‘We have been dubbed anti-state and anti-army’: Editor of Dawn on jingoism in the media

On April 18, 2014, Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir was shot six times as he emerged out of the airport to broadcast a story for Geo TV. His family squarely placed the blame on Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI). While Mir survived the attack, the incident raised many questions on the dangers of practising journalism in Pakistan. According to some reports, 71 journalists have been killed in Pakistan since 2001. The country is ranked 159, in a list of 180 countries, on the Press Freedom Index. In such an atmosphere, Dawn, a Pakistani Daily, has managed to retain a reputation for fearlessness.

In the aftermath of the Pathankot attack, it published a clear-eyed piece on the Pakistani government’s attitude to terror. It stated: “It should not be impossible for Islamabad to realise that whenever any Pakistan-based terrorist group assaults India it threatens the integrity of Pakistan itself”.

Known for its editorials, it provides a space for historians with unpopular opinions, journalists who are not always hyper nationalists, and often features balanced reports on terrorism emanating from Pakistan.

We interviewed Zaffar Abbas, editor of Dawn, over e-mail, and asked him how they do it. 

1. Owing to the strained relations between India and Pakistan, media in both countries compete over jingoistic coverage. In this environment, how does Dawn strive for fairness and balance in reporting?

Unfortunate as it is, jingoism is part of journalism practiced in most conflict zones. It is mostly driven by misplaced patriotism as most newspapers and journalism practitioners are easily influenced by the official stance of their respective governments and other state institutions. Although, very rarely, it happens in Dawn, too, since at times a reporter or two get carried away while reporting on issues related to cross-border issues. However, the situation becomes more alarming when editorials or op-ed articles also start to adopt jingoistic tones.

Unfortunately, this is the trend we have been noticing in many newspapers and television channels in both Pakistan and India. Conscious of this trend, we at Dawn have continued to make serious efforts to remain on course. At times, there is heated debate on such issues during the editorial meetings. Examples are given of coverage in other newspapers and on various television channels in Pakistan and India. But led by the Editor, the majority has remained of the view that we cannot become part of this ugly conflict and, as much as possible, will continue to express our views in a more rational and objective manner.

2. India and Pakistan have low rankings on the Press Freedom Index (PFI) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Can you talk about some of the biggest threats to journalism in Pakistan?

Religious extremist groups remain the biggest perpetrators of crimes against journalists and media houses, but ethnic and nationalist militant groups operating in Karachi and the province of Balochistan also try to forcibly suppress news that they feel is against them. This remains the single biggest threat to independent journalism. The other threat comes from the forces involved in the ongoing security operations against the separatist and religious militant groups in Balochistan and the tribal region that borders Afghanistan. This may not be an institutional policy but those involved in ground operations are averse to what they feel is “negative coverage”, and often harass or pressure local correspondents against such reporting.

3. Tell us about the last threat your paper or one of your journalists received…

Religious extremist groups regard Dawn as their enemy, and from time to time we get direct or indirect threats from one or the other group. We continue to monitor the situation, and occasionally also take precautionary measures, but have so far not compromised on our journalism. Government and other state institutions not pleased with our editorial policy often express their displeasure, but there is no example from recent years of any direct threat to the paper or its journalists.

However, people sympathetic to governments often indulge in vicious campaigns against Dawn on social media, dubbing it as anti-state or anti-army newspaper. More recently, one of our assistant editors received a death threat on Twitter after she wrote an article about Baloch separatists. It is being investigated by the authorities.

4. What future do you foresee for independent journalism in Pakistan?

Pakistan has a history of a long-drawn struggle for press freedom, during which hundreds of journalists were jailed by successive regimes, even flogged on military court’s orders in the 1970s, and numerous publications were banned. But since the late 1980s, the press in Pakistan has enjoyed a high level of freedom. With the advent of private television channels in 2002, the notion of media freedom has taken a more concrete form. In fact, one of the reasons for the increased number of violent attacks on journalists is linked to the high level of freedom the Pakistani media enjoys at the moment. Of course, there are serious problems, and we believe the culture of impunity for crimes against journalists that exists in the country is an attempt to force the media into self-censorship. As most perpetrators of such crimes remain unpunished, this problem may become even more compounded in the coming days.

But I have no doubt that such threats and attacks against journalists or media houses will remain futile, and the struggle for unfettered and independent journalism will succeed.

5. Has any journalist been forced to quit Dawn due to external pressures?

Never. Of course, there have been pressures in the past to change policy or sack a few journalists. But Dawn is one of the few news organisations in South Asia where the management has not only given a free hand to the Editor to shape the paper’s editorial policy, but it also stands solidly behind members of the editorial staff to ward off such pressures.

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While religious extremism has entrenched itself very firmly in Pakistan foreign and domestic policy, India has, relatively speaking, remained insulated from it. Our public institutions and media remain secular, much to the chagrin of religious extremists in this part of the sub-continent. And for the most part, the Indian media has been careful not to validate the activities of fringe groups, of any religion, ensuring that incidents like the Dadri lynching and the murders of rationalists was given the condemnation it deserved. The race for TRPs, however, does make many prime time debates an exercise in generating hysteria as competitive jingoism becomes the clickbait for TV. Televised news coverage of Foreign policy, especially those stories connected with Pakistan, is laced with overt declarations of nationalism. To see where this could lead, we don’t have to look very far. Choose what you watch wisely.