Media Besieged by Taliban in Pakistan

Censorship of media is nothing new to Pakistan. The only difference right now is that instead of teh goverment censoring the media, its the Taliban at it this time.
However, the Taliban are only successful in censoring media in limited regions. In the major cities the media is functioning as always.
Dawnnews has all these talk shows in which the actual situation in Swat and otehr such war torn areas is openly discussed. First Blast, which is one such talk show, has often had guest speakers who have voiced their concerns about the problems that teh women in these areas are facing. Open Frequency invites young people to come and voice their opinions and concerns and very often they too have stated how this surge of "talibinisation" is disrupting all our lives. Breakfast at dawn is another exciting show with a dynamic host Naveen Naqvi whodiscusses current events with her guests, and obviously the situation up north and its consequences is a hot topic

DawnNew's documentaries are knwon for their unique nature. Equinox and Kaleidoscope. Most of tehse documentaries are based around serious matters, and those on Equinox follow the lives of some interesting and ordinary personalities. And These days most of the topics are obviously based around the "talibinization" issue.

How do these talk shows being watched by people sitting comfortably in their homes make a difference? They make the masses aware of the grave situation in Pakistan, and that is the purpose of teh media. The ppl who have been made "aware" have organised various protests and rallies and gatehred food supplies and otehr such necessities to help fellow Pakistanis

.........The Taliban have also circulated their own DVDs and CDs.............. The problem is Pakistani Govt and private TV channels done nothing to break their propaganda,on the other hand many journalists are involved in backing TALIBAN ideas by claiming this is American war,Its amazing that Pak-media is not playing a constructive role and telling their readers and viewers that Taliban actions are of ignorance and teach people real Islam and Pakistani values.I support media and press freedom but it must play constructive role in society.

http://pukhtunkhwatimes.blogspot.com/

http://thepathans.blogspot.com/

Re: # 3
I think Pakistani mass media have grown extremely rapidly in this decade to become very powerful without developing even a basic level of journalistic competence, ethics and maturity.

At the same time, Pakistani consumers of media have yet to learn how to discern truth from falsehood, and they have become quite avid buyers of all sorts of conspiracy theories which are not helpful.

As to the war coverage in north west, neither the Pakistani media nor the military are sophisticated enough to manage it well, as the Western nations have done during their wars. The US has particularly been very clever in the use of "embedded journalists" who only see and report what the US military wants them to see and report.

As a result, the media people end up abusing their power to the detriment of Pakistani people.

Riaz Haq, PakAlumni Worldwide

Pakistani electronic media, is for most part, an offical spokesperson for the Taliban movement inside Pakistan.

The overt change in the media's projection of the conflict inside Pakistan, in favor of the state, is not because the media has re-discovered its national obligations, but because of a heavy censorship on the media's reporting of the conflict by the state.

Pakistani electronic media's conduct and the role of its anchors is guided by their own personalized set of believes on a given question. The anchors of the media talk shows, which dominate Pakistani airwaves are novices, when it comes to the most least expected standards of journalism; fair play, unbiased reporting etc, confirming news stories before broadcasting them. Talk show guests are invited on the basis of their views complimenting the views of the hosts/anchors only and not because they have anything of worth to add to the debate.

In this sense, the media in Pakistan has divided and has became polarized along class, economic, educational and political lines. The demography of the media suggests that the English language media mirrors the world view of the urbanized elites of Pakisan, whereas the Urdu language media echoes the world view of rural Pakistan. This has, instead of clarifying the issues, only led to more confusion. This fact, when coupled with the Pakistani populations' traditional distrust of the state, explains why the media and the people are more likely to believe the Taliban claims than the government's claims on an issue.

The media, reacting to its own historic experience, does not trust the govermment and like the politicans in Pakistan, believes in the philosophy of criticism for the sake of criticism; and opposition for the sake of opposition. This principle has mostly influenced the evolution of the media in Pakistam in the last 10 years and given the role of the media in the judicial crisis; the earthquake of 2005 and calls for the restoration of democracy leading to the elections of 2007, has given the media a sense of its own importance in the affairs of Pakistan.

This has allowed the media to develop a self-believe that it has the power to influence the decisions of the state by its influence over the people and its ability to shape their opinions. In another sense, what we are seeing in Pakistan, in terms of the media revolution, is a further fragmenting of the state's writ in Pakistan, as the media becomes a "state within the state" and in the process, becomes politically biased in its views on a given issue and uses its powers of information dissemination, not to accurately protray the issues, but give its own version of the events.

The reason, why the media is besieged by the Taliban or a given political viewpoint is because the media, still, has not fully answered the question of its own raison d' etre. The question of "what is the role of the media in a society" has not been debated let alone answered in Pakistan. The media, in Pakistan, is loath to subscribe to a set of ethics or regulations, because it sees that as censorship and control by the state and thus, against the "freedoms of the press" and reacts to any such conduct of conduct in a Pavlovian knee jerk manner.

The role of the media, as an Israeli journalist said "is to hold the centers of power accountable" and unfortunately, the years since September 11, 2001 have a been a failure of the media's role because the media did not hold the centers of power accountable any where in the world and the results of that failure are visible for anyone to see.

In the specific case of Pakistan, the media still romantizes the Taliban and sees them as some sort of saviors and until and unless the media admits that the Taliban are a "center of power" in Pakistan, it will not be able to hold them accountable or report on them in an unbiased manner. The Taliban were able to exploit the media in Pakistan, because the media in Pakistan, for its own reasons, was willing to be exploited by them.

As the wise man said to the young person seeking truth, "no one can make you a fool unless you wish to be fooled" :)

Ciao

What survey is this?

This is one side Picture of Taliban attitude toward Media.
On the other side Taliban is also using the media tools for their propaganda. Paid journalist are working in all top newspapers to brainwash the General public.They are continual justifying the Taliban war.They are still clinging to prove this war against US.even tough they are continuously killing Pakistani Muslim Law& order forces and Sectarian target killing.