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Posts tagged with: Media

Role of Media Outlets & Some Journalists During COVIDー19 #FakeNews

NaikRooh has done a detailed twitter thread regarding some reporting issues of some media outlets & journalists during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately there seems to be a deliberate attempt to create panic stories, propaganda reports and even click-bait fake stories to confuse the public and create a degree of mistrust between the govt and the public. It has been essential to counter these stories in a timely manner but credit to NaikRooh who does well to document their flaws in the last few months. I share below his entire thread for sake of documentation

ORIGINAL THREAD CAN BE RT’d HERE

Role of Media Outlets & Some Journalists During COVIDー19.

This thread shall cover few of the many instances where Pakistani media channels & some journos were caught spreading disinformation due to obvious reasons.

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The Media Madhouse

@RoachGrace on Deviant ArtThe free reign enjoyed by our media especially the immature and novice electronic media which gets almost all its human resources from the press mainly Urdu newspapers. It is no wonder that we observe sensationalization and are forced to see moles as mountains.

Some may recall the insensitive and ridiculous headlines of “Awam – Jang Group” and “Qaumi Akhbar” carried when they came out. They were driven in doing the thrilling act, as they put it, because they operated in saturated markets and it was impossible to make a mark in the presence of giants like Jang and Nawa I Waqt.

Similarly electronic media enterprises operate in similar situations. Their markets are saturated, the reader engagement and loyalty enjoyed by their predecessor, print media, is non-existent as it takes only a click to move from one station to the other.

The task of keeping the viewer at a particular station is proving to be difficult for the clever producers, anchors, editors (not sure there are any) and marketing and sales teams employed to sell air time. The TRPs, GRPs are more colloquially “ratings” have come to dictate more than ethics, training and professionalism.

To make matters worse advertising agencies, marketing companies, brands and businesses have grown clever and instead of spending their resources on mass media they employ them on engagement activities. Thus the outburst of channels has to compete for their slice of the shrinking pie (ad spent). The outrageous rivalry is evident from “breaking news” flashes and “sub se pehle aap tak khabar pohanchai…” clichés. Continue Reading



Maya Khan Aunty Brigade – Stay out of our parks

Subah Saveera with Maya Khan on Samaa TV actually chases people sitting in a park and asks them why are they sitting there. Firstly I believe it is NOT illegal for two people to sit [date] in a park, and secondly it was shocking to see the host and other women running and chasing after individuals sitting in the park to an extent of trying to trap them.

In my opinion they exhibited highly intrusive, invasive and potentially irresponsible behavior – it is the kind of vigilantism which no different than the mob that cornered the two brothers in Sialkot and enforced their own reaction for the benefit of society, Maya Khan may have initiated a precedence today and may potentially open the door for chase and capture vigilantism – Irresponsibility of the highest degree

Liberal Fascist writes: Going through the horrid clip above, you see two dozen women running through a park, shouting “wo hijab waali”, “dekho uss nai hijab pehna huwa hai”, escorted by men with name tags and uniformed men, obviously employed by one or the other private security company. If you had this great “hoard” of judgement come charging at you, anyone would feel intimidated, harassed and threatened. The last time I checked, and I may be completely ignorant about this, when I go to a public space, that is not what I expect, nor is such behaviour condoned by any legal authority.

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Be patient with democracy…

Democracy is in the blood of Musalmans, who look upon complete equality of manhood [mankind]… [And] believe in fraternity, equality and liberty. M.A.Jinnah –London, 14 Dec 1946

Switch on any TV channel, open up a newspaper or log on to social media and you will see our parliamentarians and their electorate especially those residing in the rural centers continuously drawing ire of the urban educated elite. At times participants in the TV talk shows having an intellectual discourse stoop low and raise eyebrows over the wisdom possessed by the electorate and flay their decision of re-electing the same person who is allegedly tainted.

Such feelings on the part of the educated elite incited me to ponder over the mystery shrouding the electorate who is willing to rally around the same bunch of politicians every time. And after introspection I came to the conclusion that the bone of contention is socio-economic imbalance prevailing in our society.

The brick and mortar of the conclusion I drew is a battle between two classes i.e. Haves and Have-nots .Both the classes will be at loggerheads till the time vast dichotomy in their status persists in our society.
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The Express Tribune goes Online & in Print

The Express Tribune, partnered with The International Herald Tribune which is the global arm of The New York Times, is slated to finally make its debut today morning, while the online version has just been released to the public, the initial launch is limited to Karachi and many households will be treated with a fresh new English paper on their morning tables. Personally I do vividly recall the launch of ‘The News’ in the 80’s when it came hot off the press in a spanking, then, jaw dropping glossy sheets across the board, but unfortunately those fun frolicking days didn’t last long. The Lakhani group has been busy on this project for a good many month, under the watchful eye of Bilal Lakhani we await to see if it does indeed rustle the feathers of the existing competition and has the umpf to last in the long run.

