Adil Najam
News is that GEO Network is closing down. I hope the news is a false alarm, but I am told that this has been announced on Geo TV itself. An email making the rounds from someone at GEO itself reads:
At this moment we here at Geo are extremely SAD as Geo network is forced to shut down due to Govt pressure on UAE our base country.
Insha Allah we will fight. We are proud that the management of Jang Group never made compromise and prefer to fight till death.
I would rather wait to hear more details and to see reaction to this from the government, from the people of Pakistan and also the rest of the world before I comment in detail. But my first reaction is, yet again, one of disgust. The things that we coudl have been most proud of in recent years and months – an assertive judiciary, a free media – are being snatched away one by one. I hope it turns out not to be so. But if so, then who next?
Original Post (Nov. 4, 2007):
The emergency declared by Gen. Pervez Musharraf yesterday was not surprising. But that does not make it any less disturbing. Amongst the many unspeakable actions that have resulted from this is a clampdown on the media, especially the electronic news media. In response, GEO News has made the audio stream of its transmissions available on line.
You can listen to GEO News by clicking on image below.
Windows Media Player or VLC is required to play this live audio.
Oh man, you guys know this, their broadcasting station is here in Duabi, U.A.E. and luckily or fortunately I got a chance to visit their Station just 4 days before they closed down!!!! It was shocking to know this shit happened. The Media City in Dubai is a complex of all Media Related companies. 4 or 5 days later they got orders to shut down ARY and Geo broadcastings. ARY came back on yesterday (19th Nov). the thing is their broadcasting was on all over the world even before this recent shutdown in Dubai except Pakistan.
We (me and my journalist student friend) had a wonderful talk with the station head Imran Meer and even saw Hamid Mir sitting in the recording room on-air. He had the black knot on his arm in protest and yea their logo too- black-n-white. They told us that thankfully they are running around the world while Pakistan’s GEO News is off-air. Sadly after 4 or 5 days they went off all over.
Hope they get back to work soon.
My trip is documented on my blog in detail and what all we talked, when I basically had to visit CNN but dropped in to GEO TV too on the same day :)
http://varund.freehostia.com
Got this list of names of arrested journalists. It i clear govt is after even small fish not just the poplar big time journalists. Are these guys really a threat to Pakistan or is teh threat Gen. Musharraf?
1. Abdul Rehman
2. Afzal Nadeem Dogar
3. Ahmed Khan
4. Akhter Awan
5. Akhter Minhas
6. Akhter Rind
7. Amir Ahmed Khan
8. Asif Mehmood
9. Bilquis Jahan
10. Dodo Chandio
11. Faheem Siddiqui
12. Faisal Aziz
13. Faisal Shakeel
14. Faizan
15. Ghulam Mustafa
16. Imtiaz Faran
17. Irfan Ul Haq
18. Jawed Mehmand
19. Junaid Mumtaz Awan
20. Khazin Amir Lateef
21. Lala Rukh
22. Mehboob
23. Mosa Kaleem
24. Muhammad Nazir
25. Mujeeb ur Rehman
26. Najeeb Ahmed
27. Naseem Rajput
28. Nizam Siddiqui
29. Qazi Hassan
30. Raja Kamran
31. Raja Tariq
32. Sabeeh Uddin Ghosee
33. Sahmim Ur Rehman
34. Shakeel Salawat
35. Shoaib Ahmed
36. Shoaib Khan Baloch
37. Tanveer
38. Tariq Moeen
39. Tarqi Hassan
40. Waseem Ahmed
41. Zarar Khan
I have never liked Shahid Masood. To much of populist. But doing this is absoltely wrong. Gagging media is the last straw. Now Msharraf has made Shahid Masood into a bigger popular hero. I predict he will be in politics soon.
I wonder why doesnt GEO bash BB and Nawaz Sharif like they bash Musharraf ? Why dont they bash Zerdari even ?
Does anyone of us want BB back? and Zerdari back ?
a sign of progressive nature and a illumination that how creep the generals are for power! lost 4 wars and yet conquer ilamabad every 5-7 years! if pak didnt have any army we wud have progressed much better! i thout politcians are scum bags but these generals are worst than them!