So much for free media. Look at the way this dictator is taking on the media just for doing its job. Sad!
Musharraf targets TV critics
Embattled Pakistan TV Station Says Little Has Changed Since Crucial Election
ROBIN McDOWELL
AP News
Feb 25, 2008 13:03 EST
Pakistan’s elections were supposed to usher in democracy after eight years of military rule, but for Talat Hussain life doesn’t look much different. Every time his TV station tries to air shows critical of President Pervez Musharraf, the screen goes black.
Pakistan’s main opposition parties announced they would form a coalition government to bring civilian rule after voters delivered a crushing blow to the pro-Musharraf ruling party in Feb. 18 parliamentary polls.
Two days after the vote, Aaj, the privately owned station where Husain is news director, was knocked off the air. Its signal has been jammed or cut off three more times since then, Husain said.
“Nothing has really changed in this country, has it?” he said.
Information Minister Nisar Memon said Aaj and two other stations which have had anchors taken off the air in recent weeks were considered threats to the government because they were not only harsh but highly popular.
Pakistan has a flourishing media, with hundreds of newspapers and more than 70 television stations — thanks largely to reforms imposed by Musharraf after he seized power in a 1999 coup. Criticism makes its way onto many stations, mostly through guests appearing on talk shows, and most have managed to stay on the air. But with illiteracy rates high, broadcasters — the main source of news for many — have been closely watched.
The government imposed a weekslong TV blackout at the height of a political crisis that saw the purging of the judiciary, the rounding up of political opponents, and the death of hundreds in attacks blamed on Islamic militants.
Private television stations have all been allowed back on air, but they are still barred from attacking the president, the judiciary and the armed forces. And six of the country’s most popular anchors and television talk show hosts — from Aaj, Geo TV and ARY — are banned.
Memon promised the remaining restrictions would be lifted “as soon as possible,” but did not elaborate.
All station besides state-run Pakistan TV can only be received by satellite or local cable systems, making it easy for the government to crack down whenever it wants to by jamming the station’s outgoing satellite signal or simply pressing cable providers to black out the station or face official sanction.
“We keep getting hopeful about life changing in Pakistan,” said Hussain, leaning back in his chair in his modest office on the fourth floor of a dilapidated building. The station has been cut off 15 times since Musharraf imposed emergency rule on Nov. 3.
“We keep trying our luck on the basis of that hope, and we keep getting a reality check from Musharraf,” he said.
The Pakistan People’s Party — now headed by slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto’s husband, Asif Ali Zardari — and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N have both said restoring press freedoms and an independent judiciary would be among the new parliament’s first tasks after the new government is formed — probably in mid-March.
For some, that has made Musharraf’s current actions all the more confounding.
Another of the banned anchors is Hamid Mir, an executive editor at Geo TV. He said his company has been meeting with regulators since last week’s polls to try to get him back on the air — so far without luck.
**“They said, 'If you try to put Hamid Mir on, not just Geo will be taken off the air,” but its owner, Pakistan’s biggest media conglomerate, will be shut down, Mir said.
His company lost $32 million between Nov. 3 and Jan. 21, Mir said.
“It’s a big price for just one anchor,” said Mir, who was replaced by an anchor formerly with state television. “We’re not in a position to lose any more money.”**
Aaj — which has a staff of around 800, half devoted to current affairs — was founded four years ago.
Unable to compete with big, hard news broadcasters, it quickly found its niche by providing in-depth analyses, with Hussain, one of the founders, at the helm.
Hussain said he will not bow to pressure, telling his owner he had no intention of falling hostage to government policies, which appear to change by the day.
Several times the government indicated it was willing to give Aaj back some of its freedoms, he said, only to come back with a list of new requirements, demanding question-and-answer interviews rather than more free-flowing discussions.
“We’ve struggled because we have a very strong editorial line,” said Hussain, whose station has sometimes been taken off the air for up to 12 hours.
“Our investors say, you guys are not even on the air, so why should we bother giving you ads?”
Once, he said, a satellite transmission was jammed during a regular news program analyzing the implications of the opposition’s sweeping election win.
The other times Aaj tried to bring on its own two banned anchors, Mushtaq Minhas and Nusrat Javeed, whose show “Hear Pakistan Talk” is one of the station’s main revenue earners. Largely tongue-in-cheek, the two hosts take up different sides on various issues, laying bare contradicting points of view.
“The government says we can talk about Palestine, Afghanistan, Kashmir … but not the internal dynamics and politics of Pakistan,” said Minhas, 40, who was initially among those cheering the media reforms ushered in by Musharraf.
“But in the end,” he said, “a dictator is a dictator.”