WATCH: Jang Group owner Mir Shakil equates social media with 'gutter'

ISLAMABAD: Defending his media organisation in contempt of court and fallacious reporting case, owner of Jang Group of Newspapers Mir Shakil ur Rehman on Tuesday termed social media ‘gutter’ during interaction with journalists after hearing of the case in the Supreme Court.

To justify his claim, he said that more than 75% of world population has the same opinion about the social media.

“Majority people think same about social media [content] is gutter,” he claimed while talking to media persons outside the apex court after a hearing on contempt of court case during which he apologized before the judges for fallacious reporting about Panamagate Joint Investigation Team (JIT).

He opined that various political leaders and parties hail social media since they have permission to post and say anything there while referring to irrelevant statements and criticism made by politicians.

“Mr. Imran Khan has presence on social media and he uses it for free to post anything easily, including PML-N leaders,” he said.

Contradictorily, Mir Shakil’s own media group has one of the largest social media presence as his nine media entities have a combined Facebook following of 26.22 million and besides 1.83 million Twitter followers.

Mir Shakil’s statement annotates his dissent for social media for being a free medium and accessible to anyone as per their choice at a time when the social media is getting influential on conventional media and challenging the power to control the national narrative.

“Create 1,000 to 10,000 email addresses and within an hour you can post rubbish [content] and get indulge in a propaganda,” Mir Shakil said.

Jang/Geo Group owner Mir Shakeel-ur-Rehman calls social media ‘gutter’ pic.twitter.com/gTIVQUHqko

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