Maria Zulfiqar Khan: Investigative journalist or media bully?
By Farwa Zahra: Pakistani news media never fails to remind us of the fact that it operates under no formal code of ethics. Whilst the reporters take up the role of undercover agents, once every few months we see moral policing by TV show hosts like Maya Khan and more recently Maria Zulfiqar Khan. One of the latest episodes of Maria’s show “Baat Say Baat”, featuring her raid on a Chinese-run massage centre, only left me disgusted that journalism has stooped so low. The show violated media ethics on various fronts. The host revealed identities of both she thought were innocent or involved. The name of a 14-year old girl working at the center was mentioned quite a few times before the editors of the programme decided to censor it… as if … Read entire article »
Filed under: Media
RIP Ardeshir Cowasjee
Raza Rumi (My comments cited in this story at Al Jazeera) Ardeshir Cowasjee, a Parsi businessman, philanthropist, and a pillar of cosmopolitan Karachi, turned to public activism through his writings. First, as a contributor of letters, and later, as a columnist. The candor in Cowasjee’s columns was unprecedented, and very soon, he started to become an irritant for the governments of the day, various mafia in his native Karachi, and the forces of bigotry. In this process, … Read entire article »
Orientalism Today
About three weeks ago, in an interview that was part of a tour to launch his latest book, Salman Rusdhie was asked about what he thought about the protests that erupted in Muslim countries as a result of the film, “Innocence of Muslims” (or the “Life of Muhammed,” or “Muslim Innocence, depending on reports). He responded by calling the video a “disgraceful little malevolent thing ” and the violence that erupted as a consequence of the film, “the release of a much larger outrage.” Rushdie went on to comment on the topic, saying “He’s clearly set out to provoke, and he’s obviously unleashed a much bigger reaction that he hoped for. One of the problems with defending free speech is you often have to defend people that you find to be … Read entire article »
Filed under: Colonialism, culture, Media, Uncategorized
Code of Conduct for Anchors Adopted By DunyaNews
We are posting the following code of conduct developed by Dunya News for its TV anchors. This is a first of its kind and we hope other channels will follow suit. The real test of Dunya News will be to get this implemented by all concerned. Let’s hope they set a new trend in the troubled waters of Pakistani media. Raza Rumi Preface DunyaNews, while remaining competitive in Pakistan’s fast growing media industry, believes that its functioning must be informed by a transparent and enforceable code of ethics. DunyaNews is committed to promoting public interest by ensuring an unobstructed flow of news and views to the people will ensuring that honesty, accuracy, objectivity and transparency shall be its guiding principles. At DunyaNews we remain conscious of our primary responsibility towards our valued viewers: … Read entire article »
Filed under: Media
Are We Caving in?
By Shafaat Bokhari: Having gotten up early in the morning after a tiresome struggle with the hourly load shedding of electricity at night I planned the day during which I had to buy a Pakistan International Airlines’ ticket for my wife. I had earlier promised her visit to our relatives abroad to celebrate Eid with them; my mind was relentlessly getting back to the last night TV talk show on the PTV where some intellectuals were very seriously discussing Muslim carnage in Myanmar. The discussion seemed quite unreasonable and embarrassing as none of them was referring to even more bloodshed of Muslims at the hands of fellow Muslims in our own country almost on daily basis. I was surprised to note that none of them was referring to Shia genocide in … Read entire article »
Filed under: Media
Media, get your facts straight!
By BB : It was the morning of March 3, 2009. Nine a.m. to be exact. Slivers of information had begun trickling in. The Sri Lanka cricket team – on their way to play the second Test against Pakistan – had come under attack. Bullets were zipping back and forth across Liberty market. Back in the newsroom, phones were buzzing in synchrony. Producers were menacing reporters to make sense of the happenings on the ground. A pandemonium had erupted. Nothing was clear. Assumptions and heresy had been mashed with facts. How many militants were engaged with the police? Any casualties? Who were these militants? A litany of answered questions sat heavy in the newsroom. A few minutes later, the content head ambled in. An emergency meeting was in session. Producers from every department scrambled inside … Read entire article »
Filed under: Media, Uncategorized
‘Gates’ in Pakistan (Scamistan)
By Prof. Farakh A Khan: Since inception of Pakistan in 1947 we have been rocked by scams and ‘hidden hands’ with unfailing regularity. Before we got hyperactive media scams were buried deeply in accusations and rumours. Now we are bombarded with Pakistan shaking news items glaring at us from our TV screens. With an active independent judiciary exposures are made at the highest levels putting in jeopardy our new ‘democratic’ defenders of democracy leaders. A plaint Supreme Court and Election Commission headed by a person who will not rock the boat (i.e. corruption) of nascent democracy is the desire of most of our present rulers. The massive Balakot earthquake of 2005 and floods of 2010 had shown us that governance in Pakistan was non-existence. Post disaster management efforts by the NGOs and … Read entire article »
Filed under: Media
How Trolls are confounding the Shia Rights Discourse
