LAHORE: Political pundit and talk show host Dr Shahid Masood appeared live from Dubai on Geo News last Saturday. This was no ordinary broadcast. Geo, which had been beaming worldwide from the Arab emirate since its inception in 2002, had been verbally informed that it was being shut down. “We are proud of this moment,” said Masood, visibly shaken as a clock counted down the minutes to the threatened shutdown. He blamed the Musharraf government for pressuring the “government of the friendly country that is hosting us” into evicting the news channel. “We are proud of this moment,” he said, voice cracking. “We did not buckle, we are going out fighting.” Then at 1am, Geo News went black.
Part of one of Pakistan’s oldest media empires, Geo TV Network was one of the most popular private news channels forced off cable on November 3, when President General Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency, sacked the judiciary and suspended the constitution. In his midnight address to the nation, Musharraf blamed the judiciary, growing militancy and the media for his action. “The media could not lend a helping hand to improve the situation but added insult to injury instead,” said Musharraf. “This is the same media to which I had given full freedom. I have said on various occasions that the media should not be negative, but on some channels the situation was not a bit better.”
While a number of private news channels were slowly allowed back on-air – including a channel owned by one of Musharraf’s new ministers and another owned by his son’s father-in-law – after agreeing to abide by the government’s stiff new regulations, Geo News and another private news channel ARY One World could only be seen via satellite, at least until last Saturday. Dubai Media City, a free media zone, reportedly shut them down for “interfering in the politics of another country.” Official sources told Newsweek that Musharraf had “personally requested” Dubai’s ruler “some weeks ago to keep these channels on a short leash”.
Pakistan’s nascent media is no stranger to such dogged treatment. Today in Karachi, some 150 journalists were arrested from a peaceful protest against the government’s attempts to tame the media. Press seizures and withholding of state advertising in independent newspapers have also been reported recently. Last March, Geo’s Islamabad office was ransacked by police within an hour of the channel having broadcast pictures of police and protesting lawyers clashing outside the Supreme Court. And last May, the office of Aaj TV in Karachi was targeted by plainclothes gunmen.
“Who are they to speak of a ‘Code of Conduct’ for the media?” said Najam Sethi, founding editor of The Friday Times at a hundreds-strong protest rally today in Lahore. “We have seen their ‘Code of Conduct.’ They say they’ll respect judgements of the Supreme Court and then they go and sack all the judges?” he said. Sethi was arrested on charges of sedition in 1999 by the then government of prime minister Nawaz Sharif. Back then it was Musharraf who pressed Sharif to release him. Like Sethi, others too are surprised and outraged by Musharraf’s seeming change of heart.
Khawar Naeem Hashmi, 53, spent five years in prison under the last military ruler General Zia-ul-Haq in the 1980s and was blacklisted by Prime Minister Sharif in the 1990s. “When Musharraf came to power, there was no free press, no independent media,” said Hashmi, now Bureau Chief at Geo’s Lahore office. “In the last few weeks he has undone one of the greatest successes attributed to him,” he told Newsweek. “Musharraf will have to restore media freedom in days, not weeks,” he said.
New regulations introduced by the Musharraf government disallow private news channels and newspapers, from “ridiculing” the “head of state, members of the armed force, or executive, legislative or judicial organs of the state,” failing which individuals representing the channels or newspapers could face up to three years in prison and Rs 10 million in fines. The government has also demanded the sacking of “hostile” journalists as a pre-requisite for allowing Geo and ARY One World back on air.
“We are still refusing their demand to fire key anchors and journalists,” said Mir Ibrahim Rahman, Geo’s CEO from Karachi. “Their message to the independent judiciary was loud and clear, now it’s our turn.” Rahman says his company is losing $500,000 each day and was not allowed to air the India-Pakistan cricket series for which it paid $15 million in broadcasting rights. “They’ve closed all our channels worldwide including our music, entertainment and sports channels which have nothing to do with news.”
Geo remains defiant and says it has no plans to concede to government demands. Its satellite frequency is running a loop of its logo adrift on stormy seas. Geo’s fighting spirit was on display outside the channel’s Davis Road office here on Saturday evening. Surrounded by dozens of supporters shouting anti-Musharraf slogans and singing along to Geo’s thumping post-emergency anthem, the channel’s staff solemnly stood behind their office desks that had been pulled out onto the roadside and lay covered with candles and flowers from political parties, civil rights groups and ordinary citizens. Passers-by flashed victory signs in solidarity.
Disappointment in the government’s actions against the free press is not limited to Pakistan alone. US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte in Islamabad last week called on the Musharraf government to lift the embargo on independent media. “The recent police actions against protestors, suppression of the media, and the arrests of political and human rights leaders run directly counter to the reforms that have been undertaken in recent years,” he said. “Free, fair, and credible elections… require the active participation of political parties, civil society, and the media.”
While Geo is continuing to stream audio and video on the Internet, most Pakistanis do not have access to credible, independent local news channels. Those restored on-air following their acquiescence of the stringent new ‘Code of Conduct’ have replaced the anchors and commentators the government was keen to rid of. Viewers may feel little distinction now between state-owned PTV and these privately-owned news channels.
Geo, which staffs some 200 in Dubai alone, is planning to resume transmissions from Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand or Afghanistan. In an email to Geo staffers, CEO Rahman admitted the difficulties being faced by the corporation. “There are other more serious threats which I cannot mention at this stage,” he said. “We do not give in to threats and intimidation,” he continued, exhorting colleagues to hold their heads high. “We’ve been fighting for tolerance without fear or favour, and the president was once all about tolerance,” he said. “More than anything else, I can’t believe the person Musharraf has become.” This is something many Pakistanis who once supported the president are beginning to wonder themselves.
