PBC clarifies news report
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) has said that the allegations levelled in a report by Dilshad Azeem published in the The News on April 29 are absolutely baseless.
In a statement, the PBC said the reporter’s assertion regarding so-called harassment of female officials is speculative as no particular case of harassment of any official has even been quoted.
“The reporter has merely tried tarnishing a senior professional’s reputation on pure hearsay, without any justifiable cause, and has then also pronounced an arbitrary unilateral judgement,” the statement added.
“If by any stretch of imagination, the reporter has linked an action taken against any female employee on charges of corruption and misconduct as being akin to female harassment, then it speaks volumes about his professional acumen.
“During the last two years, action against more male employees has been taken on different charges as compared to the women employees. In fact, a lenient view was taken while dealing with cases of females and due respect was given to them. The record must be set straight, as no harassment of female employees in any form and at any level has taken place.
“In an organisation where thousands of employees work, if any person has grievances and makes complaints, he/she has the right to do so but it does not mean that his/her complaint or the version given by him/her is necessarily true as well.
“It is professionally incumbent upon media professionals to take both sides of the story but in this instance this wasn’t done either. “PBC DG Murtaza Solangi has an unblemished record on every account, leading the organisation to higher goals of professionalism, and competence by weeding out corruption, inefficiency and mismanagement infesting it for the last many years.
“The reporter has also tried creating the impression as if the PBC DG owed his present appoint as he was alleged to be a close friend of the president. Without going into the details what Murtaza Solangi has done to modernise the PBC, improve the quality of programmes and make it an efficient entity, it would suffice to quote what the same esteemed newspaper wrote earlier about the appointment of Murtaza Solangi as director general of the PBC,” the statement said.
The highly respected Editor Investigation, The News, Ansar Abbasi in his report published in The News on May 20, 2008, while referring to some appointments made by the government had written: “Murtaza Solangi, a known journalist and broadcaster, is one of the few appointees who deserve the appointment because of his qualifications and experience”. Need more be said?”
Dilshad Azeem adds: My report simply produced what is mentioned in the harassment complaints of female employees of Radio Pakistan. The complaints sent to the bosses of Information Department are in writing rather merely verbal ones. The story highlighted the grey areas of the persons sitting on helm of the affairs in the PBC. Moreover, neither did the report link the DG’s actions with any thing nor did it question his professional skills, therefore, most part of the so-called clarification is irrelevant. Mentioning names in sexual harassment cases could have created problems for the female complainants. It is up to my superiors to decide about my professional honesty and not the PBC. In view of all this, I stand by my report without any hesitation.
Source: The News
Date:5/3/2010
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