Challenges face Pakistani media

Robert J. Byers (http://www.wvgazette.com/)

Razor wire and barrels filled with concrete block the entrance
 to the Dawn newspaper offices in Karachi, Pakistan.

KARACHI, Pakistan -- Asked about a recent journalist "hit list" issued by the Pakistani Taliban and whether any Dawn employees were included, Editor Zaffar Abbas smiled into his teacup, took a sip and acknowledged, "You're looking at one."

On the outside, Abbas doesn't look too concerned about the list.

"Would it help?" he asked and laughed. Then he turned serious. "I'm not saying I'm not scared. I have a family, but I come from a family of journalists.

"Sometimes I think they're going to take me out, but there are people out there more important than me."


Abbas is no stranger to the dangers of journalism in South Asia. In Karachi in 1991, more than a dozen men from a local militant group attacked him in his apartment, beating him severely. He suffered another beating in Islamabad in 1995.

Abbas took the reins at Dawn - Pakistan's leading English-language newspaper - four years ago. Previously, he worked as a BBC correspondent in Islamabad for 16 years, most of it spent covering Afghanistan.

"From the Soviets up to the Americans," he said.

Abbas' career as a Pakistani journalist means he has witnessed firsthand the before and after: More than a decade ago, the government (military dictator Pervez Musharraf, no less) unshackled Pakistan's media, most notably freeing up the airwaves for private ownership.

"The history of press freedom in Pakistan is a long fight," Abbas said, sitting in the wood-paneled library at the Dawn offices in Karachi. "No one gifted us this freedom. We worked hard for it."

While established newspapers like Dawn, founded by Pakistani creator Muhammad Ali Jinnah, carry out their freedom in measured doses, the Pakistani media as a whole tends to act like a toddler running headlong down a flight of stairs.

An explosion of new media outlets, particularly television stations, has saturated the airwaves - not with in-depth analysis of the country's many serious problems, but with screaming talk shows. Incessant announcements of "breaking news!" rely on a very loose definition of "breaking."

Then there are the ethical challenges. The motto for many news outlets seems to be "don't worry if it's wrong; we'll correct it tomorrow."

But for all the challenges facing the Pakistani media as it works through its infancy, one thing stands out. It's a term that's on the lips of all media watchers in the country: self-censorship. And like so much in this country, it's rooted in violence.
According to accounts from several reporters, here's an example of how it works: A reporter is working on a story about, say, terrorism. The reporter gets a call from someone in the government, most likely with connections to Inter-Services Intelligence (kind of like our CIA) pressuring them to write their story a certain way. Soon, a representative of the Taliban or one of the other militant groups is also on the phone, applying similar pressure.

The reporter responds by self-censoring, meaning he or she either drops the story altogether or sanitizes it so not to offend either side.

Across town from Dawn, behind the ubiquitous Karachi security gate flanked by men with shotguns and automatic weapons, the offices of The Express Tribune look more like a bunker than a newsroom.

And for good reason.

In the paper's conference room, panes of glass sit in a stack in the corner. The walls used to have windows. Now, they're filled with concrete.

"Express Group has been attacked three times since August 2013," Editor Kamal Siddiqi explained. "We don't know why the attacks took place. Right now, we are groping in the dark."

In August, gunmen opened fire on the Express Tribune's offices, injuring one staff member and a security guard. In December, assailants again opened fire on the offices and threw homemade bombs, injuring a guard in the process.

Then, in January, a technician, a driver and a security guard were murdered in an attack on an Express Group news van. In taking responsibility for the deaths, a Pakistani Taliban spokesman said the media was spreading "venomous propaganda" about their group.

As a result of the violence, the paper has pulled back, walking on tiptoes when addressing the insurgency. This has attracted criticism from some members of the public and from others in the media.

"Lives are at stake, so we have to be very careful how we proceed," Siddiqi responds. "Right now, the main challenge is to survive, and then ***come back and do the work that we want to do."

He said some Express Tribune employees have recently resigned. "They just said 'I can't do this.' "

In 2011 and 2012, Reporters Without Borders named Pakistan as the world's most dangerous country in the world for journalists. About 50 journalists have been killed in the line of duty in the country in the past decade.

Byers, the Gazette's executive editor, spent nearly two weeks in Pakistan in early February through the U.S.-Pakistan Professional Partnership, which is organized by the International Center for Journalists and funded by the U.S. Department of State.

Reach Robert J. Byers at robby...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1236.
source; http://www.wvgazette.com/Opinion/OpEdCommentaries/201402280193?page=2&build=cache