News media feels force of Musharraf crackdown
Declan Walsh in Islamabad
Thursday November 8, 2007
(Geo Logo)
Last Tuesday the owner of Geo, Pakistan's largest television station, sent an email to his senior editors.
"I have received [a] threatening telephone call last night from ISI," wrote Mir Shakil ur Rahman, referring to the powerful Inter Services Intelligence agency. "They have taken me to a house in Islamabad."
Mr Rahman did not describe what happened at the spy safe house, but the following sentence suggested it was not pleasant. "I would like to advise you to please follow the laws specially [sic] the newly promulgated law."
He also attached an email from "Sabir".
"Pakistan Army is the backbone of Pakistan, don't try to damage it, if u do, u and your family who have looted billions would be hunted down like rats," it read. "It will just take a few hundred people to smash ur studios, offices, vans."
(General Pervez Musharraf & George Bush)
As General Musharraf's emergency rule slides towards a second week, Pakistan's media barons are coming under intense pressure from his heavy-handed security forces - officially and unofficially.
Private TV channels have been pulled off air, stringent new laws prohibit stories that "ridicule" the president, and many journalists are wondering if the country's television revolution is over.
"News has become a contraband item," said Imran Aslam, president of Geo, whose four sister stations are off air. "Now it's like the old days when we used to tune into the BBC radio to find out what's happen in our own backyard."
Journalists and proprietors complain of threatening calls and emails, some by people claiming to be the Taliban. They are continuing to broadcast, sending stories by satellite and high-speed internet to a minority of wealthy viewers.
But with satellite dish prices soaring, most Pakistanis are in the dark, blind to the great dramas of the past week - clashes between police and lawyers, human rights activists behind bars, or the sight of their deposed chief justice, Muhammad Iftikhar Chaudhry, under house arrest in Islamabad.
(The Chief Justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry)
"The government's goal is to consolidate their position in the courts and not to allow protests grow," said veteran journalist Zaffar Abbas. "At the moment they seem pretty satisfied."
Film, cartoon and sports channels are allowed, as is Pakistan Television, the state news station, which presents an alternate reality.
The channel airs Musharraf speeches, anti-Indian propaganda and chat shows hosted by regime loyalists.
"Gen Musharraf is finally doing what President Putin did for Russia - stop democracy from turning into total chaos," wrote PTV presenter Ahmed Quraishi, who on his website this week blames the CIA for Gen Musharraf's woes.
Television has become hugely popular and politically influential in Pakistan. Newspapers have a small circulation, selling just 3m copies in a country of 165 million people, but the plethora of new TV stations offering 24-hour news and lively debate reaches tens of millions.
They came of age last March, when live coverage of anti-Musharraf rallies led by Justice Chaudhry stoked public outrage and brought floods of protesters onto the streets.
"It was a huge force in the restoration of the chief justice. It really motivated the public," said lawyer Kashif Ali Malik.
Now the government is leaning on owners like Mr Ur Rahman, demanding they adhere to a new "code of ethics" that effectively bars any criticism of Gen Musharraf, who used to boast of his love for the free press.
Journalists at the stations worry that they will be next to be arrested. In recent days, security forces have jailed thousands of lawyers, human rights activists and opposition figures.
"They have a hit list of six or seven senior journalists they want to arrest," said Hamid Mir, a popular presenter with Geo.
Newspapers are still being published, many carrying detailed reports of state brutality and angry comment, despite a new law prohibiting anything that defames or brings into disrepute Gen Musharraf or his government.
The editor of Dawn, a respected newspaper established by Pakistan's founding father Muhammad Ali Jinnah, said he would not be cowed.
"We are not in the business of ridicule, we are in the business of reporting the facts," said Abbas Nasir. "And if the facts make someone look ridiculous, so be it."
No comments:
Post a Comment