Risking all: Dangers faced by Pakistani journalists in pursuit of truth

JournalismPakistan.com | Published 13 years ago | Shahzada Irfan Ahmed

The Pakistani media has a come a long way over the years. From an industry comprising a handful of newspapers and a couple of news channels, of which two were state-owned, it now has close to 100 TV channels covering sports, local and international news, entertainment, religion, fashion, and so on.

The previous government and the incumbent can take credit for this growth and for freedom of expression. But the freedom has come at a cost. Though free to report on issues tabooed in the past it has to deal with the consequences of treading into dangerous zones.

There are pressures, unwritten codes, self-censorship policies, etc, to observe while reporting, editing and publishing or airing. The more adventurous have to be ready for punishment, which may even be death.

Imran Naeem, who runs the website JournalismPakistan.com says: “The pace of journalism appeared laidback before the arrival of the many television channels about a decade ago. It is now in Grand Prix mode, which means a mad dash to be first.”

To this end, journalists must be where the news is in a flash and report, no matter how harsh or dangerous the conditions. There have been instances of journalists rushing to the scene of a bomb blast, only to lose their lives or be maimed in a second explosion.

Imran observes that more journalists have been killed, been injured or disappeared in Pakistan than any other country. “Those who live to tell the story may lose their jobs, face death threats, get beaten up or even framed for doing something they never did, from petty theft at the office to blasphemy, punishable by death.”

The pressures start inside the office, the outside threats showing up much later. First, journalists in Pakistan are not well paid. To make matters worse, salaries are routinely delayed, even in some big media houses.

Then there’s the extraordinary workload. There are organizations, according to Imran, where they have to work for 16 hours at a stretch when major events break. They are on call through the day, and night, just in case. Their contracts do not say this and they are not offered extra benefits for these duties.

First published by http://fountainink.in/