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.
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