Making A Difference

Zoom In: Wart That Wasn’t

An untrammelled media oversteps the line of ethics

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Zoom In: Wart That Wasn’t
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Call it Mediagate, Pakistan fashion. The new scandal rocking the country has television anchors caught with their pants down, plumbing new lows to accommodate a fixer who boasts he has politicians, generals and businessmen eating out of his hands. Today it is the media that faces up to an unflattering reflection of itself. Soon after action was initiated against Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry’s son Arsalan and his alleged briber Malik Riaz Hussain in a corruption case, Dunya Television anchors Mubashar Lucman and Meher Bokhari were shown in a leaked video talking during commercial breaks, unaware that they were being recorded.

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“Why don’t you start talking about it yourself, otherwise it will seem planted, which it is,” Bokhari is heard telling Malik Riaz Hussain, the property tycoon, in a special show through which, it now seems clear, he planned to badmouth the judiciary. “Say what you want...what questions should we ask? It will appear as though it is planted. It is, but it should not appear thus,” adds Bokhari.

In Pakistan, there is no mechanism of self-regulation governing a vocal media, and tales of corruption have been doing the rounds lately. Still, there appears to be no remedy. A brazen Bokhari is back on air.

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“Does it make sense any more in viewers making calls if the show itself is just a farce? Why should one believe in the electronic media: planted questions and hosts, planted guests and callers.... What is the future?” asks freelance columnist Qaisar Rashid. He speaks for all of us.

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