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Rumour about Shahid Afridi’s daughter: It is time we show some responsibility

Some Facebook pages even posted the picture of a child wrapped in white cloth, covered with rose petals.

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Shahid Afridi with his family. Photo courtesy: Shahid Afridi on Twitter
Shahid Afridi with his family. Photo courtesy: Shahid Afridi on Twitter

Working for the media comes with its pros and cons. While you get first access to every piece of breaking news, you also have to be aware of the responsibilities that come with your job profile: you cannot publish news unless you are one hundred per cent sure of it. We need to be aware of what we do, what we spread, what we publish, for we, being in the news publishing industry, cannot afford to be irresponsible. And that is precisely where we, an entire industry, went wrong as the (thankfully, untrue and baseless) death of Shahid Afridi’s younger daughter made rounds on the internet. READ: Shahid Afridi’s daughter’s death reports on social media false

The news did not take time to trend, thanks to Twitter and Facebook. Some Facebook pages even posted the picture of a child wrapped in white cloth, covered with rose petals. The child in question was obviously not Afridi’s daughter, and thankfully, with time, the news subsided.

Let us take a moment off the fact that Afridi is a celebrity in his field, a man who has made news for the right and wrong reasons over the past two decades, earning adulation, criticism, and even ridicule. Let us even forget the fact that Afridi is a cricketer.

Let us, for a moment, think of him as a father. Let us think of him as the father of a child, the news of whose death is all over internet. Afridi is more active than most international cricketers on Twitter. What would have gone through his mind when he saw him, his daughter trend on Twitter? What would have gone through his mind when “Shahid Afridi daughter death” started appearing on Google trends?

It is time we place ourselves in his shoes, for once. It is time we act more responsibly. It is time we, as media, confirm news before publishing, more so if it deals with personal loss of this extent. It is time we, as citizens of social media, cross-check news before sharing them mindlessly. It is time we rely on cold facts before giving in to sensationalism.

For once, let us reflect on exactly what we are doing. I am aware of the fact that, as part of our job profiles, we need to be the quickest to every piece of breaking news, to align to every trend on the internet, to beat everyone else. Unfortunately, in the race to being the quickest, we are compromising on the most crucial aspect of being a part of the news industry: responsibility.

There is a reason media has been powerful throughout history. I do not want to bore readers with the details, for that is not the topic of this piece. Let us not abuse that power to mislead people, sensationalising news, just for the sake of clicks. I am aware how important clicks are, but let us at least base what we publish on facts.

Especially if we deal with news regarding deaths of children whose fathers are active on social media. If you are a parent with an active account, you will probably agree.

(Abhishek Mukherjee is the Chief Editor at CricketCountry and CricLife. He blogs here and can be followed on Twitter here.)

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