Media under Taliban pressure

  Away from the cameras and newsprint, a wave of fear and foreboding has swept through the media in recent weeks and months. Last week, in the killing of three Express News employees by the Taliban in Karachi, many of the industry’s fears coalesced bloodily – and few expect the threat to recede.

In a series of conversations with Dawn, senior journalists offered their views on why, at this juncture, the Taliban are trying once again to intimidate the media and also shed some light on the behind-the-scenes pressure that is being brought to bear and that is rarely made public.

“If the focus was on news before, now it’s on views,” Mushtaq Minhas, co-anchor of Bolta Pakistan on Aaj News, said. “(The Taliban) want to dilute the growing state and society narrative against them and want to impose their own narrative.”

Minhas claimed that the growing sophistication of the Taliban’s media operations – both in terms of putting out their own message and closely monitoring the electronic and print media in Urdu, English and regional languages – has meant that the Taliban are alert to growing public and media criticism of the TTP and the possibility of an impending military response by the state against the TTP.

Several journalists, who declined to be named, specifically mentioned Omar Khalid, the TTP Mohmand leader, and the deputy leader of the TTP, Khalid Haqqani, as being especially media-savvy and intent on intimidating the industry.

The public clash of narratives has also exacted a toll behind the scenes. Privately, journalists tell of TV anchors and media bosses who have moved their families abroad or increased private security manifold.

Seated in his office at a distance from its large windows, a small precaution against a potential blast or sniper’s bullet, a senior journalist told of an increase in threatening phone calls and text messages sent by the Taliban – and not just to senior or high-profile media personnel.

“It’s not just us, the faces on TV. They know the personal numbers of in-house employees, the desk in-charges; the people no one outside the organisation or a small circle would know about. Who is giving them these numbers?” the journalist asked, leaving his question unanswered.