Taliban Demands Unbiased Coverage of Its Attempted Murder of a 14-Year-Old Girl

Taliban Demands Unbiased Coverage of Its Attempted Murder of a 14-Year-Old Girl

by John Hudson at the Atlantic Wire

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2012/10/taliban-demands-unbiased-coverage-its-attempted-murder-14-year-old-girl/58017/

"SNIP..............................................

The Taliban is mad because the rest of Pakistan is mad at them over the shooting. "Undoubtedly this is the worst press the TTP has ever had, there is no doubt," Rana Jawad, Islamabad bureau chief of Geo News, told The Guardian's Islamabad correspondent Jon Boone. The Taliban have been furious that justification for the attack, that the girl was being "un-Islamic," was not being placed prominently in news stories. Muhammad Amir Rana of the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies, says the Taliban are taking a PR beating. "We have seen a similar public sentiment in the past, but this time it is quite unique," he said. "This case has provided a catharsis of the masses for all the grievances that have been building up for years."

Apparently, the insurgent groups just aren't very media savvy, according to Mullah Yahya, a former high-ranking Afghan Information Ministry official, who spoke with The Daily Beast's Sami Yousafzai. “First of all, attempting to kill a 14-year-old girl is a low act,” he said. “Second, claiming responsibility for it is a sign that the [Pakistani] Taliban are not aware of the media’s importance. I have seen more anger against the religious elements in the past week than in all my 40 years of life.” So here's to you, Pakistani press. You've defied the all-too-common media trap of false equivalence.

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