THE convoy left Adiala after midnight. Within minutes the same clip was on a second account, then a third, each caption firmer than the last. Imran Khan was not visible in any of it. CNN wrote that the convoy was believed to be carrying him. The next day the minister said the examination had happened at PIMS, and that he was back in his cell by five. We had gone live from outside a building he never entered.

The fakes had a head start. On Aug 19, a clip of Khan in a wheelchair circulated as ‘proof’ he had reached hospital. Fact checkers debunked it to September 2022. It came back regardless, because a rumour will always fill the space where a photograph should be. Three years without a verified image is not the absence of news. It is an invitation, and it was accepted. The state built that vacuum. It is worth being precise about who filled it. Consider what this industry has actually done with this individual.

In 2014, we ran a live feed of a container in Islamabad for months. That was not coverage. It was a co-production. A protest needed an audience and a ratings war needed a protagonist, and the arrangement suited everyone in it. We did not report a movement into existence.........

© Dawn