Conference highlights the plight of unpaid journalists in Pakistan and the compromises they make on journalistic ethics following the compromise govt makes on their safety
In a conference organised by Pakistan Coalition of Ethical Journalism (PCEJ), several journalists urged the government and civil society organisations to work together for providing a safe environment for field journalists who work in all sorts of difficult situations especially in the terror-hit areas.
The conference, which was largely attended by working journalists from across the country, highlighted problems being faced by small town journalists.
Jamshid Rizwani, a journalist from south Punjab, showed a data collected in a survey from 11 districts of south Punjab. The date revealed that most of the correspondents and reporters in these districts were rarely paid by their respective organisations. He said that same was the case with rest of the country’s journalists.
“In such conditions, where the journalists even have to pay money for press cards, it’s impossible to achieve the dream of standard and objective journalism for the well being of common citizens.”
Nazir Leghari, a veteran journalist, said that it was ironic that besides other ethical issues with Pakistani media, the politicisation of media on political, religious, commercial and ethnic grounds has also exacerbated the question of ethics in journalism. He said that economic and commercial interests of media owners are also one of the main reasons behind sensationalising and hype.
Safdar Klasra, another journalist, said that unlike international media, Pakistani media was exposed very badly in recent years due to its irresponsible coverage of political and social issues. He said that it was unfortunate that for a country which was marred with sectarianism, religious militancy, population explosion and devastating climate change was being bombarded by news of non-issues . He said that is it was not difficult even for a layman to know which media organisation and journalists have affiliations with particular political party and school of thought.
He said that besides commercial interests of media owners, which prefer those content which attract advertisement, low salaries and job insecurity for media personnel and workers was another cause of low standard media professionalism because absence of economic incentives compelled them to stay away from real issues of the masses.
Mazhar Abbas, a renowned journalist, urged the government, media owners and civil society to play a collective role for ensuring ethics and safety of the journalists. He said that the sword of contract which is always hanging on the heads of media employees is also one of the causes of irresponsible journalism in Pakistan. “Due to contractual employment the media workers have no say.”
