Foreign Control of News Media
Inam Khawaja
In 1961 Syed Wajid Ali a prominent industrialist in a joint venture with Nipon Electric Company (NEC) started the TV in Pakistan shortly after a few test transmissions by the joint venture Ayub Government took over the project in “national interest”. The first TV Station of Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV) was started on 26, November 1964 from Lahore set-up by Aslam Azhar and Zaka Durrani, followed by Dhaka in 1965, shortly thereafter in 1965 the third station was set up in Islamabad/Rawalpindi, and the fourth in Karachi in 1966. Stations were set up in Quetta and Peshawar by 1974 and in 1976 PTV began colour transmission.
In October 1999 when Musharraf usurped power by a coup d’ etat Pakistan had a single TV network PTV and a few private channels. In 2002 Musharraf permitted private channels to operate and even broadcast their own news and current affairs content and in his superior wisdom even permitted foreign ownership in the name of freedom of expression!!
As a result of this disastrous blunder today several TV channels are almost fully or partially foreign owned. No one can deny that the policy of the media reflects the interests of its owners.
The Jung/New Group set up The Independent Media Corporation. The ownership of this media group is reported on the internet to include; Anil Ambani (of India), an American Group and the Mir Shakilur Rehman family. One wonders why the Jung does not contradict this internet report.
Mir Ibrahim Rehman was awarded the Robert F. Kennedy award for public service at Harvard University.He is the first Muslim and only the second person from South Asia to receive this coveted award. The award was given for his work in getting Pakistan an independent judiciary and for working for peace between Pakistan and India—The Aman-ki-Asha program. His Paper covered the idea of changing the public narrative. The question is which public was Mir Ibrahim serving? American, Israeli or Pakistani? Geo TV seems to serve Indian agendas – the Indian theme of “common culture”.
I am afraid to say that there is no such thing as “South Asian Culture”. However there are two totally different Hindu and Muslim Cultures. There is hardly anything common between these cultures: language, script (left to right versus right to left), literature, poetry, music, architecture, dress, food (even the method of serving food is different), method of greeting, all the rituals i.e. birth, marriage, death, and finally the way of thinking.
As far back as 1934 The Joint Select Committee on Indian Constitutional Reforms of the House of Commons Session stated;
“Two third of its inhabitants profess Hinduism in one form or another as their religion, over seventy five million are followers of Islam; and the difference between the two is not only in religion in the stricter sense but also of law and culture. They may be said to indeed represent two distinct civilizations. Hinduism is distinguished by the phenomena of its caste which is the basis of its religion and social system. The religion of Islam on the other hand is based upon the concept of the equality of man”. (House of Commons UK 1933-34, Volume1, para 1).
I am afraid that in spite of what Indians, Aman-ki-Asha and Geo TV may say for political or economic reasons the facts on the ground are what has been enumerated and stated above.
The International Herald Tribune (IHT) is the international edition of The New York Times, and the Pakistani newspaper The Express Tribune is in partnership with the IHT which they state on their front page. We are given a copy of the IHT daily with The Express Tribune but people foolishly ask no questions! How can a newspaper of the quality of International Herald Tribune be printed and distributed for Rs 19.00 (19 cents) all over Pakistan?
The electronic media in their entertainment programs are promoting Hindu culture (Bollywood) and highly objectionable programs like “JALWA”. My question to the owners of these TV channels is would they like their daughters or sisters to perform these dances?
Furthermore one would like to know why the Pakistan Censor Board is allowing the free uncensored broadcast of films and programs with objectionable content on various TV channels.
One would like PEMRA to disclose in public interest the exact ownership of all the TV channels. The viewers must be aware as to who is paying for and thus controlling the policy of these talk shows and programs on various TV channels.
August 3, 2013
Business Recorder – 14, August 2013.
