What the NATO Summit achieved
The Pakistanis came, they didn’t quite conquer, and now they’re leaving. At the end of the day, the NATO Summit in Chicago produced no news, and yet there was much to report. With hundreds of media personnel camped at the massive media centre at McCormick Place, the venue of the summit, the subject of the day remained Afghanistan and Pakistan. Reporters tried to work out whether Pakistan would announce the re-opening of the supply routes, an issue that has been raised in nearly every press conference that took place during the summit. All that work really was in vain – Pakistan ...
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Why give female reporters ‘soft’ beats?
Besides the intellectually deprived generalisation with which ‘beats’ are largely associated in media organisations across the country, what fascinates me even more is the assumption that certain beats work well with a specific gender. In the world of journalism, where ‘beat’ actually refers to subjects which are generally covered by a reporter in the course of reporting, one of the great debates is whether a reporter covers a ‘hard beat’ or a ‘soft beat’. Let me dare to explain. The elders of our tribe in their infinite wisdom decided to develop a relationship between news beats and genders of reporters. Hard ...
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Ho Yaqeen: Bringing hope and positivity to Pakistan
“Turn every stone in Pakistan and you find a diamond,” said Sabina Khatri – one of the six central characters of Ho Yaqeen, a project that aims to promote a positive image of Pakistan. She sent chills down my spine. I listened keenly as she spoke at the premiere of HoYaqeen which was attended by the glitterati of Karachi. Pakistan’s first and only Oscar winner, Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy was also present at this event. What Sabina said stayed with me; working for a news organisation has made me feel despondent and desolate. As news of torture, rape, kidnapping, sectarian violence and bomb blasts pours ...
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The problem with owning large media corporations
When talking about journalists, some may describe a journalist as always having news in his/her blood. However, when describing a media mogul like Rupert Murdoch, one may say owning news was always in his blood. Inheriting a media company from his father, Murdoch went one step further and sought to build himself an empire quickly. Buying the News of the World, The Sun, The Times, etc, Murdoch then decided to create News Corporation, News Corp, which is the second largest media corporation in the world today, located in New York. News Corp was established as a holding company - a company that does not have a direct ...
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Satisfied with TV coverage of the Bhoja Air crash?
As the Bhoja Air plane went up in flames on Friday evening, so did tempers within the Pakistani social media crowd. Along with the “RIP all victims of Bhoja Air crash” status updates on Facebook, there were angry tweets questioning why television channels aired the passenger list and why images of the crash site were being aired. It seemed that it was easier for people to direct their fury at the media for being “sensational, insensitive and unethical”. Some from the media circle, however, defended the coverage and retaliated by saying that the reporters were doing their jobs. This brings to light a few ...
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In FATA, radio is the only voice
Twice, I missed the cadet college test because the only source of news was newspapers, and the admissions news failed to reach me in time. Even today, students and the people of Fata don’t get news in real time. An international media development organization in Pakistan has trained the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) broadcasters on public service announcements (PSAs) in training sessions held in Islamabad Pakistan. Broadcasters from local radio stations have attended this five day, hands on training on PSAs. While PSAs are used widely elsewhere in the world, they have never been used by these stations in Pakistan ...
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Meera’s abortion is nobody’s business
“Meera denies abortion” read the headline in a story published in The News on April 10, 2012. Whereas this piece of news might have piqued the curiosity of many and gained many clicks and views, all I felt after reading this piece was pity and shame; I felt terribly ashamed of our media. Have we stooped so low so as to humiliate and disclose details of someone’s personal life? Celebrity or not, reporting on someone’s abortion, obviously meant to be kept secret, oversteps a line and is unethical to say the least. The article mentions how Meera was repeatedly phoned and hounded, after ...
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The birth of our nationalist media
Ever since gung-ho nationalism was beamed into our living rooms (thanks to private channels) some 10 years back, a probing question stirred in my mind: what is wrong with our media? Is it normal to be in a state of continual war with every idea? Is our media a reflection of our society, or is it trying to lead a complete social transformation? It seems that the latter is true, and that the transformation is inspired by a particular mindset that perpetually defends the idea of “national security” while national welfare suffers. More importantly, is our media – especially the electronic media ...
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Emo kids get shot in Iraq
So I was going through the news a couple of days ago, and came across a rather odd piece of news – ‘Iraq emo killings raise alarm’. The first thought in my head was “whoa, did they run out of bombs?”. And the second was: - I have short hair - I wear black - I have a pierced lip. If I was in Iraq would they put my name on a hit list just because of the way I was dress? According to a news piece published in Huffington Post on March 11, 2012, these so-called ‘emo kids’ are being killed because as a ...
Read Full PostWhy fighting Mullah Radio is not easy
It was on May 7, 2006 that our team started the transmission of Radio Khyber, located within Khyber Agency, one among the seven districts of Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) in the north-western part of the country. I started transmitting with a passion to empower local people and give them a voice- a voice which had been kept silent since 1901, the day the colonial empire of India promulgated the Frontier Crime Regulation (FCR) in Fata. The FCR was designed by the British, who used the region’s own tribal traditions and social psyche to rule ruthlessly over the territory. All the ...
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