(Person) Percentage - Sabanci University Research Database

The Asian Media & Mass Communication Conference 2010 Osaka, Japan
on Terror in Afghanistan that started in October 2001, giving real ethical challenges to the amateur
media and the government.
Media and Terrorism
The government-media clashes reflect a crisis with respect to covering the spill of post-9/11
terrorism and War beyond the borders of the Afghan conflict zone into Pakistan. The whole
country, especially the North West Frontier Post (NWFP) and Federally Administered Tribal
Areas (FATA), face the effects of this spill from Afghanistan into Pakistan. Terrorism has
emerged as a permanent threat to the national security, an irritant that continuously affects
Pakistan’s socioeconomic, political, and societal structures. Sultan says these effects can
materialize a radical transformation of the state despite applause by the American administration
and the accounts of political, economic, and cultural connotations blended with theology. The
Pukhtoon social code has appeared as an explanation for the rising tide of extremism and terrorism
in FATA, which keeps Pakistan in the focus of international media. It also explains the reasons
behind the incidences of violence against tribal journalists and their families for denying the
pressure of deviant groups for manufacturing a mass-mediated view of reality by highlighting
some aspects of terrorism, portraying terrorists frequently and powerfully (2010), hence,
marginalizing others outside the mainstream.
The mainstream coverage of this rising tide of terrorism only became possible because of the rise
of electronic media and private ownership in Pakistan. The increase in the number of terrorist
attacks across the country parallels an increase in the number of news channels that attempt to
keep pace with the attacks for the purpose of the coverage. Though merely a coincidence, these
two phenomena deeply affect the way of life in the country. The situation is very different from a
similar spill of terrorism into Pakistan during Zia regime in the 1980s as there was only one statecontrolled
TV channel in those days. Even the outgrowths of the Kargil conflict, 1999 between
Pakistan and India escaped such media attention due to slight difference in the time frame that
scripts one semi-private and two state controlled TV channels. Presently, Pakistanis get access to
about 60 entertainment and 30 news and current affairs channels in national, international, and
local languages such as Urdu, English, Punjabi, Sindhi, Balochi, Pashto, and Seraiki that run 24/7
for less than US$5.00. Rehmat says the number of journalists has increased from about 2,000 to an
estimated 10,000 and their average age is reduced to half, about 20 years, a factor that points to the
permeation of lots and lots of inexperience into Pakistani media (2010). These components
together form an amateur media that despite being on the track of freedom, dopes on ethics and
responsibility by giving a lot of focus to terrorism, militancy, and extremism that are rooted in the
post-9/11 US tracking back of the origins of Al-Qaeda in the Pak-Afghan region. According to
Rehmat,
terrorism, militancy and extremism have engulfed Pakistan … Over 20,000 civilians alone
have died [in a large number of suicide attacks] across the country ... Military casualties
also run into a few thousand as the Al-Qaeda-Taliban combine reacted to an apparent
change in policy of Pakistan’s security establishment to counter the wave of militancy that
posed a serious challenge to the state (Rehmat, 2010).
The Al-Qaeda-Taliban combine increased terrorist attacks across the country in reaction to the
establishment’s decision to support the US through War on Terror. This fusion triggered a series
of interconnected incidences that alone sufficed media’s need for content for running 24/7 on 30
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