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| By Masror Hausen, Special to Arab News |
Journalism in Pakistan has changed over the years. While the rise of the electronic media is one factor responsible for the change, the other is the US attack on Afghanistan that brought the world media to Pakistan for coverage.
In 2001, the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad was a popular joint for 1,300 foreign correspondents even after Kabul fell and became relatively safe for Westerners. Makeshift sets for live TV interviews on the rooftop have all gone but local journalists still hang out, hoping to make a few quick bucks by running errands.
The world media came to town and it was a bonanza for anybody who spoke English and Urdu and was eager to earn a bit on the side. Those who spoke additional languages such as Pushto, Farsi or Dari were in for big bucks.
Over the period of 90 days, some 1,300 foreign correspondents pumped an estimated $5 million into the local media industry, the main beneficiary being the journalists themselves. This is in addition to many millions paid for compliant coverage of the battle for Afghanistan. The fight for stringerships with the foreign media began in earnest as they jostled for exclusive stories, news alerts and exclusive interviews. In the cut-throat competition, media companies offered big money for information.
Local journalists with press cards worn as necklaces strolled about the Marriott lobby or asked irrelevant questions at Foreign Ministry briefings just to attract the notice of foreign journalists. Those lucky enough to have a mobile phone used it to present themselves as “wired.”
A colleague one day asked me to join him at the Marriott. I thought about it but instantly shrugged off the idea. Two hundred and fifty dollars a day is quite an amount for an underpaid journalist — but then what will I be asked to do and will it be journalism? I will not be reporting to an editor or a newsroom. My story will not be published under my byline. Rather I will be arranging interviews and gaining entrees for journalists whose stories I may not agree with.
I remembered a visit to Mumbai a long time ago when I visited the Times of India office. One of the editors greeted me warmly, took me out to dinner and asked me if I could write about the terrorist camps allegedly being run at the time by the Pakistani government. He said he would give me a blank check. But I politely refused, believing as I did that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter and journalists are easily lured into taking sides.
When the US attack on Afghanistan began, it became clear to me that I had made the right decision. Watching the champions of the free press and objective reporting tell lies left, right and center amazed me and left me speechless. They were so good at putting a spin to everything they reported. After all, these were the correspondents who had been carefully selected by the US defense establishment to “run the media war.” Some journalists, local or foreign, don’t mind selling their souls. If the price is right.
Despite misgivings about Western journalists and their stories, local journalists never manage to hate their dollar. Hiring journalists on per diems would sound ridiculous in Western democratic societies but since a dollar equals about 60 Pakistani rupees, even the journalists’ associations look away while their members make extra bucks.
“We are a global community,” said a union leader, “a little prosperity and exposure will do no harm.” You know why? One day a friend of mine sold three stories making $2,000. He told me he went straight to the Journalists’ Housing Society and reserved a large plot in the journalist colony. That is why.
Prosperity and exposure have surely lent weight to journalists in the local market but the low level of engagement with “colleagues from abroad” has brought Pakistani journalists into disrepute.
A colleague talks about the downside of local journalists, stringing and fixing for foreign journalists. Says he, “Events are happening very close to the border and Pakistani journalists should have taken the lead in reporting them. But they are nowhere to be seen on TV or in foreign newspapers because they decided to settle for $250-a-day jobs.”
The presence of the world media in Pakistan has changed the face of journalism. It has developed a sense of competition for cheap dollars. One has to admit though that the quality of newspapers has gone up. Stories have improved and local journalists who opted not to become stringers and “fixers” do the extra mile to file a good story. Unfortunately, as a consequence of “media imperialism,” the journalistic community in Pakistan is now divided into those who support the US attack on Afghanistan and those who don’t. Those working for foreign journalists, naturally, believe that the US is doing the right thing in Afghanistan. But they are looked down upon by those who believe the US decision to decimate Afghan society and the country under the guise of a war against terrorism is grossly unjust.
The foreign media are doling out money to local journalists just as George Bush is doling out aid to the Pakistani government. In the latter case, the government is fixing intelligence and logistics for Bush’s army and suppressing local dissent. The former case is not much different. Although “foreign-paid journalists” are in no position to police dissenting journalists, the shine on their faces at least tempts them to think about going to the Marriott.
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Pakistan media and US attack on Afghanistan
Pakistan: Zardari may ask Gillani to back off
By Masror Hausen
In the brinkmanship between the government and the military,
President Asif Ali Zardari might put a gag on his Prime Minister to steer the government
out of murky waters, sources claim.
Already running in a survival mode, the PPP-led coalition
government needs to stay in power till March 2 so that it can hold the critical
Senate elections that will give it an absolute single-party majority in the
upper house.
However, Monday Supreme Court issued a contempt notice to Prime Minister Gillani in the NRO validity case
and a judicial panel of the apex court adjourned the hearing till Jan 25. Mansoor Ijaz told the court he would arrive in Pakistan on Jan 25. This will further mount pressure
on President Zardari and Prime Minister Gillani.
In order to disarm the other opponent—the military—President
Asif Ali Zardari may sacrifice Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani’s voice with
the understanding that it will appease the military chief who has personally
complained of Gillani’s allegations of taking “illegal” steps.
Senior Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi and Religious Affairs
Minister Khurshid Shah are tipped to take the leading role, sources say on
condition of anonymity
Right when the army chief General Kiyani was on an important
official visit to China, Prime Minister Gillani told a Chinese news agency that
General Kiyani and ISI chief Shuja Pasha’s act of submitting personal
statements before the Supreme Court in the memogate case was “unconstitutional”
and “illegal.”
Insiders believe the Prime Minister was told by advisors
that the army chief had actually gone to Beijing
On army chief’s return from Beijing
Minutes after the press release went on air, Prime Minister
removed the Defence Secretary Lt Gen (retd)
Naeem Khalid Lodhi from his post and appointed his own confidante,
Nargis Sethi, in his place. General Lodhi was close to General Kiyani.
As the Prime Minister and the military stayed on collision
course, media and political pundits warned of a military coup. But the military
viewed it as damaging to country’s image and a step that the Prime Minister and
his government might use as a ruse to hide their ineffectual governance and
alleged corruption.
Finally, as tension refused to go away, Chaudhry Shujaat
Hussain is said to have jumped in to broker a meeting between the military
leadership and President Zardari.
Sources inside PML-Q and PPP believe General Kiyani took up
the Prime Minister’s posturing with President Zardari and demanded that Gillani
clarify the statement to the Chinese media or retract it. This is officially
denied by the President House.
Early Monday morning a defiant Prime Minister Gillani told
reporters in Vehari, “I will not answer a person…the
prime minister is answerable to parliament.”
The government sacked the former ambassador to the United States
Meanwhile, President Zardari has also agreed to write a
letter to the Swiss authorities to ask them to re-open the money-laundering
case against himself and his late wife Benazir Bhutto, sources say. This step
will most likely buy the government time to hold Senate elections on March 2.
Last week Zardari had told a popular TV channel in Pakistan
The letter is a bone of contention between the government
and the Supreme Court. The apex court has time and again asked government
authorities to re-open the money-laundering case against President Zardari and
late Benazir Bhutto.
(Additional reporting by Kashif Rafique)
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