Daily Times

Pakistan’s electronic and press media—especially the electronic media—are fast losing their sense of balance and traction to depict a fair picture in terms of news and analysis. This state of affairs is obvious to all those associated with it and also to those who are consumers of media products in the form of news and talk shows.

The issues that continuously make headlines in the news hours are selected from a very narrow spectrum i.e. urban focus, political demagogy and overblown hearsays, and updates of the security situation. The rest is covered in the news and debated in talk shows but only partially and sporadically.

This is also reflected in how only a few politicians and panellists are sought for their opinions in news and talk shows throughout the week. For instance, the leader of Awami Muslim League Mr Shaikh Rashid—despite having just the one seat in parliament—appears on the TV screen at least a dozen times every week.

Many readers might not be aware that other leaders such as Asfandyar Wali, Akhtar Mengal, Mahmood Khan Achakzai, and Mir Hasil Bazinjo also lead their respective parties from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, and have multiple representatives in provincial and national assemblies and the senate.

All these leaders deserve more media and TV coverage than the leader from Lal Haveli. Yet one hardly sees them on TV screens because TV channels find impromptu musings and demagogy from Shaikh Rashid more important.

In all this hullabaloo of demagogy, what the media offers its consumers is like an overdose of junk food at the expense of real news and newsworthy stories and narratives. Hence, we seldom have a chance to hear the views of not-so-media-savvy leaders such as Akhtar Mengal on national and provincial socio-economic and political issues.

At an obvious level, this attitude of media groups keeps the more genuine politicians away from the limelight; at a deeper level, the problems and issues faced by people in far flung areas go un-noticed.

Consumers of media in and around urban centres where TRPs are located would hardly be familiar with the conditions prevalent in the rural and tribal areas of Balochistan, KPK and Sindh, since the living conditions in these areas hardly get any coverage from the media.

While a sneeze from any mainstream politician becomes breaking news for our TV news channels, news from distant areas of the country is frequently ignored. Not just the love for TRPs and consequent profits, but the need to remain aligned with the narrative of a deep state force media houses to overplay some while underplaying or entirely blacking-out other news.

It is imperative that media regulating authorities — both governmental and non-governmental — sit down together to make the media more just, a greater representative of the country’s diversity, and to turn it into a pro-democracy entity

Only last month, while our media was busy interviewing and covering political demagogues on the progress of the JIT in the Panama case, two suicide attacks killed around a hundred innocent people in Parachinar and Quetta, which did not receive as much media attention as that afforded to the progress of the Panama JIT.

If it were not for the hue and cry raised at social media platforms on Quetta and Parachinar, the mainstream electronic media would have virtually ignored these incidents as low value events occurring in the country’s backyard.

It seems to have become an unwritten rule that every prime time talk show will have at least one ex-serviceman among the panellists. It makes sense to invite ex-servicemen if the talk show is about some issue on defence, security, war or another subject directly relevant to their areas of expertise but not in virtually every single show.

The impression talk show anchors try to create is that these panellists share the insight and reflections from the incumbent military leadership. However, at best, such insights and reflections from these panellists are hardly anything but hearsay which only adds to rumour mongering and political sensation.

Granted, the military has been playing politics even when it did not rule the country officially, yet inviting views from ex-military men on routine and purely political and legal issues like Panama case is hardly sane.

It is imperative that media regulating authorities—both governmental and non-governmental—such as PEMRA, Pakistan Broadcasting Association, APNS and CPNE sit together in order to make the media more just, to make it a greater representative of the diversity of the country, and to turn it into a pro-democracy entity. We must not underestimate how crucial fair and responsible media is for any stable and peaceful society.

The writer is a sociologist with interest in history and politics. He’s accessible at twitter @ZulfiRao1

Published in Daily Times, July 20th, 2017.