Medias apologetic professionals

10 May 2011
Syed Irfan Ashraf Apologetic media professionals have become a regular feature of every seminars and workshops. They always paint a gloomy picture of journalism in the country. Official discouragement and insecure working environment are the two vital factors, which they hold responsible for discouraging free flow of information. In real, however, cynical disillusionment of the kind has more to do with internal weaknesses than anything else. By and large, throttling the freedom of expression is no more a viable option in the information age of today. The magic of the new media has provided public with more feasible alternatives to freely upload or download almost anything. It only needs computer literacy and the expertise to strategically package a message to turn an issue into a solid online campaign. Globally, the outcome of this strategic thinking has carried amazing impact on journalism and beyond. More so, it has empowered media professionals to enlarge the scope of reporting. Even amateur users have brought a revolution in the closed societies of the Arab world. In an era when common people through out the world are getting back their lost voices, journalists in Pakistan are still crying foul? Instead of tactfully exploiting the available alternatives, most of them oscillate between two extremities. Some could be seen willfully compromising the truth, while others divulge it rashly. If any journalist provokes a backlash, the rest offer it as an excuse to compromise truth. This is the way things are working in Pakistan: to threaten a few for taming the rest. Sometimes back a discussion was held in Islamabad about the role of media in conflict situation. Some journalists complained that they are finding hard to report encroachment erected by the Intelligence Agency ISI on public roads in the heart of Islamabad city. They, however, could not respond satisfactorily when asked if they had looked for alternatives to address the issue properly and safely. Every day stories of high public value are being killed in the newsroom just because they usually involve someone more powerful. In other words news is hardly considered a news if it involves a powerful party. As said, journalists in Pakistan are not only paid for what to publish. They are also paid for what not to publish. Usually, things work out quite favorably when reflective professionals are involved. In 2009 a horrible phase of custodial killing ensued from the defeat of militants in Swat. In some places dead bodies were fixed atop roadside poles to deter common people. Gravity of the situation and sensitivity of the issue compelled journalists in Peshawar to avoid being judgmental on the basis of eye witness accounts. Instead, few local journalists arranged for the Human Rights Commission to take a lead by fixing the responsibility. After the HRCP press conference on the issue, journalists got the lead to further add on it. Thus for the next one month custodial killing made it to screaming headlines in media, which brought respite to a wave of lynching at public places.

Under the challenging circumstances, journalism is hardly a profession for the ill prepared lot. Effective journalism in Pakistan requires media professionals to develop the capacity to think out of the box. But, unfortunately, this is no longer happening. Journalists prefer not to offer resistance nor do they use alternatives to serve the purpose of objective reporting on issues of high public importance. Why is it so? Traditionally, journalists in Pakistan write more but read less. Many a time they do not bother even to read their own stories. Such an environment usually gives birth to professionally handicapped practitioners. Independent reporting is difficult for them because they usually find hard to develop clear insight into the situation at hand. This weakness increases their dependency on the source of information and bereft them of the capacity to professionally adjust to the demanding situation. This discrepancy is visible in some section of the apologetic journalists. When they find themselves incapable to meet their professional obligations, they start looking for excuses to justify their existence in the field. Further moregood for journalists but not so well for journalismworking patterns has undergone phenomenal change after Pakistan became frontline state in the US war on terror. The rise of militancy in Pakistan coincided with a boom in electronic media. Synthetic affluence hit the local market after huge money was pumped in the nascent service industry. Working journalists jumped from 2500 in 2000 to 17000 in 2011, which led to decrease in their average age from 47 years in 2000 to 24 years in 2011. But there is a dark side to it as well. With the added focus of the foreign NGOs on Pakistan, resourceful journalists in the urban centers of Peshawar, Islamabad, and Lahore were no more dependent on journalism only. In addition to their own newspapers, their affiliation with such organizations has put a question mark on their professionalism. This is the way multitasking has robbed journalist community of quality professionals, who are using the platform as mean to an end and not an end in itself. More serious than all is the growing imbalance between rich and poor journalists. Though educated and urbanized media professionals are earning from more than one source, but vast majority of the rest are not so lucky. They are the victims of their own harsh working conditions. Majority of them are underpaid; some are not paid on time, while the rest are not paid at all. In addition to it, media owners invest almost nothing in the capacity building of their less-privileged workers. This has put journalist community in quandary. Pressures on them are mounting from every direction but they lack the capacity to diffuse them professionally. Given the deplorable situation, primary responsibility rests with the journalists bodies. Instead of ensuring plots in housing societies for their members, such organizations need to focus more on their capacity building. Trainings will help them understanding their role in a conflict, which has caught them unprepared. After all journalists are neither courtiers nor stenographers. Their primary responsibility revolves around objective reporting. Being apologetic will serve them no positive purpose in a situation, which requires them to play aggressive and independent role for shielding public interests in the face of powerful exploitative forces.