Tribal journalists — between a rock and a hard place?
By Iqbal Khattak
PESHAWAR: Several journalists from the Tribal Areas and Peshawar have never been to a musical evening in recent years, so inundated with threats were they while covering militancy-linked incidents either in FATA, PATA or the recently-renamed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
A musical evening held before the dialogue to discuss the state of journalism in FATA in Islamabad on Friday provided these journalists some respite from the hostile security situation in their areas. “This is great,” said an enthusiastic reporter. Like several tribal journalists, he is also facing threats from the Taliban on one hand and strict organisational policies against airing terrorist sound bytes on the other.
“The media will be treated like an enemy if it does not change its attitude towards us,” a Taliban spokesman had told him recently.
Journalists working for radio stations have much more to worry about than their peers at TV channels or newspapers. This is because the Taliban listen to each and every radio station and every news bulletin they air. The media has already received a “final threat” from the Taliban in North Waziristan, asking journalists to either change their attitude towards them or “prepare for action”. The Taliban lost coverage and airtime in the national media in May last year when the military launched Operation Rah-e-Rast. Since April this year, however, they made their presence felt on the airwaves once again. The launch of the Taliban Media Centre somewhere in North Waziristan reaffirms the terrorists’ return to the media.
The consultative dialogue was attended by over 40 journalists from each tribal region. Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists President Pervaiz Shaukat, prominent TV anchors Talat Hussain and Ejaz Haider and former PFUJ secretary general Mazhar Abbas were also present. Under the laws, no TV channel, radio station or newspaper can be set up in FATA. With regular laws not applicable here, no journalist can seek legal cover to demand justice in the Tribal Areas. Ironically, around 95 percent of tribal journalists working for the local print media are not being paid, while those working for TV channels or foreign media are paid better than the rest. Reporting from conflict zones has also been very difficult for these journalists, as their organisations have extended little or no support in this regard. Meanwhile, the national media was conspicuously absent from the event, as hardly any TV channel covered it, while there were no representatives of the print media. The national media along with the federal government has the potential to save the country from further sinking into crises if they rescue journalism in the Tribal Areas as soon as possible.
Source: Daily Times
Date:5/3/2010
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