Terrorism and the role of media « PKPolitics Discuss

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Terrorism and the role of media

(24 posts)

Beenai
Moderator

Pakistan is facing its worst situation ever .
war against terror has became the fire ,which is burning our own home .
at this point in time ,,,what role media should play ?

u ppl must have watched LWT of 20oct 09 ...about the incident and media role ...
Talat was right in saying that sometimes media shows immaturity ,just for the sake of showing all and being first to show .

i have been a student of Mass Comm in KU ...
and have noticed ,many rules and ethics decided by journalist bodies itself ,has no longer ,been followed .

they show dead bodies ,they show blood ,they show body organs ,being blown up by a bomb ,they show the raped girl or woman ...which is all against the COC ,which they themselves has made long ago.

they always try to get as much as soon info as possible ,which sometimes results in hurdles to the respective staff to take care of the effected ppl ...
like if a doctor of PIMS has been interviewed by 12 news channels ,for 15 minutes ...in that time period ,he could have attend two or three critical injured of the incident.

sometimes they issued the number of killings without any confirmation ...and being a student of 'Media evaluation' i have noticed that GEO is number one in reporting WRONG number of killings ,and creating sensation ....
when other channels are reporting 8 dead ,GEO always reports 12 dead .
it always wants to be on top ...at any cost .

i totally agree with Talat ,that they should decide and agreed a new COC ,according to the upcoming situations and try to follow the rules strictly .

Posted 2 years ago on 21 Oct 2009 10:33 #
amin1924
member

When you make it as a product and sell it in market then all vendors will compete to get best selling products.

It is more of business perspective that is followed -to sell and to make money.

Who cares about ethics, rules or CoC.

Reporters will try bring in anything that channel can sell.

Posted 2 years ago on 21 Oct 2009 10:46 #
Beenai
Moderator

@JJ Khan ,
thats what i was talking about .
approach needs to be changed .
money making should be a point to consider but loyalty to the country and ppl should come first .
which is not being practiced out here .
a terrorist go for a bomb blast and media goes to make it more sensational that its actually .

i remember ,GEO was keep showing body organs of Sunni Tehreek leadership ,in Nishtar park,Karachi incident...

Geo was keep showing a dying fish in the Marriott Islamabad blast ,fish was dying as all the aquariums of the hotel got broken up ...
just to create sensation ...just to create a mood ...
they were keep showing the fish ....

Posted 2 years ago on 21 Oct 2009 11:02 #
amin1924
member

Sensations sells!

That is why Dr. Shahid masood gets most number of viewers/commentators because he sensationalizes.

It sells.

Posted 2 years ago on 21 Oct 2009 11:05 #
Beenai
Moderator

unfortunately ,it sells ...
but it broke the peace and tranquility of general public .

Posted 2 years ago on 21 Oct 2009 11:08 #
amin1924
member

We need senior journalists like Talat Hussain who can expose this corruption in media.

Posted 2 years ago on 21 Oct 2009 11:11 #
Beenai
Moderator

yah ...for sure we need senior journalists like Talat Hussain and others to come up with a COC for themselves .
rather a Govt body imposing its own terms n conditions on the media .

Posted 2 years ago on 21 Oct 2009 11:16 #
amin1924
member

But unfortunately the real control is in the hands of media owners. Journalists like Talat are employees and often get punishment like Kashif Abbasi.

Govt controls media through these owners who don't care about anything but their business.

Posted 2 years ago on 21 Oct 2009 11:18 #
Beenai
Moderator

@JJ Khan,
u hit the nail on the head .
its not journalists or reports or cameramen ,who sensationalize things ...but the owners ...who wants the number of their viewership increase like anything .
as majority of viewers are illiterate and emotional that's why they wanna project every incident with a utmost sensationalism .
Geo has been considered a channel for masses .
as it always sensationalize things and blow up the actual happenings ,out of proportion.

we need to address money minded owners of the channels to think about it on a serious note .
but Talat and his caliber journalists can still play a role to build a pressure on their owners as influencers .

Posted 2 years ago on 21 Oct 2009 11:25 #
amin1924
member

when kashif abbasi was ousted, journalists didn't protest it. union said he never wrote any application to us

it is joint venture between gov & owners and people like hamid mir have adjusted well in this venture.

there are "understandings" that all established journalists follow such as policy on MQM

Posted 2 years ago on 21 Oct 2009 11:31 #
Beenai
Moderator

JJ Khan ,
u r right ....owners hardly care about senior journalists and employees ....they care for money and in this regard they listen more to the Govt than their own employees...
but the journalist community should join hands and becomes a force against their money minded owners .
they can fire one Kashif Abbasi .
they can NOT afford to fire all the staff from their respective channels .

