Ansar Abbasi disowns headline of his story in The News

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published: 28 January 2017

Ansar Abbasi, Editor Investigations at The News, publicly rejected the headline of his own article about Maryam Nawaz. He criticized the headline for misrepresenting the story's intent and suggested it was altered to appease the PML-N government.

Summary

ISLAMABAD - Senior journalist Ansar Abbasi (pictured), Editor Investigations at The News, Saturday disowned the headline of his story in the paper, tweeting that someone had tried to “please” the PML-N government.

The story headlined ‘Maryam Nawaz emerging as potential threat to PML-N rivals’ discusses the prospects of the prime minister's daughter joining the parliamentary politics in 2018 – the election year.

The story contains comments by young PML-N leaders saying that the PTI chief Imran Khan feels threatened by the prime minister’s daughter even though she is not in active politics, it hints that senior party leaders do not share this sentiment. The story says senior leaders are not part of the campaign to portray the prime minister’s daughter as the future of PML-N.

Abbasi expressed his displeasure in a tweet. “The headline of the story does not belong to the story I filed. Someone added the "flavour" to please rulers.”

Normally, such matters are taken up with the editor or the shift in-charge and are seldom made public. However, Abbasi opted to publicly express his disagreement with the headline.

KEY POINTS:

• Ansar Abbasi disowned a headline he did not approve.
• The article discussed Maryam Nawaz's potential future in politics.
• Comments from PML-N youth leaders were included in the story.
• Abbasi expressed his disagreement via social media.
• He indicated that such issues are typically handled privately.