Daily Times

Poverty is a curse. Poverty makes people vulnerable to disaster, disease and devastation. Even nature treats the poor indifferently. On Tuesday afternoon, a massive earthquake struck the Awaran district of Balochistan and its neighbouring areas. Sadly, Awaran is the poorest district of the province, where most of the population lives in mud brick houses. Due to the inherent vulnerability of the population of Awaran to natural disasters, more than 300 people lost their lives and thousands of others were forced to live under open skies. According to reports, the army quickly dispatched rescue teams to the district to help the earthquake affectees.

However, the saddest part of Tuesday’s earthquake was the apathy shown by the media to the poor population of Awaran. Even hours after the earthquake, there was no live coverage of the incident and conflicting numbers of people dead in the incident were being reported on different TV channels. On the other hand, the media channels were quick in reporting the emergence of an Island off the coast of Gwadar.

The sad fact is that our media is becoming more urban-centric with the passage of time. A large chunk of daily news is related to incidents and happenings in urban centres. Politics remains the broader theme of media reporting and as we all know most of our politics is concentrated in our urban centres. In the case of Balochistan, Quetta is the only major urban centre and the media groups are mostly concentrated over there. The rest of the districts in the province including Awaran are considered as remote areas. Perhaps it is not the physical distance that makes these areas remote but the lack of interest and attention of the authorities that term these areas as remote and another major reason is poverty itself.

The lack of media coverage of the earthquake, however, points towards a number of reasons why the media was unable to perform its duties. One of the most apparent reasons is the remoteness of the district and its poor infrastructure. The icing on the cake was done by the earthquake, which resulted in the destruction of the existing infrastructure including the telecommunication network. In the absence of a telecommunication network, reporters in the affected districts were unable to communicate with their media groups. As a result there were conflicting reports about the number of dead due to the earthquake.

Balochistan, on the whole, suffers from a media blackout and the prime reason is the persecution of journalists not only by the militants but sometimes by the security agencies as well. Most of the time the journalistic community finds itself stuck between the devil and the deep sea.

Awaran is also known for the presence of militants. The security forces have been targeted in the district a number of times in the past. Thus it will not be wrong to say that due to lack of security journalists avoid venturing into areas that they find troublesome. Perhaps the earthquake-affected population of Awaran also suffered because of this. The number of dead remained between 30-50 people even after four-five hours of the incident. However, the very next morning headlines informed the consumers of media that more than 200 people have died due to the natural calamity.

The unfortunate incident was devastating but it has unveiled some important facts about our media and its reporting mechanism, especially when it comes to the remotest areas in the country. Timely media reporting is important not only for the consumers of media but also for the authorities. The initial response by the disaster management authorities is dependent on media reports so in case an incident is misreported or underreported, it gets difficult for them to provide adequate relief to the affected population.

It is now clear that our media outlets are concentrated in urban centres with little or no backup support from the rural areas. This incident should serve as a reminder for the media groups that the major chunk of our population, which is poor, resides in the rural areas. These people are vulnerable to all kinds of natural disasters and in time of need require the help of others. Media reporting creates the whole difference. The timely provision of relief services also depends upon media reports, so the media groups must devise a mechanism for the timely reporting of incidents that occur in remote areas, so that the problem of underreporting can be solved.

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The writer is a development consultant. She tweets at @GulminaBilal and can be reached at coordinator@individualland.com