Obstacles in Pakistani Journalism

Daniel Pearl, a journalist held captive by Al-Queda and killed in 2002

Since the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002, dozens of Pakistani journalists have had to lay down their lives just because they dared to speak the truth regarding the ground situation in Pakistan. Pakistani rulers, Army and the ISI would rather world not know about the extent of extremism and terrorism in Pakistan. They also don’t want the world to know about the clandestine relationship between the ISI and terror groups. They don’t want their anti-India and anti-Kashmir operations to be disclosed.

Not only this, Pakistani rulers can’t tolerate any genuine criticism of their internal politics and disputes by the media. When the last president of Pakistan, Parvez Musharraf was at the helm he had a very revealing interview interview with Geo TV, one of the main Pakistani broadcasting channels. Musharraf asked the then editor Hamid Mir to remove some parts of the interview. But Mir put it on air unedited. As the ‘controversial’ parts were being broadcast, Musharraf's men intruded into the office of Geo TV and vandalized it. This suppression of media was being done by the head of the state himself. This incident shows how far the people at helm in Pakistan can go in concealing the truth. And this is the reason Pakistan is becoming notorious in the entire world. These circumstances have brought Pakistan on the verge of being declared a ‘terrorist state.’

Threatening, kidnapping and murders of journalists are not new in Pakistan. This is as common as suicide attacks by terrorists are there. Anarchy, insecurity and terrorism are the norm in Pakistan today. Support of the Pakistani Army and the ISI has made terrorists so strong that they don’t even hesitate to strike the military installations of Pakistan. After looking at the dexterity with which the terrorists struck at Mehran Naval Base in Karachi recently, many Pak Army officials are now admitting that only army trained terrorists can carry out such a daring and well planned attack. Pakistan’s Special Services Group (SSG) commandoes managed to liberate the base from terrorists after a long combat of fifteen hours. Interestingly, SSG is said to be the Pak counterpart of the US Navy SEAL. In this attack, terrorists destroyed a huge cache of arms including two fighter jets.

Such kind of attacks proves that many current as well as former officers of the Pak Army are hand-in-gloves with terrorists. Active support and training to the terrorists by the army was exposed way back during 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai. But Pak rulers are still trying to hide this unholy nexus from the world. And if some honest and dedicated journalists dare to bring this truth to the fore, he has to pay the price. Exact happened with Syed Saleem Shahzad last month. Shahzad (40) was the Pak bureau chief of Asia Times Online. In an article, he just exposed the unholy nexus between the Pakistan Navy and Al Qaeda. Shahzad started getting threats just after publication of this article. And finally, he was kidnapped and killed. His corpse was found lying about 200 km away from Islamabad. There is a general consensus in the Pak media that Shahzad was killed by the ISI.

Some time ago, a TIME Magazine journalist did a scoop in which, he showed with the help of pictures and evidence, the luxury abode of India’s most wanted underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in Karachi. In that report, he also elaborated how Dawood enjoys the patronage of the ISI and the Pak Army. This report once again unmasked the true face of Pakistani establishment. Pak tyrants went berserk after the publication of this report. Ultimately, the ISI kidnapped that honest journalist and tortured him physically and mentally. He was threatened and even forced to write a ‘suicide note.’ Perturbed by this incident, he fled Pakistan and started living in America.

This culture of suppressing the voice of media is not at all healthy. It is dragging the people of Pakistan towards darkness and uncertainty. Such narrow and shortsighted policies of the Pak rulers have brought Pakistan to this pathetic state today. Now when incidents like Abbottabad happen, Pakistan invokes the claims of “sovereignty.” If Pakistani ruling class really cares about the nation’s sovereignty, then first of all it needs to severe all its ties with the terrorists, and respect those journalists and their reports who expose this unholy nexus and act upon those reports rather than kidnapping and killing those journalists in order to camouflage its misdeeds. If this trend persists, God save Pakistan.

Osama Bin Laden: Media Reaction

Muslim Insurgents in Southern Thailand

On May 1, 2011, President Obama confirmed that al-Queda leader Osama Bin Laden had been killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Before the official announcement, and after media channels all throughout the world began to churn out articles on the event.

For my blog on Osama Bin Laden I decided to focus on media coming from Southeast Asia, my country of focus-Pakistan, and India. I choose Southeast Asia, because I'm going to study abroad this Fall in Thailand, and for the past two months I have been monitoring the news in that region, particularly to keep tabs on the Thai-Cambodian border clash of late, and to see how the Thai elections will turn out. I chose to look at India as well, because the repercussions of Osama's death was big news in Pakistan's neighbor, India, as the two have had poor relations for the past five decades.

