It only takes a stray bullet or a group of unknown men to make a story out of those who report the news themselves. Zubair Anjum, an executive producer at a leading news channel, joined the seemingly neverending queue of journalists who have found themselves in the eye of the heated storm. While this time, the family members of the victim can vouch for the presence of police vans and plainclothed officials wielding firearms outside his residence, it remains to be seen what crimes would he be tried for.
Elsewhere in Lahore High Court, the Punjab government’s efforts to find the whereabouts of the missing anchorperson Imran Riaz Khan were criticised as not yet yielding any results. Ever since mystery surrounded the death of news anchor Arshad Sharif last year, there has been pressure from the international community on the state to do its share in protecting journalists.
Concerns over freedom of expression have long plagued the press, but now, the threat has become far more personal, far more menacing. Since the business model of the news media does not allow even signs of shredded humanity to break through, attacks on individual journalists or media houses are rarely lamented as an attack on the entire community.
While some degree of protest does erupt from advocacy platforms, it is clearly not enough to change the error in our ways. That a lot of this ugliness stems from the politically divisive environment where a messiah for one is deemed a destroyer by another cannot be stressed enough. Those holding placards in the case of Arshad Sharif would not bat an eyelid before throwing his brothers under the slander bus.
Of course, the ideal line of action in the given scenario involves the immediate release of Mr Anjum so that he can be presented before a court and tried for whatever crimes he is thought to have committed. While being a member of the press does not grant him immunity against the country’s code, it should also not brand him as an easy target. *