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.
The dailytimes editorial posted in comments section really provides some alternative food for thought.
Maybe someone should post this as a separate discussion. No?
Jang groups policy is certainly indefensible. Jang has always been a toady of most governments and its differences with rulers emerged only when they tried to stop giving undue favours to it.
Even among news channels Geo had become quite disappointing lately. I would rank Aaj TV as the best and most independent channel followed by ARY Oneworld.
It is really sad what Musharraf sb has done in the country and I think that by no way one can tend to defend it! The most shameful aspect of this misadventure is humiliation of judiciary and we, as a nation, would not be in a position to come out of this trauma for a long time. Mushrraf
Editorial, The News, Nov 5, 2007
Age of darkness
Monday, November 05, 2007
With the flickering off screens of private media channels, as a state of emergency, which in effect is a euphemism for martial law, was imposed on Saturday, Pakistan entered a new age of darkness. The two institutions, the judiciary and the media, which in recent months have given people most cause for cheer, have been the most severely targeted in President Musharraf’s late night speech, following the issuing of the PCO. As for the claim that the federal and provincial assemblies will continue to function, this in effect means little as in the absence of an operative constitution, these institutions have no meaningful status.
As had been predicted in the days of speculation that led to the emergency, it is the actions of the judiciary that have come under the severest attack and been used in an attempt to justify the shoving aside what remains of Pakistan’s much tampered with and tattered constitution. Whereas critics other than Musharraf have in the past months expressed some dismay over the volume of cases taken up by the apex court, including hundreds that have attracted suo motu attention, this, more than anything else, shows up the failures of the system of justice delivery at the lower levels. For anyone genuinely interested in putting Pakistan, and its people, first, the measures that needed to be taken was a resolving of the situation where people were denied justice for years due to flaws in the working of district courts. Whereas the wisdom of the Supreme Court in taking on such a vast volume of work raised questions, the issues of ordinary people can only be aggravated by removing the one forum they had used to seek redress from grievance.
And indeed, it must be noted that the other accusations against the court – of interfering in the war on terror, weakening thegovernment’s writ or humiliating and demoralizing government officials – also, more than anything else, expose the weaknesses of the system. From the actions of the court a great deal could have been learned about the working of police, the intelligence services and the bureaucracy. Slip-shod investigative work, that leaves open gaping legal loopholes, is no way to win the war on terror. Adopting a policy of secrecy in this struggle, or indulging in ‘abducting’ suspects, cannot help either. The war on terror must be won not only on the ground – through armed action and the imprisonment of those found guilty – but also in the minds of people. And this can happen only when there is transparency, when courts and people can be informed of crimes committed by alleged terrorists and government functionaries are able to give answers about the wrongs they have committed and how these have, under the law, been dealt with.
The war against militants is now too big to be fought behind closed doors. The full facts about it, and those behind it, need to be made known and not papered over. And, speaking of hiding the truth, while the sudden silencing of private electronic media channels may have brought some immediaterelief to government, in the longer term it will obviously cause more harm than good. For one, as the channels which had made their way into thousands of living rooms over the past five years have vanished, so has the fragile fa
DAILY TIMES Editorial: Wages of confrontation
The Chief of the Army Staff, General Pervez Musharraf, has declared, according to Sheikh Rashid, the railways minister, a state of