Osama Qamar Kaira, 20, a third year student at the Government College University Lahore, and his friend Hamza Butt both lost their lives as they were driving home. Kaira, was informed of the accident involving his teenage son during a press conference.
The manner in which Kaira was informed about his son’s tragic demise and the way certain segment of society reacted to the death itself shows an ugly picture of our awful collective moral standards as a nation.
Media ethics aside, the reporters in question did not even show basic human emotions or respect to know how to break the news of death of a young son to a father. One reporter during the press conference was heard saying “kaira sahib, death ho gayi hai, check kar lain” (Mr. Kaira, there is a death kindly check) I was baffled, shocked and mournful for their insensitivity at the same time.
Media in Pakistan is indeed a wild child .They love nothing but sensations because it sells. Media could have transformed the thinking of a nation, could have brought a revolution but instead the focus has always been making money, racking up TRP’s while neglecting common moral values.
Pakistani media with the emergence of private channels has been rowdy, out of control, with no oversight, no censorship. It has been raised in a chaotic and poor environment, spoiled and orphan, who has been abandoned even by foster parents. It has been contributing depression, anxiety, hyper-tension, and intolerable attitude.
Pakistani media have become cheap publicists for different political groups secretly. They only present the image of chaos to further dilute and pursue more viewership. The electronic media channels trespasses all ethical barriers in its rush to break news. The so called experts, defense analysts merely spew venom, sensationalize and are rarely objective and learned. The discussions on TV more often are merely played to the gallery.
The way media persons rush to cash on calamities and sensationalize issues is too shameful at times. From all accounts it appears that media channels in Pakistan are more independent, but not at all responsible. Pakistani journalists and news analysts are invariably biased and present one side of the story only. In fact they try to impose their own subjective judgment on the viewers. Usually the bias is directed against the government and the state which in return give rise to anarchy and intolerance among the common citizens.
Moreover. Coming back to the portrayal of recent low in media decorum, Even the way the news was broken to Qamar Zaman Kaira was callous and inappropriate, and has been called out as such. Kaira was informed of his son’s accident by a reporter during a media talk, and the whole exchange was captured on camera. This is about a worst thing any human could do to another.
Further just to bag some TRP’s few reckless media channels began sharing photographs of the demolished car, a move that would undoubtedly cause even more grief and pain to the families involved. Insensitive reporting only adds insult to the injury.
A serious focus is required on the code of ethics and above all value addition by media in Pakistan. So many channels and most of the time are just dedicated to talk shows which seems easiest money making feat and rest are flimsy awkward programs. We do not see anything propping up for intellectual improvement of masses & any educational inputs from media which can motivate school goers to think beyond. Moreover nothing is projected on pleasant aspects of Pakistan visible to rest of the world contrary to our neighbor as an example. Utmost responsibility lies with media only by projecting peace and tranquility in addition to issues which may reduce hostility in the nature of people, a need of the day.
Fake news, incendiary propaganda against own country and taking sides though calling itself independent and impartial are characteristics by which fourth pillar in Pakistan is known. Media in Pakistan is highly irresponsible and should be sanely regulated. The way media exercise its power to defame politicians without any evidence and aired news on the basis of anonymous sources and become the cause of restlessness in the society, It should be penalized with exemplary fines. In last 15 years media failed to strengthen its editorial management and developed into a proxy tool in the hands of the powerful. It is unlikely that it will mature and learn by its own mistakes.
The so called media industry and its villianistic role in flooding negative propaganda of sorts in the society is just for its specific gains. The term Zarae and source has given blanket license to all media personnel to say anything under the sun with total immunity from any kind of scrutiny. This is where is I strongly believe that government and PEMRA needs to step in and must form policies to deal with this menace that we have created and which has become a cyst for the society as a whole. It is high time that we formulate corrective measures or else this self-created monster would become cyanide to our national interest.