While the initial reaction to Osama Bin Laden's death throughout Southeast Asia was surprisingly muted with many expressing disbelief on his demise, the general mood was disturbingly changing. News outlets in Southeast Asia reported the day after his death mosques were packed full from Indonesia and Malaysia to the Philippines with thousands of Al Qaeda supporters and sympathizers taking to the streets afterward protesting and marching on the respective United States embassies.

After Osama's death many posters were put up throughout Indonesia's more Muslim areas saying Obama is a terrorist, and Osama is a marytr.

In Thailand the news reflected how the death would affect the region, and fears of an attack from Muslim Insurgents in the south. The Bangkok Post, one of two major publications in Thailand first threaded the news of Bin Laden's death through an international newsite, but then quickly put out an article on precautions to take, and U.S. interests in Thialand being on high alert. The U.S. government and the Thai government were worried about U.S. citizens as well in the region, believing they could possibly become targets. Though nothing happened directly after Osama's death, I read an article on the Post a few days ago saying there was a car bomb explosion in the Yala province in Southern Thailand from insurgents that killed a two Buddhist monks.

The show of sympathy for Al Qaeda's leader was stunning with many shocked at the large number of supporters who came out. Manila's Golden Mosque which normally attracts only around 500 worshipers for Friday prayers was filled to the brim with over 5,000 worshipers in the wake of bin Laden's death. This is not to say all of the Philippines were mourning the loss of bin Laden, this is just a small minority. The Philippines Star, a Philipino news site, had several articles on the death of Osama, and that Ninoy Aquino International Airport there would be on high alert. Articles on the site seemed pretty objective, just seemed to be reporting press releases more than adding insight into the situation.

VOA, a UK based multimedia news site put out an article on Indonesian Fundamentalists holding a large prayer service for Osama Bin Laden. I thought the article was unbiased and didn't make the fundamentalists look like the enemy, but just looked in on the event.

Going on to Pakistan there were a lot more mixed reactions toward the event reflected in the news. Most of the coverage of the event from all major publications in Pakistan did not reflect a "winning" or "accomplished" feeling as many other sites did from the United States or Europe, instead itwas very mixed. In Pakistan's Dawn newsite, an article was published on how Pakistan and many other Middle-Eastern nations reacted to the event. Overall I felt the article had a more sympathetic feel to the situation, and some anger over how the situation was handled by the United States. I also remembering reading an article shortly after the event in Frontier, another Pakistani news site on how Pakistani media were quite mad/enraged that they didn't detect Osama's presence earlier. As a broadcast journalism major I tried to find examples from Pakistani Television. One popular Pakistani journalist, Hamid Mir, the last journalist to interview Osams, referred to bin Laden as ‘Shaheed’ which is a term of respect for a martyr on GEO TV. Since then Pakistani broadcasters have gone after him as sympathizing with Osama and al-Queda, and losing his credibility as a journalist. Although the video is in Urdu you can see that many Pakistanis now believe Mir to be an enemy of the state, also him being the last person to interview the Osama doesn't help him either. Even though his fellow journalist have begun to attack him, Pakistani journalism has been known to be more sensational and "yellow."

Pakistani Hamid Mir, the last journalistto interview Osama Bin Laden

Various citites in India celebrated Osama's death, by thanking and congratulating the United States. In the Indian capital New Delhi, crowds gathered in the streets to celebrate the occasion, thanking Obama. While researching Pakistan, I looked into the six and a half decade feud between the two, and how this could have effected their response. India has always been wary of their neighbor to the north, and believe it to harbor sympathies to al-Queda, Taliban, and other terrorist groups. After the hotel bombing in Mumbai in 2002, India was on the edge of sending troops over to Pakistan to find the culprits, and get rid of the problem. The last issue of the Economist devoted several articles to India and Pakistan, the cover piece titled India and Pakistan: The world's most dangerous border. The article talked about how when Pakistani citizens living near Osama's house when the raid took place, thought India was attacking. India was also very concerned that bin Laden was hiding out so close to their disputed border in Kashmir. I really enjoyed the article from the Economist, offered an unbiased look at the issue from many angles with a wide variety of sources from Pakistani generals to Indian diplomats.
Media in India at the time I found seemed to focus on attacking al-Queda and sympathizers, reveling in the win. One article from the Deccan Herald, a Bangalore based daily, told how al-Queda was already deteriorating even before Osama's death. I felt the articles in the Herald had a lot of opinion in them, felt as though the media was riding the wave of Osama's death with everybody else.

This is the cover for the recent Economist issue, illustratingthat the Pakistan-India border is the most dangerous in the world.

Pakistani Truck Driver/Trailer

Son of Pakistan

Risking It All- Pakistan

Al Jazeera Risking it All: Ziplining Cocaleros

Osama Bin Laden Related Articles from Pakistan

Image from The Friday Times in Pakistan.
Raising questions on whether Pakistani military was in on the whole bin laden debacle.

