This is Not Funny. This is Not Journalism. This is Disgraceful.

Posted on January 16, 2011
Filed Under >Adil Najam, Media Matters, Women
83 Comments
Total Views: 64230

Adil Najam

I have been forwarded a link to this video over a dozen times since yesterday. Like some of those who forwarded this to me, I do not find this video funny. And I certainly do not see any journalistic value in it. In fact, I find it rather disturbing, sometimes disgusting, and entirely disgraceful. I don’t really want you to see the video, but I do want us all – and especially our electronic media managers – to think real hard about what we are doing in our totally laissez-faire (the better phrase would be ‘mader, pidder, aazad’) attitude to what goes out as information, infotainment, and entertainment these days.

Note that the so-called “reporter” Shahid Hussain of Samaa TV tells us nothing about what the protest march is about or for. He finds that irrelevant and assumes everyone else will too. He accuses everyone of ogling and leering at the young nurses and is interested only in the fact that it is a march by young women. Why they march in protest, who they are, what their demands are – all of that matters not to him. I, for one, find all that relevant, but have no idea what this is about. Nor is there any condemnation of the ogling that he is supposedly ‘reporting’; only an expression of his own amusement and rather cheap and demeaning puns (‘nazaroun kay hifazati hisaar‘)!

Yet, the only thing that can be said with certainty is that it is the reporter Shahid Hussain and Samaa TV (through their cameras and narration) who are ogling indecently, misrepresenting and demeaning young working women in Pakistan and possibly also lying in what is supposed to be a “news” report (Do we have any evidence that the rickshaw actually got stuck because the driver was ogling? Did the policemen actually tell the reporter that this duty was good for tucking in their tummies and that they would like more such duty? Or is all of this just made up for by reporter’s wild imagination?)

I am not a prude. I think I can enjoy a good laugh and appreciate the pressures of live television with good humor. Nor would I ever think of advocating media clampdown or censorship (I was a working journalist during Zia-ul-Haq’s time when censorship was real as well as ugly; my commitment to a free media is absolute and unwavering). But I do know what is clearly not funny and what is disgusting. This is both.

This is not a call for clampdown or censorship; this is just a call for basic decency and reasonable taste. This is about the media making bad choices. Really bad choices. And making them again and again. These are not just ‘mistakes’. These are willful and deliberate attempts to sensationalize, trivialize, sexualize and dehmanize important issues.

With the case of Salman Taseer’s murder and the role of the media in fueling hatred so recent, would this not be the time for the media to think introspectively about what values they are promoting and what prejudice they are spreading? Some will no doubt accuse me to making too much of this. Maybe I am. But at a time when we have seen the destructive power of the media and of anchors to ruin lives, instigate frayed nerves, and spread venom in an already fractured society, it is the responsibility of the media to monitor itself.

The issue may be different as might be the stakes, but the dynamics of instigation, of misinformation, of legitimizing anti-social behavior and of dehumanization are exactly the same. And so is the damage to society as a whole. What are the values being promoting here: The disrespect of women? The trivialization of worker concerns? Raw chauvinism? Even if these are values already in society, is it the role of the media to trivialize, evangelize and celebrate them?

All those who habitually lie to themselves about how we have great respect for women in our society; well, this is the respect we have!

There is a great line in the movie Spider-Man: “With great power comes great responsibility.” The media in Pakistan today has assumed great power. I wish it would also learn to demonstrate some responsibility.

83 responses to “This is Not Funny. This is Not Journalism. This is Disgraceful.”

  1. Rasheed says:

    Sorry for sounding different, but *I* think that the reporter did a fairly good job in reflecting the TRUTH of today’s Pakistani society, which is probably quite different from the way in which Maulvi Adil Najm left a long time ago!

    There’s something called satire, which, in case you didn’t figure, I, too, am using in this comment, to hopefully avoid its deletion! Throughout the “report”, the reporter is being sarcastic — ok, maybe getting carried away every now and then — but remains focussed on the vanity of our menfolk, who seldom see so many young females on the street. That includes the ones entrusted with the task of keeping the society straight. He shows these officers intoxicated with the sights like troubled teenagers. The report is NOT about the nurses’ protest or demands, which obviously deserves extensive coverage on its own. It’s about how our society looks like today, mainly, but not exclusively, the condition of our men — notice that I avoided being sexist (against men), because you can also clearly see some of the “ladies” flirting with the policemen shown for 12+ seconds: 0:29-0:42.

    But your visceral criticism of the reporter in this story is almost indicative, if not revealing, of some axe one might have to grind. You are better than that, Adil. Let’s be consistent here — remember you’re the apostle who preaches with great emphasis ………….. tolerance? Let’s tolerate even the reports that we’re glad we didn’t file :)

    BTW, “Nusrat”, LOL about your response to “Razia” about starting her own blog :)

  2. Nasir Aziz says:

    Wait a minute? We are worried about this in the media? Really? I suppose everything else is hunky dory in Pakistan that this report has to fancy our attention.

    Let the media be media. My only concern with media is when they so blatantly report issues in a way that hurt our national security and image. That’s where they need to be careful and tread carefully at least. Our media is being monitored around the world, and matters of such nature need to be mature and responsible in nature.

    All things considered, there is no harm to get a few laughs once in a while, Pakistanis can definitely use that. Distasteful or not, this report was not worth talking about, especially when the author says “I don’t want you to see this”. Why not? Isn’t that sort of oxymoron?

  3. Kaliwal says:

    Guys, Media is Media, it can not be 100% correct or rational…….it’s same in India, in West too and everywhere. Let’s not forget when there was no media at all, just the PTV and the Jang and few more Newspapers………I hate to remember the era where I had to wait 2 days to get a paper where I had no choice but to believe in what ever was reported…..without having any chance to compare to what otheres are saying, mostly it was all government controlled…….Now we have a huge Media presence and to be honest it’s killing the bad guys, for most part…….ask a Politician and he will tell you what effect our media has on them…….it is awakening us, this report however disgraceful is does not represent the whole media, these are minor failures on the part of media, look at the bigger picture…….everybody is at least now scared of doing anything because the Media is going to pick up on it…….let us keep this KingKong free of leash………and plan to leash it when the time is right so that sanity can previal……..!!!

  4. Omer says:

    I totally agree, all that is required is some basic decency.

    The aim of a news channel is to inform the people, after watching the video I couldn’t tell what the rally/march was for?

  5. Some comments from the ATP Facebook Page:

    – “Agreed. The ‘journalism’ is disgraceful and shameful !”
    – “reating women as eye candy….this is something you don’t expect from mainstream media and journalists. Very shameful! Instead of focusing on the nurses grievances and reason for their march, they just couldn’t get over the fact that they were young women walking on the roads and how men were gawking at them,”
    – “Yes it is :(”
    – “Very bad… not journalism but” yellow electronic journalism..”
    – “on the other hand , reporter tries 2 locate the interest of our police that they can enjoy walking if there r young women on streets …its doesn’t matter wot their demand is ? to hell wid all that”

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