Source & Credit: A Reluctant Mind Blog
By Tazeen | May 26, 2010
Media was a booming industry in Pakistan for most of the noughties. TV channels and radio stations sprang up from every little corner of the country, the people running popular talk shows on TV declared themselves defenders of freedom of expression and everyone who was part of the media industry in whichever way was busy patting each others’ back because the “Media was responsible for reporting the truth”. In addition, it was also considered the main actor in upholding the sanctity of freedom of speech and defender of civil liberties of the people of this land. Two separate incidents that happened last week put any illusion of the impartiality and professionalism of Pakistani journalists to rest.
The first case is that of so called Hamid Mir Tapes. To recap the story, a recorded phone conversation of a popular talk show host Hamid Mir with an alleged terrorist was surfaced. In the tapes, Mir was provoking the terrorist to interrogate one of the captives Khalid Khuwaja (a former ISI official) for his alleged links with CIA and Qadiani leaders. Mir also used foul language against a religious minority (Qadianis/Ahmadis) in the tapes. When the tapes became public, Mir came up with multiple responses. First of all, he denied ever uttering the words and sent out a misspelled press release. Then he said that he had similar conversation with a PPP leader and not with the terrorist. He then sent a court notice to Daily Times for publishing the text of that conversation. It is but understandable that Mir would try to defend himself, what I found appalling was that no journalist body condemned the incident. Even if the tapes turn out to be fake (I personally think the tapes are not fake, most TV watching Pakistanis hear his voice three times a week for past so many years, they cannot all mistake it) they should have condemned anyone instigating violence posing as a journalist, esp against a person in captivity of terrorists and a persecuted religious minority but PFUJ decided to stay neutral in the instance.
Mubashir Lucman, another talk show host, said it in his program that some people are jealous of Mir’s popularity, hence they are trying to malign his name. Ansar Abbasi says that Mir may be a loose cannon but he means well in another show. I guess Mir meant well when he used offensive language against Qadianis. Talat Hussien was at pains to point out that anyone recording a private telephone conversation is actually indulging in an illegal activity. If a journalist had recorded conversation of a politician, it would have been justified but now that one of their own was found guilty, he came up with illegality of recording the telephone conversation! A man (Khalid Khuwaja) was killed, perhaps because of that conversation and that man(Mir) still goes on air every day, giving his sanctimonious opinion on everything under the sun! This can only happen in Pakistan.
When members of the panel pointed out that they are only speaking against violation of civil liberties, most journalists mocked them and abruptly ended the press conference by leaving the room. It must be noted that a group of angry pro facebook ban protester was chanting “death to facbook” outside the press club and it was a seriously scary scene. When the press conference ended, I met a couple of former colleagues and was catching up with them when one of reporters who works for a big News channel said how sad is it that a former Jamati (they thought one of the panel members was a former member of Islami Jamiat Talba – student wing of the ultra right wing Jamat-e-Islami) is now speaking for a Jew website (just because facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is Jewish, the whole site becomes a “Jew website”). The other journalist came up with the suggestion that they should report him to the angry mob outside and they will take care of him. When I sensed that things are gonna get ugly, I left immediately with a friend (We were escorted by a male colleague who thought it was not safe for two young women to go out and face that angry mob).
Minutes after I left the press conference, the mob entered the premises (most probably on call of the journalists who could not stand someone speaking for the right of freedom of speech) and manhandled the panelist who was still there. A detailed account of that incident can be read here. Like Farieha mentioned in her post, almost all major news channel cameras were there but not one of them reported the incident. Many journalists openly expressed disgust at the views held by the panelists and they were just not ready to listen to anything at all. Karachi Press Club, which was once considered the bastion of freedom of speech, could not tolerate a few harmless individuals who wanted to question why access to information for which they pay is denied to them. This is how we treat dissenting voices in Pakistan, but harassing the living day lights out of them.
PS: I know I am very late in reporting this incident but I could not access blogspot since Thursday.
Read original post here: The sorry state of journalism in Pakistan
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