Most Pakistanis dislike the police, blaming
them for being corrupt and aggressive - but now the media is earning a
similar reputation for its frequent attacks on people's privacy.
Pakistan's ever-growing
freewheeling private television stations have given birth to “vigilante
journalism” aimed at exposing people - often ordinary members of the
public - they say are breaching social morals.
Former military ruler Pervez
Musharraf liberalised the media in 1999,
opening the way for the first
time to private news and entertainment channels. There are now more than
80, 40 of them broadcasting round-the-clock news in five languages.
In January, TV anchor Maya Khan
caused a storm of protest with her show “Raid in the Morning”, in which
she and a group of veiled women chased couples in a park accusing them
of behaving immorally.
Many fled, but Khan pounced on one
couple and badgered them with questions, tricking them into answering
by telling them the camera was not running.
The show provoked furious
criticism on social networking websites Facebook and Twitter, and
eventually a 5,000-name petition forced bosses at Samaa TV station to
sack her.
Khan
refused repeated requests to talk to AFP, but in an interview with
Express TV she was unrepentant, saying what she did was in the public
interest.
“My heart is satisfied because
whatever I did was done for the betterment of society. But, still if it
hurt people, I apologise,” she said, insisting that what she presented
on her show was “not real but a re-enactment” of the perceived events.
Pakistani liberals praised Samaa
for getting rid of Khan, but their celebrations were short-lived as she
was quickly hired by another station, ARY, to host their morning show.
The Khan incident is typical of
stunts carried out by television stations who say they are safeguarding
social morals in what is a deeply conservative country.
Morning shows, such as Khan's, are
the most popular. Hosts are well paid and eager to hold onto their
audience in a competitive market.
“Which is why, highly-paid anchors
go for ventures like Maya Khan to keep business going,” one senior
official at a private channel told AFP on condition of anonymity.
But
Mehnaz Rehman, a director of the Aurat Foundation, an organisation which
fights for women's rights, said it was a dangerous trend that
threatened social order.
“This is not journalism, this is
purely vigilantism, something that does not suit good people, especially
those who claim to be fighting for the rights of masses,” she said.
“Media should be responsible and think beyond commercialisation, especially where it hits the society's very social fabric.”
In a country where young people
already feel intimidated by intolerance, 25-year-old Mohsin Haleem, an
executive, said media has harassed rather than empowered them.
Pakistan has suffered since the
1970s from encroaching Islamisation that has made society, particularly
in the cities and particularly for women, more conservative.
While the Internet, and sites such
as Twitter and Facebook provide some interaction, gender segregation is
common and public entertainment is limited.
“The
events of vigilantism by our TV channels have discouraged many of our
youth to go in public parks, even they preferred to stay elsewhere on
Valentine's Day,” he said.
It is not only courting couples that have been on the receiving end of intrusive television exposes.
Ghulam Haider works in a health
diagnostics laboratory which has been gatecrashed twice by reporters
from two different TV channels insisting on filming the premises to
check the facilities Ä an act only the government is authorised to
take.
“They are more assertive and
ruthless in attacking us in the name of freedom of expression. They
don't respect our freedom and individual liberty,” said Haider, 69.
“The reporters take booms in their
hands and gatecrash anywhere without permission. They especially do
this in the places which are inhabited or owned by those having little
influence in the society,” Haider said.
Talat Hussain, who hosts a political show on Dawn TV, is an exception to the trend and has exposed media vigilantism.
He was the only anchor to dedicate an entire show to the Khan story.
But while he says that shows like
Khan's break boundaries and intrude, he believes the media has the
potential to correct itself.
“We are a young and evolving
media. The action by a TV management to fire the host for chasing people
shows that potential of self-correction and self-accountability,” he
said.
“Any reporter who intrudes into
the privacy of people should realise, if they continue to do this the
market will turn against us.” - Sapa-AFP
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