Mast Qalandar
Geo News is back on cable TV in Pakistan! It was banned along with two other popular TV channels on November 3 last year when Emergency was imposed in the country.
We don’t know on what conditions the channel has been allowed to operate again. We also don’t know how much dent the 77-day ban must have made in the profitability of the news company — it must be pretty huge — or to the livelihood of the journalists working for it.
But we do know that the ban made a huge dent in the government’s credibility and the image of “enlightened moderation” that it was so eager to project. It also left in its wake numerous angry messages and slogans on the wallboards outside the Geo office in Islamabad. They do give you a flavor of the general feelings prevailing at the time in a large segment of the civil society.
The photos with this post are here for you to decipher them, enjoy them, add to them, or ignore them.
Photos for this article are taken by the author himself. His full collection can be seen here.
Impeach Musharraf !!!
If we take a long hard look at it, the GEO presenters were not neutral. I think they got carried away with their new found freedom otherwise they would still have been here.
I am not saying this because I am sympathetic to Gen. Musharraf but because I am sympathetic to Pakistan.
Clearly with this new found channel of being able to influence a wide majority of people (some educated most uneducated) the presenters forgot that their role was not to alter history or become negotiators in a hostage situation but just to relay the facts.
I hope we all learn to take a measured approach and not get over excited about these things. The only aim of journalism, be it any kind is to convey the news to the masses in a neutral manner and nothing more. I hope the media people will take this into account when producing new programmes.
@ AJ
“Yes, there is something seriously wrong with our army education system.”
I do not buy this. Our army education system is pretty much the same as we inherited from the british. The same army education system is also in place in India but we do not hear militray coups over there. It is therefore obvious that the fault does not lie in the army education system. The question is where does the fault actually lie? It is in the political system, not the military one.
If GEO has agreed to Musharraf demands , There must be some truth in demands . One sided media is not healthy. I am sure thats what they told GEO
First Capital Talk episode today but very cold with a different anchor.