Write and wrong
By: Kamal Siddiqi
It is a pertinent question. How can we teach ethics to a journalist who sleeps on an empty stomach? Such and other questions came up in Karachi at a workshop conducted by the Coalition for Ethical Journalism, an alliance of organizations working for promoting media ethics in the country.
When I mentioned that I was attending a meeting on media ethics, one friend quipped “what’s that?” Such is the public perception of the media. And rightly so. The media in Pakistan today is seen as irresponsible. Some blame it for the wave of negativity that has swept the nation. “When we had only PTV, we didn’t know all the bad things that were happening around us,” said one participant. But that may not be a good thing. Also, we cannot blame the media for telling it like it is.
I remember visiting different Pakistani embassies abroad – New Delhi, Colombo, Bangkok, even Brussels and Washington DC. And the complaint is always the same. The media, our diplomats say, always gives a negative portrayal of Pakistan. But what to do when things go wrong? Say all is well? Possibly that’s the job of PTV.
The broadcast media comes in for particular attack everywhere. Ratings have meant that prime time is devoted to entertainment disguised as news. And that the more the outrageous we become, the more people will see us. If we believe Azhar Abbas, who now heads BoL TV, this formula only works for a limited period. We then have to re-invent ourselves again. Apparently the flavor of the season is exorcising djinns.
Possibly one of the bigger issues before us is knowing the difference between right and wrong. Most journalists in Pakistan are under-trained. And we have now 18,000 journalists in the field as compared to 2,000 ten years ago, according to the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ).
Interestingly, of this, only 5 per cent are women.
According to media analyst Adnan Rehmat, we have 32 journalism schools in Pakistan. But in almost all cases, the journalists they produce lack skills and knowledge.
Contrary to common perception, circulation numbers of newspapers on the whole have risen, much of this has been in regional papers. And till last count, we had 96 TV channels of which 37 were news channels. We also have 147 FM stations.
By and large media ethics continue to be a challenge for not just the Pakistani media, but in the world as a whole. Gone are the days of the old school where gate-keepers would check and decide. In some ways, it’s a free for all.
The social media is another entity that we have to contend with. There are 35 million active Internet users in Pakistan alone. More people seem to get their news from the social media than ever before.
This causes panic amongst journalists. With web-sites having “most read” and “most-visited” counters ticking away, now it is becoming a game of giving the public what they want. We are entering a dangerous area. You can see the pain in the eyes of journalists when they talk about Twitter and Facebook and argue that these media should be controlled. Ironically, these are the same people who fought for media freedom in days gone by.
But all this may not be a bad thing. The media explosion gives us news that we may otherwise never have access to. The chances of manipulation are lesser, in theory, because with social media everyone is a media entity. We are more informed now, though not necessarily more aware.
Reporting ethically may help journalists survive, but not always. As different entities in our country become more and more intolerant and as the state becomes weaker, we will see that honest and upright journalism will become more important. And this is where all forms media come into play – both traditional and the “new” (which now is quite old) media. Despite all their faults, let us try to protect them from public and private censorship.
In the past five years, 57 journalists have died in Pakistan – many of them in targeted attacks. The biggest threat to journalists now comes from reporting the truth. Let us continue to report truthfully and ethically. And give those who do this the power to continue doing so.
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