#Pakistan - Siege of a newspaper office

The value of a newspaper’s edition is viewed differently by every reader. People have the right to criticise or praise papers for underplaying an ‘important issue’ or overplaying a ‘petty incident’ or over the choice of words used in news stories. Their feedback helps editors improve the standard of journalism. Over the years, however, the Pakistani media is being conveyed feedback from powerful quarters in the form of disruption in circulation and broadcasting and financial strangulation. Occasionally, media houses have been vandalised and shut down and journalists beaten and arrested for ‘adverse’ reporting. Taking the hostility to a new height, a group of ‘unknown persons’ besieged a newspaper’s office in Islamabad and later demonstrated in Karachi, demanding its closure over a news story it carried about the London Bridge attack. The mob was enraged over the newspaper’s headline, “London attacker of Pakistani descent is terror convict: officials.”

There can a semantic debate on the word ‘descent’ but the news story was factually correct. When such an issue arises, the best way is to talk to the editor. The protesters could have written to the editor that the attacker, Usman Khan, was born and raised in the UK to immigrants from Pakistan and that he had nothing to do with the country. The newspaper’s reply would have settled the issue but the group chose to demonstrate outside its office in Islamabad and Karachi Press Club, brazenly chanting slogans about its ‘pro-India’ agenda. This is not the first time the said newspaper has been under fire for its factual reporting. Likewise, several TV channels have been pressured to fire their talk show hosts for generating ‘wrong’ content.

Several journalist bodies have condemned the harassment of the media. PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had the guts to call the siege an attempt to pressure the media. He noted that media houses were being threatened.

Council of Pakistan Newspapers Editors (CPNE) and the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists have also condemned the “aggression and hooliganism” against the media. The CPNE head also noted that statements by ministers on the news story were a source of concern for the journalist community. Protesters and government quarters must realise that a free press leads to an open society and good governance. Attempts to intimidate or silence media will hurt the whole society. It is also the duty of media houses to open more communication channels with the public and incorporate their feedback in their content. https://dailytimes.com.pk/513603/siege-of-a-newspaper-office/