http://tribune.com.pk/
ISLAMABAD: Journalists in Pakistan have a very tough job with serious threats to their lives, mostly because the state is too weak to enforce its writ and to arrest a crumbling law-and-order situation, according to a public policy analyst.
“We are all easy targets but more so journalists because they are in the public eye,” Barrister Mahreen Khan, an analyst and TV broadcaster, said during a conference on the role of media and Pakistan’s national security discourse at a local hotel on Monday.
The conference was organised by Strategic Vision Institute (SVI) in collaboration with Konrad-Adenaur-Stiftung (KAS).
Khan said the mushrooming of news channels and the profit-oriented approach of media houses have contributed to sensationalism and airing of extreme views in a bid to land more ratings.
Khan said Lal Masjid incident ended up giving voice, air time and contacts in the media to the militants. The pernicious part of the 2007 operation against the seminary coverage was that news channels aired unverified, baseless conspiracy theories about exaggerated death toll as believable stories, she said.
According to her Pakistani journalists need to develop a narrative that is not emotional. However, she suggested giving air time to militant outfits will only give credibility and legitimacy to such groups.
“There is a duty to report news but no duty to report views,” Khan said.
In other countries, Khan said, news organisations have drawn some clear lines by deciding, for example, not to report the views of child sex offenders. Pakistani journalists faced a similar situation in the case of assassination of Salmaan Taseer, she said, when his murderer was eulogised by certain sections of society.
Khan said these questions might be difficult to answer but they need to be contemplated.
“There are many more questions (about media’s role in covering militancy) and we need to have a public debate about it before it becomes Frankenstein’s monster,” Khan said.
Other speakers talked about electronic media being constrained by the ratings race, unprofessional attitude of journalists and nascent ethics.
Peshawar University international relations professor Dr Minhas Majeed said ill-informed debates on the channels add confusion to the already puzzling state of national security discourse.
Majeed said the media can help build a positive environment constructive programming.
Beaconhouse National University Media and Mass Communication Dean Dr Mehdi Hassan said gate keeping has gone missing at the news organisations.
Hassan also said the space ceded by intellectuals has been overtaken by obscurantist forces.
Former Pakistani ambassador to the US Sherry Rehman condemned the attack on The Express News talk show host Raza Rumi.
But Rehman also pointed out that journalists were not alone in the cross hairs of the weapons of extremist forces. Every Pakistani citizen is under threat and facing lack of security, she said.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 1st, 2014.
source; http://tribune.com.pk/story/689688/in-crosshairs-living-here-hard-for-citizens-harder-for-journalists/
“We are all easy targets but more so journalists because they are in the public eye,” Barrister Mahreen Khan, an analyst and TV broadcaster, said during a conference on the role of media and Pakistan’s national security discourse at a local hotel on Monday.
The conference was organised by Strategic Vision Institute (SVI) in collaboration with Konrad-Adenaur-Stiftung (KAS).
Khan said the mushrooming of news channels and the profit-oriented approach of media houses have contributed to sensationalism and airing of extreme views in a bid to land more ratings.
Khan said Lal Masjid incident ended up giving voice, air time and contacts in the media to the militants. The pernicious part of the 2007 operation against the seminary coverage was that news channels aired unverified, baseless conspiracy theories about exaggerated death toll as believable stories, she said.
According to her Pakistani journalists need to develop a narrative that is not emotional. However, she suggested giving air time to militant outfits will only give credibility and legitimacy to such groups.
“There is a duty to report news but no duty to report views,” Khan said.
In other countries, Khan said, news organisations have drawn some clear lines by deciding, for example, not to report the views of child sex offenders. Pakistani journalists faced a similar situation in the case of assassination of Salmaan Taseer, she said, when his murderer was eulogised by certain sections of society.
Khan said these questions might be difficult to answer but they need to be contemplated.
“There are many more questions (about media’s role in covering militancy) and we need to have a public debate about it before it becomes Frankenstein’s monster,” Khan said.
Other speakers talked about electronic media being constrained by the ratings race, unprofessional attitude of journalists and nascent ethics.
Peshawar University international relations professor Dr Minhas Majeed said ill-informed debates on the channels add confusion to the already puzzling state of national security discourse.
Majeed said the media can help build a positive environment constructive programming.
Beaconhouse National University Media and Mass Communication Dean Dr Mehdi Hassan said gate keeping has gone missing at the news organisations.
Hassan also said the space ceded by intellectuals has been overtaken by obscurantist forces.
Former Pakistani ambassador to the US Sherry Rehman condemned the attack on The Express News talk show host Raza Rumi.
But Rehman also pointed out that journalists were not alone in the cross hairs of the weapons of extremist forces. Every Pakistani citizen is under threat and facing lack of security, she said.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 1st, 2014.
source; http://tribune.com.pk/story/689688/in-crosshairs-living-here-hard-for-citizens-harder-for-journalists/
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