Agent Vinod: Another sign of Pak-India tensions?
This post was originally published on the Wall Street Journal. To read more by Tom Wright, click here. ______________________________________________ Showing a Pakistani army general watching a courtesan dancing? Using shots of Karachi airport without permission? Or generally portraying Pakistan in a bad light? Whatever the reasons for Pakistan’s decision to ban Agent Vinod, the latest Khan-Kapoor offering, most of us will have to wait for Friday to see what the fuss is about. If earlier bans are anything to go by, it’s probably a storm in a teacup, more indicative of the parlous state of India-Pakistan relations than the content ...
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Warning! The PTA might not approve of this bakwas
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has decided to ban the word ‘bakwaas’ (nonsense). Let me say this right here – that is such bakwaas. It has also banned the word Jesus Christ. There go Merry Christmas messages to Christian friends. There goes, now that I think about it, this particular conversation I found in my phone: “Hey I heard you were ill – did you really faint in Chemistry class today?” “Jesus, how fast does news spread around school anyway? I am feeling much better.” To be honest though, I am not that fussed. Stranger, inexplicable things have happened. Facebook, for instance was banned ...
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PTA bans, and words we cannot say
Dearly beloved and graciously naïve, The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has allegedly compiled a list of words that the directors have deemed obscene and want to ban for text messages. As laughable as this may seem, this list, if real, is a clear example of the extremist mentality that some of the office-bearers in Pakistan have. Sifting through these banned words, I discovered that even the word “Jesus Christ” might be forbidden, along with many other words of everyday usage. Why on earth has Jesus’s name been banned? Is it some kind of an abusive word? As much as rightists and McBurqas may like it, ...
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Media madness: Sometimes the show must not go on
Veena Malik’s interviews on the Express News show ‘Frontline with Kamran Shahid’ remained a source of much debate last month – a classic case of sensationalisation. The two episodes, however, are not the only examples of media’s – broadcast media in particular – irresponsible behaviour. Here are some examples: The suicide of the wife of Raymond Davis’ victim was surely disturbing, but there is no justification as to why her footage was shown on television while she battled for her life. A while back, Geo News reporter Wali Khan Babar was killed in Karachi and within an hour of his death, Geo News ...
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Slackistan: Not coming to a cinema near you
The Pakistani creative and entertainment industry is in the line of fire yet again. Last week’s cause célèbre is incidental heroine Veena Malik, the Lollywood actress whose participation in the Indian reality television show Bigg Boss, has touched a raw nerve with Pakistan’s self-appointed morality brigade (media and mullah alike). She emerged from Kamran Shahid’s show Frontline as an ambassador for showbiz and entertainment. This week, we have been greeted with the news that Hammad Khan’s feature film Slackistan with an all-Pakistani cast will not be released in Pakistan because of the raft of objections and censorship demands from the Pakistani Central ...
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CIA names: US media’s self-censorship
The media in Pakistan, including the much-vaunted English press, is often accused of indulging in self-censorship. Given that we live in a country plagued by endemic violence and threats to journalists, this may well be true to some extent. However, one thing that caught my attention today was how various newspapers had covered the ousting of America’s CIA station chief in Islamabad and the fact that he had to leave the country because his cover had been blown. The story began with the filing of a complaint with police in Islamabad by a man called Karim Khan who alleged that ...
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Gagging dissent won’t silence Arundhati Roy
Socrates was morally, intellectually and politically at odds with his fellow Athenians and he paid the price for it. And he paid the price in terms of his life. Poison took away his life, but his death could not kill the ideas and thoughts he espoused. Arundhati Roy’s saga in India sometimes reminds me of ancient Athens and its ruling class. One example is the way the Indian ruling class, major opposition party and the mainstream media reacted to Roy’s comments questioning India’s right over Kashmir and calling for it’s independence. If one takes the statement at face value, it appears to ...
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Say no to Mathira: Ban vulgarity not art
A few days ago, someone forwarded me a video of the very famous VJ, Mathira. The clip showed her being abused and harassed by live callers. At first, I was quite annoyed with the live callers, but when I watched closely, the live callers weren’t the only ones to be blamed, were they? After all the lady does dress very cheaply and at times, uses indecent facial gestures during her live call sessions. The only thing I can praise her for is the way she bashes rude live callers very confidently. Some media people tend to drop offensive live calls the moment ...
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If Donald Duck is not a threat, why is Hanuman?
It seems like banning things is the only form of productivity we have mastered so far. A resolution calling for a ban on Hindu cartoons was proposed in the Punjab Assembly last Tuesday. Those calling for the ban should, for a second, try going back to their childhood. They might find an idealistic time, when they had an unsullied and vigorous imagination. Even ignorant old grannies understand the importance of stories for the young mind. They would narrate stories of kings, princes, dwarves, magicians, palaces, far away wonderlands, jungles and mysterious dens, while children lay next to them, eyes wide ...
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Banning Bin Laden
Our board of censors is inherently flawed, of dubious intellect and highly erratic in its thinking. Often acting as a right wing morality police, the board of censors has in recent history been responsible for the banning or total perversion of quality theatre, film and television. In a country where new ideas and fresh art has the potential to propel Pakistan forward and to make us think and appreciate a world outside the confines of our four walls, the censors act as a consistent impediment. On the one hand the current government is making all the right noise about free ...
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