information which, in turn, depends on the right to free speech exercised by the press. No trade-off is worth the price of being kept in ignorance.

Noxious though some of its effects are, social media is the apotheosis of a process that began some two decades ago when Pakistani television news channels exploded on the scene. The frenetic news cycle reduced information to easily digestible, transient sound bites. As the audience, with advertisers following suit, shifted to the electronic medium, the circulation of newspapers went into steady decline. Sept 25 was National Newspaper Readership Day, an opportunity to appreciate the unique advantages that print journalism enjoys. An island of stability amid the din of digital and electronic media, print — especially newspapers of record — still inspires a certain level of trust. After all, the permanence of the medium demands a higher level of diligence on the part of its practitioners as well as the grace to acknowledge errors. For those reasons alone, newspapers are more relevant than ever today.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2022

CBC News: More than 1 in 5 residents in long-term care given antipsychotics without a diagnosis, data shows

To mark World News Day on September 28, 2022, the World News Day campaign is sharing stories that have had a significant social impact. This particular story, which was shared by CBC News (Canada), was first published on August 25, 2022.

Tens of thousands of residents in Canadian long-term care homes without a psychosis diagnosis have been prescribed antipsychotics — a number that has been increasing since the pandemic began. This story reveals the “potentially inappropriate” antipsychotic use on residents who have significant difficulties or are completely unable to advocate for themselves.

When Laura Pinto moved her father to a Windsor, Ont., nursing home in 2017, she says he deteriorated from someone who had dementia and memory issues into a “zombie.”

The change was the result of a cocktail of drugs, according to Pinto, that included Haldol and Seroquel — antipsychotic medications traditionally prescribed to control symptoms like hallucinations or delusions, and the behaviours that result from them.

Her father received the medication off-label — for issues not specifically recommended by Health Canada — for more than six months. He is described as engaging in “prevalent exit-seeking behaviour” — wandering around trying to find a way out of the home — in a medical report supplied to CBC News by Pinto. However, he’d never been diagnosed with psychosis, meaning a doctor had never determined he had schizophrenia or any of the psychiatric conditions that highly sedative antipsychotics are meant to treat.

Robert Pinto was just one of tens of thousands of residents in Canadian long-term care homes without a psychosis diagnosis that have been prescribed antipsychotics — a number that has been increasing since the pandemic began, according to data from Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI)…

To read the full story on the CBC News website, please click here.

Credit: CBC News.

CBC News: Canada’s convoy movement waved the Dutch flag. Then conspiracy theories swirled about fertilizer and bugs

To mark World News Day on September 28, 2022, the World News Day campaign is sharing stories that have had a significant social impact. This particular story, which was shared by CBC News (Canada), was first published on August 25, 2022.

A Canadian convoy movement embraced protests by Dutch farmers, interpreting them as allies in a global fight against an array of policies they maintain are too progressive, such as public health mandates or emission targets. However, the campaign is fed by misinformation and deliberate attempts to sow confusion about government policies in Canada and the Netherlands. It threatens to overshadow legitimate concerns that Canadian farmers have about how to grow food while also addressing climate change.

Over the summer, supporters of the Freedom Convoy movement have continued to hold anti-mandate demonstrations across the country, attracting anywhere from a few dozen to several hundred people in places like Sudbury, Ont., Acheson, Alta., and Regina.

Like the protests in Ottawa last winter, these smaller demonstrations featured big rigs, pickup trucks and honking — though they tended to last only a few hours and kept to parking lots or slow-moving convoys on highways.

But they also featured a new — and perhaps surprising — symbol: The flag of the Netherlands was being waved alongside the more familiar Maple Leaf and F–k Trudeau banners…

To read the full story on the CBC News website, please click here.

Credit: CBC News.

World Economic Forum: Disinformation is a scourge on public discourse. Fact-based journalism can help stop it

The digital age has ushered in an era of unprecedented connectivity, allowing people across the world to share ideas and opinions in almost real time. It has also been characterised by the spread of disinformation.  

This is clear when examining nearly all the major issues facing the world today. 

For instance, the rise of the Internet and digital technologies brought the promise of greater democratization by providing an unprecedented ability to share information. Today’s reality, however, more resembles the digital dystopia that the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report warned of nearly a decade ago. In many countries, online disinformation purposefully created and curated abroad is circulating freely, undermining those countries’ political stability.

Democratic institutions are also coming under pressure as disinformation increasingly fuels polarization and political violence. Today, several countries — including Brazil, Italy, Nigeria and the United States, among others — are warning that disinformation is spreading ahead of important elections. 

Meanwhile, digital platforms have enabled us to share expertise and scale solutions to tackle climate change. But too often disinformation derails the discussion. In fact, in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, the United Nations warned that efforts to curb climate change were being “undermined significantly” by misinformation. 

Digital technologies have also supported efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic response. This includes the development of infection tracking systems and vaccination delivery. Yet disinformation has come to define the pandemic, too — so much so that the issue was dubbed a so-called infodemic

The disinformation surrounding these issues and others has soured public discourse and stifled productive dialogues and action. It has also fuelled conspiracy theories. 

Take, for example, the conspiracy theory surrounding The Great Reset, a World Economic Forum initiative that promoted the idea of rebuilding economies to be greener and fairer post-COVID-19. Since 2020, state-backed purveyors of disinformation have created and spread deliberate falsehoods about the initiative, often tying it to anti-semitic conspiracy theories about “control” over the global economy.

Claims like these are unfounded and are shared without evidence. Nonetheless, they have spread from extremist corners of the internet to the mainstream. The recent account of Russia’s disinformation campaign against a US women’s march in 2017 also shows how almost any topic can be targeted. In this case, disinformation was used to inflame divisive culture wars and shift public discourse away from policy-based discussions.

A resurgence of fact-based journalism can help stem disinformation. 

Editors and reporters need to push back against politicians and political commentators who bring fringe falsehoods into the mainstream public discourse. Newsrooms should also take care to avoid misleading both-sides-ism. After all, neutrality does not mean abandoning fact-based journalism.

Moreover, fact-based journalism is vital to protecting free speech as disinformation often tarnishes forward-thinking debate. This only serves to slow down progress and undermine efforts to address urgent issues like public health and the climate crisis.  

On World News Day, it is important to remember that the disinformers must not be allowed to win. 

It is imperative that the free exchange of ideas and opinions proceeds unpoisoned, and that public discourse remains focused on the critical issues facing people all over the world.