PPP decides to ‘tame’ journalists
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has decided to tame “targeted” journalists by exploiting the persuasive skills of a set of its leaders to mould the hard-hitting lot’s opinion in its favour.
However, the suicide attack on the welcoming reception of Benazir Bhutto’s return from self-imposed exile made the top PPP leader a hot cake for the world media and sidelined issues that were to haunt her on her homecoming. In view of this the original media management strategy has temporarily taken the back seat as they are now more concerned about cashing in on what is at hand.
In a London meeting that she had chaired shortly before her return to chalk out the party’s strategy, Benazir had assigned different PPP leaders and media managers to sway the target journalists in her favour.
At that stage there was an extreme fear of media bashing of her and her PPP on two counts — PPP decision to strike a deal with president General Pervez Musharraf with the blessing of the Americans and the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), which was issued accepting Benazir’s demand for withdrawal of all corruption cases against her and her spouse in and out of Pakistan.
A PPP source, who attended the London deliberations, said that while discussing the overall media strategy the PPP leadership focused on those who were the party’s top critics both in the print and electronic (private television channels) media.
Names of different journalists were discussed to come up with a strategy to deal with them effectively but softly. The likes of Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Rehman Malik, Bashir Riaz, Sherry Rehman, Babar Awan and Farhatullah Babar were assigned target journalists while there were a few mediapersons who were considered inaccessible at least in the first round.
Most of the targeted media people are from the private TV channels while a few are associated with influential Pakistani newspapers.
The PPP source said that three leading anchorpersons of Geo News and at least one associated with Aaj were identified as trouble creators. A few journalists associated with The News were named amongst “others” while one was considered to be “militantly opposed” to the party’s policies.
Before Benazir’s return, different key journalists started receiving unusual courtesy calls from various PPP leaders. Amongst the callers included Asif Ali Zardari. Some of the journalists were also surprised to have received “Eid cake” from the PPP recently although the print and electronic media continued grilling its top leadership both for the NRO and deal with Musharraf.
However, the return of Benazir and the unfortunate terrorist attack on her reception rally killing at least 140 innocents had turned everything in her favour though temporarily in the view of many people. Now she is the media’s darling while those really critical of her policies have also softened because of the October 18th carnage.
In the changed situation, the PPP leader is extremely selective in her interaction with the media, particularly Pakistan’s. A senior female journalist told this correspondent on Tuesday that she had sought Benazir’s interview and was given the time for Monday. She said that when she got into Bilawal House after going through multiple security checks she was informed by Benazir’s managers that there was no exclusive interview for her rather she would be joined by seven other mediaperson to interact with the leader of the day.
After hours’ wait, the journalist said, it all ended up in a press conference attended by dozens. She sounded extremely frustrated and said that it seemed that Benazir was flying too high these days. Another senior journalist and respected editor said that Benazir and her party would soon find themselves getting out of the present phase of fantasies and face the ground realities where the real issues would again crop up their ugly heads for both.
Benazir is unlikely to spare too much time for exclusive interviews for Pakistani journalists as she is currently relishing in the glory of massive commendation for her courage from the world leaders and even the UN Security Council and Dr Condi, who were also expressing condolences with her.
Source: The News
Date:10/25/2007
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