by Abdul Majeed An article recently published in a notorious blog went on to criticize The Friday Times, Raza Rumi, Saleem Javed, Khaled Ahmad and Ali Chishti,because they dared to use the word “sectarian killings” instead of “Shia genocide” which is the term favored by the author of that post. The article also posited that there is a systemic genocide committed against Shias and that the #DeepState is somehow promoting it. The author did not specify exactly what benefit the #DeepState gets if they are actually complicit, when all it does is to actually compromise and damage its own writ and control. The article wanted us to believe that “Sectarian Violence/Genocide” is being “mis-represented” as a Proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The article mentioned the plight of the Hazara … Read entire article »
Filed under: Al Qaeda, Army, baluchistan, Citizens, Democracy, Iran, Islam, Media, Pakistan, quetta, Religion, Society, Taliban, Uncategorized, USA
Disaster Porn and Pakistani media
by Ali Ahsan First of all, my apologies for using an ‘objectionable word’ in the title of my piece given how some 15 year old is already on a self-crusade to note down every single ‘vulgar’ website there is, and try to get the PTA to ban them all for ‘protecting our youth’. Never mind the mental masturbation, but an adult website is the last worry we should have in Pakistan when there are more vulgar and … Read entire article »
Filed under: Citizens, drama, Fiction, human rights, Identity, Islamabad, journalism, Media, Pakistan, Regulatory Affairs, Society
The Inside Story of the Doctors Movement
by Anonymous The first recorded protest by students in Punjab was in 1905 when students from King Edward Medical College, led by Dr. Satya Paul protested against the discrimination being faced by the students (Page 21, Pakistan Main Tulaba Tehreek, Professor Aziz uddin Ahmed). The first proper National Student Body was founded by yet another medical student, Dr. Sarwar from Dow Medical College, Karachi. Dr. Sarwar formed Pakistan’s first student union, the Democratic Students Federation (DSF). … Read entire article »
Filed under: Democracy, Doctors, human rights, Judiciary, lawyers movement, Media, movements, Pakistan, Uncategorized
Interview: Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, the First Pakistani Oscar Nominee
by Nadia Rasul Visual storyteller and Academy Award nominee Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy spoke to Asia Blog recently about the strong tradition of storytelling in Pakistan, the need for spreading awareness and generating dialogue about critical social issues in the country, the impact of digital media technologies on her work and what an Oscar nomination means to her. Chinoy is the first Pakistani to be nominated for an Academy Award for her film Saving Face. Her film, which … Read entire article »
The Lavish Wedding in Dubai…
Jang group is the largest media group in the country and in recent times its power has only increased. Its electronic arm, GEO TV, is one of the most influential television stations in Pakistan and is known to promote populist narratives according to which politicians are corrupt and operate with no accountability. Lifestyles of politicians is often targeted and any “exuberance” is projected as complete insensitivity to the plight of the suffering poor of the country. … Read entire article »
List of Journalists Given Plots
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has been informed that some 1,000 journalists of Islamabad had applied for plots after the government launched new sectors in Islamabad and invited applications from the general public, government servants and others as part of a uniform policy to give plots to those who were permanently living in Islamabad and did not have any property. A two per cent quota was also fixed for Islamabad-based journalists. A high-powered committee comprising government officials and senior journalists was formed which after careful scrutiny of the applicants, had recommended names of 172 journalists who were given plots against payments. The PAC is in possession of a list of 172 journalists who were given plots in the federal capital in line with their two per cent quota in G-13 and G-14 sectors … Read entire article »
Filed under: journalism, Justice, Media, Uncategorized
Extinguished hope
By Ahsan Kureshi A friend, who shares my ‘liberal’ perspective on almost all things, inquired why I was surprised on what had happened. ‘Shouldn’t we be used to all this?’ His question got me thinking. Are we actually so drowned in the wetsand of fanaticism that the call of an auction of the ‘Holy weapon of Qadri’ was not even a head-turner? Are we bent upon staying fearful and oblivious to all that we deem as absurd? Is a debate on the said topic too much to ask for? Too volatile of a question with a ‘playing-with-a-knife’ consequence? Indeed and sadly yes; atleast, that’s what it seems. What saddens me today the most is the biases of the pioneers of the ‘freedom-of-speech’ manifesto, the media. The morning newspaper (5th Jan) that greeted me today, … Read entire article »
Filed under: liberal Pakistan, Media, Opinion, Terrorism
Fabrication galore: Nadeem Ul Haque and the nukes controversy
Ahmad Rafay Alam ‘s exclusive piece for Pak Tea House. I stopped writing for The News after their attacks against Asma Jehangir during the run-up the Supreme Court Bar elections in 2010. I knew The News catered to every constituency – from the sublime to the ridiculous. It has to. It’s in business, after all. But what they tried to do with Asma was reckless and unforgivable. There are plenty other papers out there, I thought to myself, why be associated with this one. I have not regretted my decision. Last week, I saw the same ugly underside of the paper’s editorial policies when Ahmad Noorani tried to uncover a scandal that wasn’t there. Noorani, who is known to call helpless interviewees late at night and record their conversations, made headlines some … Read entire article »
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