The paper kicks of its first print with op-eds from Ayesha Siddiqa, Sami Shah, Quatrina Hosain and Osman Samiuddin with news that Zahoor’s cratoon-imagery is too be featured amongst its pages. On a personal note, I am also expected to send the paper a weekly column, so lets see how this papers fares up against the competition, it will have run for its money, but good quality and high standards will keep a stead stream of readers latched onto its print edition.
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DAWN Publishes a Picture of an Underage Rape Victim and Apologizes

I do not know if any of you noticed yesterdays Dawn newspaper [27th March] page 4 – which showed a picture of a 17-year old [underage] Tharparker rape victim. Its possible many may be aware of her, a local political leader from Tharparker had gang raped her on 24th January and since then she has been screaming for justice, this case has become the talk of the town in Interior Sindh but has failed to capture the fascination of the nationwide electronic and print media. Dawn did in some may have tried to help bring attention to the cause but it went a bit overboard, choosing to publish her picture and name sitting in front of Hyderabad Press Club – practically raping her all over again, and now in public – instead of protecting her even more, they go all out publishing her name and picture but did not so much as even bother to publish the name of the political leader who gang raped her in Tharparker

The issue at Dawn seemingly continues to get worse barely a month back I protested Dawn Raping the Rape Victim where they explicitly named the 20-yr old Daweoo rape victim along with some explicit details on how the rape was done, my argument even then was that if the victim had the courage to come forth to the media, they have taken a very bold step choosing to stand up against their perpetrators publicly, it is mostly seen as a last ditch effort to get some justice from an heinously skewed system that protects the powerful, and when they do, newspapers and the electronic media exploit the victim by publishing explicit details and in a way not actually helping bring the perpetrators to justice.
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Ufone ad ripping at Politicans, possibly taken off-air

Ufone has to its credit featured some funny advertisement spot for its TV commercials. More recently a certain Ufone ad was pulled off-the-air after a very brief run and is not even featured on its corporate website. As per the editors of Cafe Pyala this ad spot might have been too quickly pulled off-air “According to sources, the following Ufone ad was pulled off air (after a short run) because of grumblings from Those Who Matter over its portrayal of politicos”.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhSOMIRuL0c[/youtube]
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Farhat Taj analyzes Zaid Hamid in strategic depth

Dr. Farhat Taj wrote a column in Daily Times critically analyzing the Zaid Hamid phenomenon, to say for instance “Zaid Hamid is his use of a particularly narrow interpretation of Islam that proposes a belligerent agenda for the Pakistan Army and drawing on controversial Islamic literature. Thus the authenticity of the hadiths — sayings of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) — on Ghazwa-e-Hind that he often refers to in terms of the ultimate defeat of the Indians at the hands of the Pakistan Army is highly questionable.” — “Judging by the obscurantist message that he communicates, Zaid Hamid does not seem to be a new invention of the establishment” A must read column can be read at the Daily Times website, or you may want to read more about Zaid Hamid’s here and here on this blog


DAWN Raping the Rape Victim

Much out cry has been heard regarding the Daewoo rape incident which has lead many human rights organizations working hand-in-hand with the police to hopefully arrest the perpetrators – but today I was shocked to read in Dawn (10th Feb 2010 – Page 9) while discussing the story – the “correspondent” very casually mentions the name of the victim with such intricate details of the crime that it seems as if he might actually be quoting the actual FIR verbatim

“SIALKOT, Feb 9: Police have yet to arrest the second alleged rapist in the kidnap-cum-rape case of a bus hostess here in Sialkot, Dawn has learnt. Daewoo bus hostess A**** Q**** [censorship added] alleged that Irshad Bhatti, of Gujrat, along with Sarfraz allegedly kidnapped her late on Saturday and raped her. ” link

I do not know if the victim has come forth with permission allowing the Dawn correspondent to publicly use her name so explicitly and repeatedly so many times through out the column that it infuriates me -she has suffered enough of this heinous crime that it alone will take many years for her to recuperate the rape trauma – now adding fuel to the fire the public record and everyone even remotely associated with this 20-yr old girl will always brandish her name quickly linking her with the Daweeo rape victim – the pain which she will go through emotionally and physically is now going to be quadrupled to unimaginable proportions as she now will also tainted in the public eye too
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Jahil Online Spreading Superstitions

