As President Musharraf announces that he will end Pakistan’s state of emergency on 16 December, Shirin B Sadeghi looks at how the media has responded to the crackdown
When President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency on 3 November, one of the first casualties was the independent media.
Having shut down every broadcasting station but state run television, Musharraf’s government proceeded to raid the offices of independent news channels such as Geo News and Aaj television. Phone lines were cut, some stations reported jamming, and there were threats of long jail terms for broadcasters who would not comply. Hundreds of journalists were arrested. But two independent news channels continued to broadcast live. Geo News and ARY One World transmitted broadcasts from their bureaus in Dubai. The predictable surge in satellite dish purchases after the state of emergency was quickly followed by a government ban, but nonetheless Geo and ARY remained accessible within Pakistan.
Just over two weeks after emergency rule was announced, Musharraf’s government convinced the Emir of the United Arab Emirates to end transmission of Geo and ARY thus successfully silencing the last two independent news broadcasts in Pakistan. As Geo’s last few minutes on air came to a close, its sensational coverage of the shutdown included phone calls from members of the public, crying as they pleaded for the station—one of the most popular channels in Pakistan—to remain on air.
The next day, more than 80 journalists were arrested in the southern port city of Karachi as they protested the closures of Geo and ARY. On 20 November, another 180 journalists were arrested. The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), which governs all non-print media, has been authorised to take action against any television or radio networks that defame or ridicule Musharraf. In addition, a ban was placed on live coverage of “incidents of violence and conflict”. In a speech made shortly after he declared emergency rule, Musharraf expressed his disappointment in “the same media that got independence from me, from my government” indicating that he had hoped this move would encourage the media to reflect better on his government. “I have said several times to go towards positivism and stop negativism.”
The chief executive of Geo, Mir Shakil ur Rahman, is a wealthy media magnate whose newspaper, Jang, founded by his father Mir Khalil ur-Rahman as a newspaper for Muslims in pre-partition India, is Pakistan’s largest circulation Urdu newspaper. His channel stepped into the spotlight of the current political tensions when, during the March 2007 removal and subsequent trial of the Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry by Musharraf, it took a decidedly anti-establishment stance and gave maximum coverage to the lawyers and judges involved in the trial.
The week following Chaudhry’s removal on 9 March, during the first stand off between Musharraf and the judiciary, police stormed Geo’s newsroom in Islamabad and demanded that the network stop its broadcasts of the rioting. The incident was broadcast live. Musharraf subsequently did a live telephone interview with Geo senior journalist Hamid Mir, apologising for the “deplorable” act.
But the government contrition was not to last, as Geo was ransacked again after emergency rule was declared. Three of Geo’s journalists in particular—Dr Shahid Masood host of Meray Mutabiq (In My Opinion), Hamid Mir, host of the talk show Capital Talk, and Kamran Khan, host of The Kamran Khan Show—were considerably open about their criticisms of Musharraf’s government and its handling of the chief justice crisis and emergency rule and were particular targets of government ire.
According to a Geo press release following the 16 November shutdown, government officials had initially requested that the programmes of these three journalists be taken off air and when that failed, advertising revenues were targeted In the end, with the Emir on board, Musharraf succeeded in shutting down the channel entirely as it continued to “refuse to bow down to his dictates”, according to the press release. Geo has since announced that it is considering moving its operations to London if an agreement cannot be reached with Dubai to restart its transmissions.
In addition to arrests and shutdowns, the Pakistani government has also enacted new media laws designed to curb press independence even further. The hardest hit have been broadcasters—all non-state-run broadcast networks have been taken off air. While non-state-newspapers—which do not attract as large an audience—can continue to publish, the new press restrictions curtail the content of their reporting.
As Pakistani journalists and their international colleagues continue to demand the reinstatement of the independent media, the most uninhibited voices for Pakistan’s media today are the bloggers and Internet journalists who have taken to the world wide web to report the events, opinions, and analyses of the present instability under Pakistan’s emergency rule. Pakistani Bloggers, a collection of blogs from and about Pakistan has continued to provide news and views on the situation. In addition, banned blogs are accessible via Access Blogspot Banned—a website that provides access to blogs blocked in Pakistan, India, Iran and China.
In the meantime, world press organisations continue to support Pakistan’s journalists. The Committee to Protect Journalists has awarded one of its prestigious International Press Freedom Awards to Pakistani journalist Mazhar Abbas, the deputy director of ARY and the secretary general of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists. In his remarks at the award ceremony in New York last week, Abbas said that he accepted the award “not for myself, but for the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists” and reminded the world that the Pakistani media “is still vibrant and not afraid to speak out against the government” but needs worldwide support in “reminding those in power, or those who may seek power, that they cannot kill journalists and suppress news with impunity”.
