Objectivity and neutrality are the key ideals of all responsible media, more particularly of news channels including both print publications and electronic channels. More recently, the question of media’s role in portraying and influencing the political tension between India and Pakistan has been raised in a seminar held in New Delhi. Journalists from both countries attended the seminar and shared thoughts on the role of contemporary media of the two countries in the political tension after the Mumbai attacks of November 2008.

Staged in Delhi’s International Center, the seminar was titled Is Media Jingoism Fanning Indo-Pak Tensions? The tense moment of the seminar came during Pakistani journalist Rahimmullah Khan Yousafzai’s presentation in which he mentioned an article which had suggested the invasion of Pakistan by India following the Mumbai attacks. Ten people attending the seminar, reportedly the activists of the Hindu nationalist group Sri Ram Sena, started clapping and shouting anti-Pakistan slogans. Before the situation could get more serious, security staff and journalists from the audience took control by taking the protesting group out of the hall.

The seminar then continued peacefully and several journalists and writers, including the renowned Arundhati Roy, shed light on the problem-solving potential and responsibility of media. Bharat Bhushan spoke in media’s defense, rejecting the view that media was guilty of jingoism in the case of Indo-Pak tension. Arundhati Roy, on the contrary, blamed media for influencing at least some wrongs committed in India, giving the example of M. Afzal Guru’s death sentence by the Indian Supreme Court. Pakistani journalist Saeed Minhas expressed concern over the ban on Pakistani news channels in India and of Indian news channels in Pakistan.

Later, on Wednesday (April 15, 2009), the Khyber Union of Journalists in Peshawar (Pakistan) condemned the embarrassment created by the Hindu nationalist group during the Delhi seminar of journalists. The Union demanded that the Indian government should provide greater protection to Pakistani journalists in India.