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: It definitely must have been the worst reality show that Indians have ever watched. As the nation sat glued to their television sets through the past three days with baited breath, the indispensable role that information plays in our lives once again came to the fore. Sitting miles away from Mumbai, a person in Delhi thought twice before stepping out — such was the effect of the terror images. To that extent the terrorist did succeed. With the incessant “Breaking News” and “Exclusive” tags on news channels they had managed to target the attention of a billion people — the people, the policy makers…everyone. “Democratic nations must try to find ways to starve the terrorist and the hijacker of the oxygen of publicity on which they depend,” British premier Margaret Thatcher had said in the event of the attacks by Irish Republican Army.

News media, as the prime delivery mechanism, is indeed a weapon for the terrorists — a toll to manage the perceptions of threat. EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report 2007 notes that altogether 498 attacks were carried out in EU in 2006. It also indicates at a coordinated global media offensive from Islamist terrorists. And how? It says: “The frequency of video statements by members of the original Al-Qaeda leadership and other Islamist terrorists shows a marked increase. The propaganda is of greater sophistication, of high quality and more professional. English is used more often, either in direct speech or in subtitles, allowing potential access to a wider audience than previous publications in Arabic.”