|
|
Profiles“Between the Devil and the Ditch”Challenges—and Signs of Hope—for Media in Pakistan’s Tribal Regions
“Reporting on a region where the fate of the international ‘war on terror’ will be decided is not a job for the faint of heart.” So says Aurangzaib Khan, Manager of Media Development for Internews based in Peshawar, Pakistan. In the following interview, Khan, a respected journalist in his own right, discusses the many obstacles for local journalists based in and around Pakistan’s restive tribal regions—and shares some surprising signs of progress. Q: Describe the challenges of media development in one of the world’s most insular regions, the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).A: The challenges are immense. First of all, low media density: creating and supporting media space in a tribal region – there are only 4 FM radio stations in FATA for a population of four million and just 11 FM stations for a population of 20 million in NWFP. Then there is a lack of professionalism – few trained journalists and major technical inadequacies that are stunting professionalism. Also, the region boasted more suicide bombings and terrorism-related casualties in 2008 than Iraq and Afghanistan combined. Growing security woes are feeding into the xenophobic tribal mindset that frowns on information-sharing and investigation as suspicious activities. Q: How are these challenges being met?A: The general absence of dialogue and communication involving local voices, coupled with a sense of political and cultural deprivation, has created widespread alienation from “mainstream” Pakistani society in the inhabitants of the “tribal” region. So while there is a hunger for information, the prevalent militancy in the region – fuelled by the Taliban and al-Qaeda – mean large gaps in information. Internews has been working in the region over the past few years addressing these challenges by building newsrooms for radio, training print, radio and TV journalists, developing resources at journalism schools and helping with production of model news and information-based programming. Q: This region is increasingly being seen as the nerve center of the battle against terrorism. How does that affect the practice of journalism?A: As Internews works station by station, w see how daunting it is to work as a journalist in a region torn by militancy, where both the militants and the state want to control the message. You are always between the devil and the ditch because your mandate is to speak the truth on behalf of people reduced to collateral damage. Reporting on a region where the fate of the international ‘war on terror’ will be decided is not a job for the faint of heart. But there are several success stories — radio newsrooms are coming up that offer news and information in local languages, more people are joining journalism schools and many more are taking up media as a career despite the growing insecurity and direct threats to their well-being. Q: Why is it important to work with media along the 2,000-kilometer Pakistan-Afghan border?A: There is a great demand for trusted local media in this region. Surveys have established that people in and around Pakistan’s border regions, particularly the tribal areas (FATA) and North West Frontier Province (NWFP), listen to more external broadcasters than local. More tune into BBC and Voice of America than government broadcaster PBC as there is hardly any local content available. In FATA, where the literacy rates are abysmal, people depend mostly on foreign radio for information, a need reinforced by the local oral tradition. Newspapers they cannot read, TV is generally not available. The locals cannot operate independent local media under a Raj-era law. Instead of eastwards, they are tuned westwards for information that comes to them in their own language. |
|
||
