Natioal Security Advisor Ajit Doval suggested stopping publicity for terrorists.
Highlights
- Media is a "very important organ to fight terrorism": Ajit Doval
- Mr Doval asked agencies to take media into confidence for terror cases
- "Terrorism will end if the media is quiet," he quoted Margaret Thatcher
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Monday highlighted the role media played in the fight against terrorism. He also asked security and intelligence agencies to take the media into confidence when it comes to terror investigation and warnings, since the media is a "very important organ to fight terrorism".
"It is all about perception. Since most of us do not tell them (the media) anything, they speculate and carry news. That news, in turn, terrorises society rather than prepare society to fight terror," he told room full of senior police officers who are directly and indirectly dealing with anti-terror operations on a daily basis.
Quoting Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of Britain, he said, "Terrorism will end if the media is quiet".
"Why do terrorists kill? They kill for publicity. If 10 people are killed and no one comes to know about it, no one would be terrorised," Mr Doval said while addressing a conference of the chiefs of the Anti-Terrorism Squads.
"If the media does not write, nobody would come to know. If somebody's son is kidnapped and killed while going to school by a terrorist and that is not reported by the media, the people will not come to know," he said.
In this context, security and intelligence agencies also need to change their media policy, he said.
"Perception management is an important part in the fight against terror," he said.
"There should be someone trained to deal with media. Tell them what has happened, what the government is doing to tackle it. They would be very supportive. Whenever government has taken them in confidence, they have been very supportive because they also want the society to know the right thing," Mr Doval stressed.