Sympathy/mixed emotions for Osama in many middle eastern countries- Dawn, a Karachi bases Pakistani newspaper, largest English circulation

Obama lost ally in Pakistan according Pakistan's The Frontier Post

Another US drone kills four innocents in Swaziristan, 2nd time a drone has had casualties in attack, further straining US/Pakistan relations

Small U.S. Town Perspective on Pakistan

I knew many students and residents around San Luis Obispo would not know too much about Pakistan, but I figured that at least some people would have an idea of recent events in Pakistan as they've been in the news recently.

A few weeks ago Pakistan called on the United States to drastically cut the number of CIA agents in Pakistan after finding a large amount of CIA agents still operating in the country. This has brought on a deepening military rift between the U.S. and Pakistan.



Also last week 25 Pakistanis were killed in a U.S. drone strike. The drone killed 13 militants devoted to the government, five women, and four children. The attack was suppose to target al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, but apparently the innocent citizens were killed in the crossfire.

Upon receiving this assignment I was hoping some people would have some knowledge of recent events in Pakistan, but I was clearly wrong. No one knew the capitol of the country- Islamabad, and everyone had trouble in recalling any Pakistan events. I thought answers would change as I talked to more people, yet still the same.

"What do you know about Pakistan?"
"Umm...terrorism, Osama Bin Laden, it's in the middle east."

or "goats," was another answer that I got. Some people I asked thought that we were at war with Pakistan, which we are not even though are relations are a bit strained as of now.

After a while I sort of accepted that not many people on campus were quite aware of what was going on in Pakistan or the country itself. I suppose living in a city, and going to a college where the majority of the population is white, and where diversity is a bit lacking, answers wouldn't be too flavored. Though I think part of the problem is that people really don't take an interest as to what is happening globally unless it has an affect on them. I think a lot of other people had this same problem in interviewing people on their countries.

I'm not exactly sure where this lack of knowledge/awareness comes from, but I think that it all comes down to that most people just care about themselves, and anything that is happening outside of their bubble, which has no affect on them doesn't deserve to be noticed.


It seems Americans, our view on Pakistan, is not so much as it's own identity, but it seems we mash it up with all the other countries of the Middle East. I think people always get it mixed up with Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran. Contrary to this Pakistan shares a lot maybe more cultural and geographical similarities with India at it's southern border. Both countries share a similar government, and religious beliefs. Adding to that Pakistan isn't even considered as part of the Middle East, instead it is classified as being part of South Asia with India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.

Unfortunately I doubt we will see a rise in persons awareness in Pakistan, or many still do not know that Pakistan has had one of the top cricket teams in the world, just recently losing the Cricket World Cup to first-time winners India I was hoping more people would as we've seen a surge of media coverage in that region since the recent Middle East unrest began starting in Tunisa and Egypt.

Elderly in Pakistan: How the old people are viewed

Although it was a bit difficult finding articles on culture in Pakistan I located several things on family in Pakistan. So, in general culture determines how families interact with other people and develop in every country, and the same is true for Pakistan. People of Pakistan view the elderly as a integral part of traditional and cultural family values giving them lots of respect, and considering them very high in society.

In Pakistan, the joint family system is usually the norm. Joint families usually comprise of a father, mother, children, grand father and mother, and they all live together with their people in the same family unit. Moreover, the father of the household will play a significant role with respect to the well-being of his family. Also, Pakistani families take good care of their elders, and do not view the task as a hassle or burden, as I believe many do here in the States. The majority of families in Pakistan follow the joint family system and live their life along with their elders.

In recent years, urbanization has altered family systems in Pakistan, especially in larger cities. One of the largest cities in Pakistan, Karachi has been influenced the most by urbanization.

When considering the elder people in Pakistan, they usually stick with their offspring or grandchildren to get complete support and care. They rely and depend on their family to get assistance and support in all aspects such as physical, social and financial well-being. Giving physical and emotional support is quite usual in joint family systems. It has been declared that urbanization, and the influence of nuclear families will probably ruin family care to elders in the family. Urbanization will also drop-off the care of the growing children with their elders.

The situation will become really troublesome for the elderly living in a nuclear family. They can live without any troubles or risk when they reside in a joint family, but in nuclear families the elderly will most likely lose the constant support of relatives, like the most family systems here in the United States. Individuals who closely stick in joint family will respect their elders and give them support in all possible ways. Urbanization and its growth in Pakistan will promote the growth of the nuclear family system, but it will also decrease the care and support to the elderly in families.

Most Pakistanis give much respect to their customs and traditions and follow most family values.

Dawn- Pakistan Newspaper

Overview of Pakistan: Language, Religion, culture, and customs

Article on overcoming poverty in Pakistan, look into one Pakistani family

Twitter/International Website

Teletica

Democratic Voice of Burma

Twitter and Teletica, television