Posted 2 years ago on 21 Oct 2009 11:48 #
Revivalist
member

Media has been a tool in the hands of the government through which they project their agendas. The way media is glorifying the on going operation is nothing but shame!!! National songs that were written and sung for the soldiers to fight Hindus are now played by the channels. No one is serious about the innocent people caught up in the middle. In fact they show you what they want you to see. Besides, media is behaving like Murli dharans Dosra, you never know which issue it will take up and which issue they will leave in the middle!! The governments play with it by deviating the attention from one issue to another i.e. from operation to KLB to NRO etc

I personally feel that the roll of media is not satisfactory, though there are some good programs which I regularly watch but it doesn’t give any direction or new approach to the people and devoid of any solution.

Regards

Posted 2 years ago on 21 Oct 2009 12:32 #
Beenai
Moderator

@Revivalist ,
though you have made quite a sensible conclusion on media role but i was talking about media ,following the ethics .
do u think ,they should make their own ethics and follow them ?
or should wait for the Govt ,to impose its own terms and conditions ...
which would might be aborting all the independence of media and freedom to speech...which we are use to now?

Posted 2 years ago on 21 Oct 2009 12:39 #
Anonymous

Media must not show dead bodies or victims of any crime.

Posted 2 years ago on 21 Oct 2009 14:42 #
Beenai
Moderator

@bsobaid ,
this is what has been written and decided to be followed in the Code of conduct by journalist community .
this is not being followed right now ...
just for the sake of being first and being more than others .

Posted 2 years ago on 22 Oct 2009 7:42 #
shriq
Member

Something related to this thread:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/2009/10/091022_nwfp_ethics_rh.shtml

Posted 2 years ago on 23 Oct 2009 7:40 #
Beenai
Moderator

@Shariq,
thanks for sharing it ...
its a good initiative from NWFP govt side .
others should follow the suite.
but my point was that ,instead of Govt,journalist bodies should come up with their own COC ,according to recent scenario of terror reporting and coverage .

Posted 2 years ago on 23 Oct 2009 7:58 #
netengr
blocked

There is underground media is also popular in Pakistan .There are newspapers ,weekly magazines ,religious pamphlets are very popular in public these unmonitored media does not follow any ethics and relues .

I have seen my self a long hair jihadi selling Taliban Suppoted news paper "Zerb-e-Momin " and "alqalam " and in the Islamic stores there are books in which you can find books on Taliban and terrorism support by unknown authors .

There is a book in which a mufti called abu lubaba twisted ahadees and tried to calim that all talibans are the real muslims and their fighting is according to Quran and sunnah .These kind of unauthentic books are easily available in Pakistan but in other Muslims countries this is not possible

Posted 2 years ago on 23 Oct 2009 13:53 #
hariskhan
member

Assalam-o-Alaikum-Warahmat-ULLAH ALL,

Our media will remain in disarray untill our leaders differentiate between Jihad and terrorism.

The decision of what is and is NOT in the interest of the state can only be made at the level of the state.

Right now, Pakistan govt. is NOT differentiating between freedom fighters, those who want justice and terrorists.

Right now, Pakistan govt. is naming everyone a terrorist, just because they resist them or oppose them or tell them that their policies are wrong, they need to be discussed or changed for the better.

As far as media goes, we have mature people in the industry. Self accountability should not only begin, it should be continual. It will take us far in becomming prosperous.

Add to that, since we lack justice system, there are no established rules for any kind of work. No matter if its media, its business, its social relations, welfare, etc etc.

We need to have social, financial justice. We need to have independence in financial matters.

We are NOT financially independent. We are still! largely financially dependent on others. This dependence has direct consequences on decision making, which continues to hurt us, in ALL walks of life

Posted 2 years ago on 23 Oct 2009 14:00 #
secular__pakistan
Blocked

LOL I have been saying this for the past 3 years

Posted 2 years ago on 23 Oct 2009 16:00 #
Fahim23
Member

IMO Sensationalism is the biggest problem media is facing. GEO tv network is leading sansationalism in Pakistan and there are many other channels who are following it. I personally like AAJ, DAWN and Samaa tv as I have seen them less compromising on thr principles for the sake of profit.

Posted 2 years ago on 23 Oct 2009 16:22 #
Beenai
Moderator

----------------
irrelevant posts deleted ....

@fahim ,
i agree with u that Aaj ,Dawn and Samaa news are ,somehow managed to be less sensational and factual than Geo.
which is good.

but as u know ,majority of our public is less rationale more emotional ...thats why they love to watch Geo and Geo viewership is higher always .
and for revenue purpose ,other news channels ,try to follow GEO ....Aaj or Dawn are not the role models for them unfortunately .

Posted 2 years ago on 26 Oct 2009 6:35 #
Beenai
Moderator

@logicalever,
the point ,u are making ,has been discussed by Talat Hussain in his show 20th oct episode ...and he admitted that cameramen should not roll the camera ,when girls were unconscious and not wearing proper duppatta or chadar.
that's why he stressed of making a rule for this kinda coverage .

Posted 2 years ago on 26 Oct 2009 9:36 #
choosy
Member

sometimes media itself becomes terroirst ...
when it is not following general and universal rules of terror reporting .

Posted 2 years ago on 28 Oct 2009 6:56 #