Media industry was not a common term around fifteen years ago in Pakistan because till that time there was only one television network which was being fully operated by
the state government directly and what people knew about the happenings in
Pakistan as well as in the world, all came through the Pakistan Television Network. This network sometimes looked bias as they always showed positive side of the running government, in fact everything used to brought on
air after proper scrutinization process by
the government officials. Then time changed and we should give credit to Gen.
(Rtd) Musharaf for bringing change in this field and authorized the licensing
of new channels to get aired globally from Pakistan and the main purpose was to
show the brighter side of Pakistan to majority and give the confidence to the
people of Pakistan for showing their skills and capabilities by utilizing larger
platforms. Although an organization named “PEMRA” was established in 2002 which managed and released the code of conduct and ordinance for this media freedom
campaign but despite this some leniency have been observed during every government in compliance
of this ordinance since the day of its existence.
Initially it
was being observed as a positive step but what we are noticing today; it is in
fact ruining our country’s image badly, if we see the quantity of channels till
now, we will observe that despite having more than 100 channels, we are
seriously missing the quality contents, almost every channel is showing the
same thing and apart from that, every channel is trying to show something which
can raise the rating of their channels instantly without bothering whether
their contents are in favor of Pakistan or not, also exaggeration, news
breaking without evidence or proper authentication or showing the contents which
are exactly against the image of Pakistan’s culture and society, this is
seriously annoying those people who never wanted such freedom of media but once
we started using this term industry with the media, it seriously became a
business and earning criteria has been established based on the hot and spicy
news and programmes, point to think is where is PEMRA now, why are they not noticing
such activities which is becoming serious day by day ? Let’s show you one
example…
An
award show was organized by one of the private channel in Dubai and the way it
had been presented, it just seemed like a show of our neighbor country. Did
they show the Pakistani culture?, below images will clearly get you the answer.
The number of news channels in Pakistan are increasing day by day and it seems like that getting a license for a news channel in Pakistan is just like a piece of cake with the condition of having giant money in your pocket and some better relations with concern authorities. If somewhere in Pakistan, one channel observed the cracker blast, they instantly make it a BREAKING NEWS and within seconds, you can see the same breaking news on almost every news channel and you will feel like that there is nothing happening good in Pakistan.
Numbers of
religious channels are also increasing and we are seriously worried now that if
this frequency of licensing to different creeds will remain same then one day
we might be watching the equal number of religious channels like we are having
for news right now and everyone will be showing the image of Islam in his own
way and it will really get the world confused what Islam is being preached in
Pakistan.
We are
seriously missing the channels like DISCOVERY, NAT GEO, ANIMAL PLANET etc, at least
someone should take the courage and get the license to show these channels in
Pakistan with URDU dubbing.
Our Children
are bound to watch CARTOON NETWORK, POGO, NICKELODEON, don’t we observe that
our children are being injected with the serious virus of Hindi language and
culture through these channels.
Let’s start
thinking and open our eyes and ears, do some positive actions in this regard,
rather making this industry just a business, let’s make this industry a source
to represent a brighter and true image of Pakistan as well as build an
energetic , patriotic and passionate nation for the future of Pakistan.
Sohaib Khalid is the founder of "ThinkLikeGiant". He is an Apparel Merchandiser and have been working for Denim companies and brands since 2008. He loves blogging that's why started this blog with the aim to share his knowledge and experiences for the people associated with his field as well as for general public.