Guest blog by Naeem Sadiq

Aamer Liaquat Hussain, an ex-MNA and a fake degree holder during his ‘Aalim on line’ show [customarily referred to as Jahil Online on this blog] on Geo TV (January 29, 2010) explained the reason for the poor performance of Pakistan’s cricket team. [Particularly Watch the section between times 3:30-4:15]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddYi9ckUSm8[/youtube]

He said that the Pakistan team had started to perform poorly since its players were now wearing cricket shoes with green coloured soles. Green is the colour of Pakistan and of Islam and its being forcibly rubbed on the ground is a derogatory act. Hence the divine retribution.

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Aman Ki Asha – An Indo Pak Peace Project ?

India is preparing for a possible “two-front war” with China and Pakistan, Geo News quoted an Indian newspaper as saying on Wednesday, The News reported … something not new, Indian Establishment has been directly or indirectly showing hostility against Pakistan since Mumbai incident and yet we have this ‘Aman ki Asha’ thing going on, communicating (read conditioning) the already dazzled Pakistani masses to have a very friendly perception of their neighbors, whose involvement in the Karachi Ashura incident and Bolton Market Tragedy cannot also be ruled out, let alone in the Indian’s Involvement in Waziristan, frequent cross of fire at boarders etc  … and amidst of all this we have this Aman Ki Asha campaign only adding to the list of questions one might have against the intentions of our capricious (not quite though) neighbor …

I haven’t seen all the ads of this strange campaign, but this one is telling …

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz6YylorUGM&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
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Joint Press Conference by Aman Ittehad in Islamabad – Solidarity Day 1st Jan 2010

A very well-attended joint press conference was held today at the Islamabad Press Club by the Aman Ittehad to announce the Solidarity Day across Pakistan in 37 cities on 1st january 2010 at 3:00

Mohammad Tahseen addressed the conference alongwith Dr. Said Alam Mehsud, Ali Asghar Khan, Rukhshanda Naz, Jaffer Memon, Prof Dr. Sarfaraz Khan, Maryam Bibi, Naeem Mirza, Naveed Shinwari, Shahzada Zulfiquar, Huma Fauladi, Raza Niazi, Shabina Ayaz, Sameena Nazeer, Salma Butt, Asim Malik, M. Y. Khan, Mehboob Sada, Zubair Malik, Mohammd Yusuf Qureshi, Zarqa Arshad and Rashida Dohad.

[nggallery id=69]
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Native Orientalists at the Daily Times

A must read article by Shahid Alam published in Counter Punch discussing the recent controversy regarding the resignation of Najam Sethi from Daily Times which was allegedly due to employee pay-scale conflict with the owners of the media group. Shahid Alam in his article goes on to analyze the core reason as to how Daily Times came into existence around 2002 and then its subsequent dubious positioning over the many years “in making Daily Times a ‘new voice for a new Pakistan’“which may possibly be so expertly served the interests of its founders. A few interesting excerpts have been quoted here while the rest of the article can be read that Counter Punch
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Shahid Masood’s show on Geo.tv banned by UAE Govt

UPDATE: PkPolitics has recorded and has published the LAST EPISODE of Shahid Masood’s MERAY MUTABIQ – in this last episode he shares threats to his life with the possible reasons for having him blocked on Geo, he also sheds light on the level of corruption by the NRO – SHOCKING its a definite must watch

shahid-masood-meray-mutabiq-logoIt seems that in a ban has been imposed on the airing of Geo News’ program ‘Meray Mutabiq’ by Dr. Shahid Masood from Dubai. According to Geo.tv sources, high government officials from Pakistan have exerted pressure on the Dubai government to block the show from being telecast from Dubai

This show along with Geo.tv has previously suffered the same fate of outright censorship in Pakistan during the 2007 martial law by Pervaiz Musharraf it was then that Pervaiz Musharraf actually approached the Dubai government too and had the entire channel taken off-air for a period of over 77 days. In those days strict local government restrictions prevented broadcast signal from Pakistan and all TV channels resorted to rebroadcasting to the satellite feed from Dubai, since the 2007 tussle with Geo and its subsequent negotiations with electronic media outlets, Geo then moved most of its operations back into Pakistan leaving aside two show Meray Mutabiq and Nadia Khan show still to be aired from Dubai alone.
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