In the past decade, the world has witnessed another rise of neo-Nazi and fascist organizations. The terrible events like Charlottesville in the United States 2017, in Chemnitz in Germany in 2018, and the terrorist attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, have made us all question: what can media do to halt the extent of these extremist ideologies and oppose extremism?
To answer this hot issue, we turned to the renowned Journalist with over 20 years of expertise and the Executive Director of the UK’s leading online news media and information dissemination platform, British Herald. Ansif Ashraf laid the foundation of British Herald in 2018, with the motto “Where Britain Meets the World.” Without a doubt, the British Herald stands today as the major British media company that has expanded its foothold in the digital business, emerging as the leader in the new digital media landscape, globally. Significantly, with its eMagazine, distributed via the world’s largest digital newsstand, Magzter, British Herald has reached out to over 50 million users, voicing the burning issues around the globe. The Launch of the British Herald’s magazine was done exclusively by Boris Johnson, the current prime minister of the United Kingdom.
The media company gained significant regard for its special dark mode addition of eMagazine, in tribute of the George Floyd, another life slain at the hands of extremist mindset. The step depicted that this prestigious media outlet works solely to address the issue and contribute to creating awareness globally.
“Journalism has a commitment to provide verifiable information that is in the public interest. In fact, it is the legal right of the audience to gain access to accurate information. Unfortunately, journalism is failing at the hands of media companies that only in the industry for their personal benefits,” expressed Ansif Ashraf, Executive Director British Herald.
Ansif Ashraf addressed that the media focuses on ruthless news coverage, breaking alerts, and showing news repeatedly again and again just to gain viewership. “News Media has long forgotten its purpose, which is to inform people about the issues. This constant news coverage does no good, other than making people insensitive about the subject,” he says.
In modern times, media is not serving as a wellspring of information; it is fueling the fire of hatred and extremism that ignites deep within the people. “The media often relentlessly covers the news of extremism that involves a Muslim attacker, and become tolerant of other events. This is against the ethics of journalism that demands news media to be just, fair and unbiased,” says Ashraf. “This sort of representation by media produces stereotypes and divisions, encouraging violent extremism,” he adds.
Ansif Ashraf elucidates that the scourge of terrorism, no matter who commits it or boosts it, must be thwarted wherever it strikes, and perpetrators must be brought to justices. “The crucial role the media plays in countering extremism is to cover the dimensions of the story that serves as a hope for future and not to exaggerate it, nurturing hatred for a specific people belonging to certain race or creed,” he says.
The media can serve as a platform for genuine dialogues and discussion, promoting the ways of mediation as far greater than violence and bloodshed. “We cannot erase terrorism from the face of this earth at any cost, yet, media can help not to provoke people to live in fear and adapt extremist ideologies and behaviors,” says Ansif Ashraf.
Ansif Ashraf further expressed, he had realized that the news media had defiled the true notion of freedom of expression a long time ago. This is the reason that he decided to come up with the British Herald, a platform that will remain honest to the ethics of journalism and serve to aware people for better. “My concept behind British Herald was the need to establish a platform that does not care about its own interest, but focuses on becoming a mic for legitimate voice, giving them a place to shout their concerns and let people from all across the globe hear it,” he says.
The role of media remains to fortify the international population, not to let the terror and fear dismantle the progress humanity has made in terms of freedom of expression, democracy, and human rights.
The media can surely do better.