Daily Times

On Monday evening, two members of the militant group Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) opened fire at the Aaj TV headquarters in Karachi, leaving two people, including a security guard, critically injured. The TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan claimed the attack was a response to Aaj TV’s criticism of the militant activities of the Taliban, and its refusal to accommodate their views on air.

Although the attack has been said to be the Taliban’s first direct attack on a media group in Pakistan, terrorist groups have slain many journalists over the years in Pakistan, the most infamous incident being the beheading of Daniel Pearl.

The incident is yet another example of the threat that extremists and terrorists pose to society and is a direct attack on freedom of speech and media, one of the key tenets of a functioning democracy. The attack typifies the mayhem and menace associated with the extremists’ beliefs. They wish to impose their will on those who disagree with their version of Islam, their aims, goals, and methods by force rather than logic or reasoning.

Although President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf have condemned the attack, the government must provide protection to the owners of Aaj TV and to media personnel within the country. The miscreants behind the attack must be apprehended and presented in a court of law. It is an incident that has rattled the media industry, and this incident must be taken very seriously.

Most important, society must laud Aaj TV for sticking to its editorial policy of declining to give oxygen to terrorist views over the years. Any privately owned media group can attest to how difficult it can get. Even more commendable is their refusal to budge on their editorial perspective despite the fact that the TTP have threatened to do much worse after the attack. Media houses and Pakistani society must throw their weight behind the freedom of the media at this time and show solidarity, or risk being held hostage to the ludicrous demands of the terrorists. If there is any time when the credo “divided we stand, united we fall” rings true, it is now. Media houses have the power and the responsibility of shaping public perception and must not be cowed down by the extremists. The responsibility of the government in this regard cannot be overemphasised

Ehsanullah Ehsan also said that Aaj TV has become a mouthpiece of the government. So what? It is their perrogative what they wish to be, and this is also an attack on the government – they wish to establish an Islamic Caliphate. *