Media and its discontents

PRAISES have been heaped on the media and at the same time abuses have been hurled at it for its coverage of events that have unfolded in the recent past. The media coverage of the lawyers’ movement has especially been a bone of contention between the lawyers and the Musharraf camp.The latter condemned the media vehemently as though the entire judicial crisis was its creation. The lawyers eulogised the media projection so profusely that it led one to believe that the movement would fail without the blessings of the media.But on taking a closer look at the matter one finds that the criterion underlying this qualified denunciation and appreciation of the media has been the degree to which it has served the interests of one side or the other. This approach to news coverage has swept under the carpet the real problems that are plaguing the print and electronic media.Some of the basic issues that are being questioned are the graphic depiction of the gory details in the aftermath of a suicide bombing, lopsided time and space allocation to a particular story, monopolisation of the national debate on key issues by a few intellectuals and the lack of investigative reporting. In this context, the performance of the media as the fourth pillar of the state has come under intense scrutiny.There is a strong case for media self-censorship insofar as the depiction of suicide bombing scenes on television is concerned. The objective of the masterminds of suicide bombings is not limited to killing people. They also want to instil terror in the heart of the government and the people. The media has unwittingly been playing into the hands of these terrorists by showing terrifying images on television and spreading panic and despair.Furthermore, death is a private affair and news channels violate the right to privacy when they display horrible images of the dead or dying. Let alone children, some of the images are too horrific to be handled by adults. Interestingly, one news channel has started employing ‘bombing’ vocabulary in its reporting of price hikes in different items that we have witnessed recently.“Another bomb falls on the poor: prices of petrol raised by Rs5”. Or “After price hike in petrol, people become victims of yet another bomb: prices of gas also raised”. A couple of points need to be made here with regard to this kind of reporting. One, with the media employing such extreme language, how would the horrifying scenes of suicide bombings impact on the common people in their daily lives? Second, it is easier to sensationalise an issue than to look deep into the structural issues through investigative reporting.Take for example the issue of a petrol price hike. It is easier to equate it with the falling of a bomb than to investigate how the hike in international crude oil prices by one dollar per barrel translates into the price of one litre of petrol at petrol stations. What is the share of the marketing companies? What is the share of the government in the shape of the taxes that it collects on petrol?The investigation of these and other problems requires time and resources which most media houses are not willing to provide journalists with. In such a scenario, it is not surprising that the majority of journalists are unfamiliar with the existence of the Freedom of Information Ordinance 2002. Not surprisingly, they are unaware of how to submit information requests to the federal ministries and provincial departments under this law in order to gain access to public documents for investigative reporting.Related to this is the issue of time and space allocation to particular stories by both the electronic and print media. Reporters and anchor persons give most time and space to stories pertaining to political developments than to reporting and discussing systemic issues of governance. Instead of analysing governance-related structural issues, our anchor persons find it easier to wax eloquent about political developments by inviting politicians from different political parties for discussion.Take the example of the various news channels that love to invite the information minister to share her thoughts on the emerging political scenario. However, they have never invited Ms Sherry Rehman to discuss the draft of the Freedom of Information Bill 2008 that her ministry recently prepared. For this to happen and for a qualitative discussion on the subject, it would require an extensive study of the existing legislation on the issue and of internationally accepted principles of freedom of information. It would also require a comparative study of different laws enacted by other countries.Ironically, the media has largely ignored an information law that aims to promote transparent and accountable government by giving citizens access to public documents — a goal that elevates the media to the level of the fourth pillar of the state.Lastly, news channels have restricted themselves to a handful of intellectuals who keep going from one channel to the other. We are not an intellectually bankrupt nation. There are so many academicians, civil society activists and other individuals who might not be otherwise educated in the conventional sense but are wise enough to give fresh perspectives on national as well as international issues.The media stands indicted on all the issues raised above. The readers of newspapers and viewers of television are also consumers. As things stand, they have been left to the mercy of market forces as the media gives primacy to selling time and space at the expense of quality of coverage. Protecting corporate interests and establishing and maintaining high standards of quality reporting, both in the print and electronic media, are not mutually exclusive. The issue is that of striking a balance.The question as to how this balance can be achieved needs to be looked into by the media managers themselves. Civil society organisations working in the area of consumer rights need to intervene and determine how they can mobilise people in order to exert pressure on the media managers to strike this balance.
Courtesy: Daily Dawn Lahore/ By Zahid Abdullah