The Republic of Türkiye hosted the twelfth Session of the Islamic Conference of Information Ministers (ICIM) in Istanbul, on 21-22 October, with the theme of “Combating Disinformation and Islamophobia in the Post-Truth Era”.
Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Marriyum Aurangzeb, leading the Pakistan delegation, highlighted the role of media in addressing major challenges faced by the OIC Member States including climate change that had recently caused unprecedented floods in Pakistan. She urged the media to play its role in urgent, unified and decisive action in the form of climate financing for building resilience in vulnerable developing countries, says a press release.
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Paying tribute to the steadfastness of the Kashmiri and Palestinian people, the Minister called upon the media to show their sufferings at the hands of the Indian and Israeli occupation forces after visiting the occupied territories. She also suggested the establishment of an inter-sessional Working Group on disinformation, misinformation and islamophobia for sharing best practices and experiences in the OIC geography.
The ICIM adopted the omnibus resolution which, inter alia, strongly condemned the Islamophobic statements of officials of the Indian ruling party; condemned the rising wave of Islamophobia, hate speech and hate crimes motivated by the extremist Hindutva ideology under the RSS-BJP dispensation in India that has led to political, economic and social marginalization of Indian Muslims; requested the Secretary-General to appoint a Special Envoy on Islamophobia; flagged the EU DisinfoLab’s “Indian Chronicles” uncovering a massive operation targeting international institutions and serving Indian interests to undermine primarily Pakistan by disinformation.
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The resolution called for an immediate and complete lifting of the military siege, restrictions on communication and release of political prisoners in IIOJK and immediate access for the international media outlets and correspondents to IIOJK; expressed serious concern at the persecution and arbitrary detention of Muslim journalists including Muhammad Zubair, co-founder of fact-checking website Alt News, for his factual reporting on blasphemous statements by the office bearers of ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and marginalization of Indian Muslims and urged the Indian government to stop the persecution of Muslim minorities including journalists.
The Information Ministers from the OIC Member States emphasized the need to enhance efforts for joint Islamic action in the field of media to combat Islamophobia and disinformation, in their statements.