When military man General Pervez Musharraf let media in Pakistan go free and wild and gave TV, print and radio licences without any let or hinder, little did he know that things would go this far in less than two decades and that his freedom of the media would be taken to great extremes.
Today, there seems to be a free-for-all. But media customarily take sides with forces that are not in power. For instance, while Bilawal Bhutto’s long march from Karachi to Islamabad was covered day in and day out by almost all TV channels, another long march by PTI’s Ali Zaidi and later joined by Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Asad Omar, was only broadcast by PTV, the state channel. It is also usual for anchors to argue with guests and promote non-state views. It is typical during TV discussions for short breaks to immediately pop up when favourable facts and statistics are quoted on behalf of the state.
Over the last few years, several new media ‘personalities’ have emerged, most of whom need to know nothing about journalism and media and are only self-servers out to make good money from exploiting the people’s sentiments or sentiments of those interested in pushing a certain viewpoint.
These media frontmen and women call themselves media anchors and analysts and add fuel to fire by working under a certain agenda.
Karman Khan, a print journalist for a long time, may not work under an agenda, but he has taken to TV with relish. He surely knows a lot but the problem is that he never lets his guests complete what they are saying and interjects often. The best thing about him is that he does not allow catfights in his programme and that is really commendable.
Javed Jabbar and Dr. Huma Baqai appeared together on PTV for some time. A man in his own class, Jabbar gave measured and considered views in a very sober manner in PTV’s Makalma but his combination with Huma Baqai did not last very long and now it is only Dr. Baqai who runs Makalma, a dialogue apparently being between her and her guests with the lady doing most of the talking.
The son of a former film actor and with a degree in journalism, Karman Shahid seems to bully his guests; he always has an expression of superiority on his face and he often gets angry when a guest opposes his views.
Najam Sethi and his female presenter have their own interpretations which normally run counter to other presenters but perhaps that is one way of building viewer following.
The writer is the editor of SouthAsia. He can be reached at javed.lb@gmail.com
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