Daily Times

The PTV management’s decision to slap a Rs 100 million defamation notice on Shoaib Akhtar for alleged contractual violations, to try and teach him a lesson quite obviously, shows how blind it has been to public reaction since one of its hosts disrespected the former Test cricketer during a live program. Dr Nauman’s half-hearted apology, which can only be seen as too little too late, also delved more into Akhtar’s attitude and such things instead of the real issue at hand, which was his attitude right in the middle of a very important program. And to follow the so-called apology with the defamation suit only serves to add insult to injury.

This makes for the second time in as many weeks that the national broadcaster or one of its senior handlers have brought embarrassment to the state institution. It also strengthens the perception that the channel is not only not too worried about the shameful incident in question, it is also going out of its way to endorse the behaviour of Dr Nauman. It’s no surprise that the legal order has triggered a torrent of disapproval from the public and former players alike, and the most likely outcome is that senior analysts and former players will tend to avoid going to PTV, just to protest against the treatment being meted out to Shoaib Akhtar.

In all likelihood, saner minds will prevail and PTV will be ordered to take a step back and restore some normalcy to the whole situation. But the damage has more or less already been done and it will not be able to wipe its image clean again. There’s a very important lesson in all this, especially for media outlets that tend to give themselves more importance than is warranted. Journalism is limited to gathering, processing and presenting the information. And there’s simply no room for anybody to impose their rude behaviour upon others, especially if they are national heroes that the whole nation loves and respects. *