Pakistan desirous of promoting cooperation with Britain in media sector: Solangi

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 British High Commission’s Political Counsellor Zoe Ware, discussions were held on Pakistan-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 official news agency reported.

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.

Solangi 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 organised at the ISA.

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,” Solangi remarked.

The minister while informing Zoe Ware 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 counsellor assured her full support for the development of bilateral relations between Pakistan and the United Kingdom.