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the murder. The report was called disappointing by the family of the deceased
as well as the civil society.
Quality of content
According to the United Nations, freedom of expression can only become
a reality when news consumers have adequate media literacy skills to critically
analyse and synthesise the information they receive. They should be able to
use that information in their daily lives and also hold the media accountable if
it engages in sensationalism or imparts inaccurate information. Since the freedom
that the media is able to enjoy in Pakistan is but a recent development, both the
consumers and the media seem to be engaged in a trial and error phase.
The media in Pakistan has been accused of sensationalism time and again.
The fine line between opinion and news has been increasingly blurred. Reporters
on news channels often take sides in the issues they report on. The numerous
news channels that have emerged in the past few years largely conform to the
same ideas. The content is uniform across the channels while all manner of
news becomes breaking news. Media critics have blamed these channels for
their lack of research and an almost complete absence of follow-up. In the
very short attention span that the media has, vital issues and events are taken
up only for a day or so before they slip into oblivion. The impartiality of media
anchors also came under the spotlight in 2012 when a number of off-air
videos of leading anchors were released. Such cases damaged the image of
the media’s impartiality to a great extent.
The portrayal of women in the media was criticised by civil society and
rights groups. Besides showing proactive and independent women in a bad
TV drama artists gathered to protest against foreign drama dubbed in Urdu.
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State of Human Rights in 2012