By Kamran Rehmat/Islamabad
Pakistan’s troubled province of Balochistan is never out of news but little news is available about the state of media there.
Happening: A protest being staged by the Balochistan Engineers Association last June outside the Quetta Press Club, which is now buzzing with activity round the clock
The media in the province, in general, and provincial capital Quetta, in particular, has visibly expanded since 2000 in a trend that largely reflects the shifting media landscape in the rest of Pakistan.
With the doors thrown open to private ownership of the airwaves, independent TV channels and FM radio stations have come to be a part of daily life for many. And with competition has come the rush for news, to be the first to break news.
Even though one still has to see a critical mass private, independent TV channels and radio stations, locally owned and voicing local concerns in languages of Balochistan - something needed and often stridently demanded - media has crept into the consciousness of the people, if not through independent news and analysis then through the sheer volume of its presence.
In a province long engaged in a monologue with itself - cut off as it is from the rest of Pakistan through huge distances, lack of infrastructure and the state’s Orwellian control over news and information from Balochistan - the proliferation of media in recent years has fuelled a hunger for information, a desire to have a say and be heard.
As the rest of Balochistan waits to plug into the vibrant media scene, Quetta is generating and consuming information quite regularly. It has become the provincial hub of media activity.
Ranks of veteran print journalists eager to make the switch from print to electronic media are joined by fervent young Turks raring to leave an imprint on the growing size of audience in the province. There are even two Baloch language independent local TV channels boasting current affairs and entertainment in local languages.
The preponderance of TV news networks and availability of cable service in Quetta has revolutionised the way people access information since 2002 when the electronic media watchdog - Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) - issued its first licences for private TV and radio in the country.
There is an addiction to real-time, daily news which is especially acute in the politically charged province that has seen much violence and conflict lately.
The recent shooting in public view by the police and paramilitary of five foreigners - wrongly presumed to be terrorists - in Kharotabad, including three women, is a case in point whereby the sensational local news has become national news.
Perhaps, more vibrant in terms of representation of local needs and aspirations is the local print media with more than 150 newspapers and magazines published daily, weekly or monthly even though a large number of them are “dummy” publications, drawn to the lucre of the provincial government’s huge advertisement quotas.
Years of troubles and a resurgent and assertive media has made the politically conscious polity of urban Balochistan information-savvy. From a city on the fringes of national politics and consciousness before the state’s monopoly on airwaves was abolished, media presence in Quetta has made the city and the province a regular fixture in the national news scene.
No more is Balochistan the backyard of Pakistan ignored in matters of policy and governance. Voices that would have sent the state and the media it owns on a scissor-snipping spree some years ago now regularly feature on the private media based in Quetta, more so due to volatile struggle for rights and military operations to suppress the nationalist movement.
The Quetta Press Club, once an exclusive domain of print journalists, now attracts TV journalists who have joined the news networks that have come up in recent years. From a derelict building surrounded by government offices and courts, it was shifted to an impressive new one inaugurated in July 2007, built with generous support of the authorities.
However, where media’s glare is focused on Quetta, the hub of political activity and home to provincial decision makers, the rest of Balochistan is where it blinks. Outside the city limits - where poverty, anger and discontent with the Islamabad’s neglect of the province and widespread deprivation is as stark as the harsh landscape of the province - there is a virtual absence of organised media activity and news coverage.
Due to lack of interest and resources, huge distances, absence of organisational support to journalists and the forbidding labour and cost-intensive exercise that is news gathering, stories from the rest of Balochistan often fail to make it to the news bulletin.
Notwithstanding major developments - such as the assassination of charismatic former provincial governor and chief minister Akbar Bugti and other nationalist leaders, military operations and the killing of women in the name of honour etc - to which publications and TV networks can only stay indifferent at the risk of losing audience loyalty, the human face of Balochistan remains eclipsed by political activities at Quetta, breaking news and tickers reporting strikes, bombings and target killings.
Whether Quetta or the rest of Balochistan, news analysis and local voices - especially those opposed to discriminatory state policies - are in general absent from the national media discourse.
While newspapers and periodicals remain a popular medium of information in Balochistan, low literacy and weak buying-power is a big hurdle in the way of people accessing and consuming information.
Most newspapers play it safe while covering public opinion, mostly acting as a publicity tool for the government wherefrom it draws advertisements. The publication and circulation figures in the interior districts are vague and unimpressive because of illiteracy and low buying power of readers whose numbers are few. Even when there is demand for local papers at the local level, they still don’t reach there in time due to huge distances. Whatever local media there is in the remote districts is limited in its outreach and representation for want of resources and professionalism.
Indigenous media growth and consumption in the rest of Balochistan, despite a large number of independent publications that come and go depending on their financial health, has been tardy even though there is enormous hunger for information.
*** The writer is a freelance journalist based in Islamabad and can be reached at [email protected]