Tidbits of the region’s media
With the airways now dominated by firebrand hardline mullahs, the state-owned Radio Pakistan seems to have finally realised that it simply has to buck it up. In a move the Daily Times is calling "revolutionary" – but, really, just seems to be common sense – the station is giving itself a makeover. Two much-needed reforms are now in the pipeline. First, in what is being pegged as "community broadcasting", shows in local languages are to make up 70 percent of the content, with only 30 percent in Urdu. Second, a 'radio schools' programme is in the works, targeting out-of-school children, especially in the troubled NWFP, along with a general Educational Channel with a wider reach. But this laudable vision aside, considering Islamabad's tendency to cut off information when things heat up (something that happens all too regularly in Pakistan), Chhetria Patrakar wonders who will actually rely on Radio Pakistan for information.
Take what happened in March, for instance. As the showdown between Asif Ali Zardari, Nawaz Sharif and the country's lawyers looked set to be massive, the democratic government cut off access to the private television channel Geo in the major cities. Whatever else the president's office may lack, it has bravado in abundance. Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar boldly told journalists that no section of the ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP) had ordered the block. He was lying, of course, and proof came from within the party's own ranks: Information Minister Sherry Rehman handed in her resignation to protest the media clampdown. The news doing the rounds is that Rehman quit after a heated argument with President Zardari during a meeting – Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani, senior party leaders and the federal ministers were all in attendance – where she apparently told the big man that the media could not be "switched on and off like a light bulb". Go Sherry!
A similar, though smaller, case of online whodunit emerged after officials in the Maldives blocked raajjeislam.com, a website that carries prayers and articles on Islam. The site was blocked immediately after it put up a clip of an imam from the island of Foakaidhoo, in the northern Shaviyani atoll, accusing Islamic Affairs Minister Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed of intimidation. The imam had been teaching the Witr Qunoot prayer, which is not sanctioned by the ministry (there is a dispute among scholars about whether it should be recited). Legally speaking, sites espousing views contrary to Islam can be blocked, but only after Parliament has approved such a move – which, in this case, it has not done. The Islamic Affairs Ministry says it did not issue the censorship order. Which brings the mystery full circle: who-dun-it?
Busy times in Bhutan, where Sherubtse College, in the eastern town of Trashigang, is preparing to get the country's first university FM radio station started. Though the broadcasts will only be able to be heard by those on campus, it will be run exclusively by the students. Coupled with the mass-communication courses at the state-run Royal University of Bhutan about to get off the ground, the station is likely to be a ripe training ground for aspiring journalists, all set to start sniffing around Druk Yul.
Editorial staff members working on Hindi, Urdu and Nepali content at the BBC's London office are up in arms. According to them, the broadcaster's new plans for the Subcontinent will end in the outsourcing of their jobs. The BBC has allegedly been forcing redundancy redundancy packages on employees. The Corporation denies both this and the outsourcing accusation, though, saying that it merely plans to strengthen the Southasian bureaus by sending over staff from London. But the unconvinced staff members have chosen 3 and 9 April to down pens.
Here's an interesting titbit on the unique daily newspaper market in the Indian Northeast by Dhaleta Surendra Kumar in Afaqs!. While the seven states are economically and socially similar, each speaks a different language. Kumar notes that this explains why, contrary to the trend in the rest of the country, there is no single local-language market leader. But this doesn't account for the fact that local, rather than national or regional papers, dominate, even for Hindi, English and Bengali. Loyalty to the local brand, transportation challenges in the hilly terrain and the lack of a proper distribution infrastructure for non-local publications are all said to contribute to the state of affairs. But with advertising picking up, watch out for a surge of print media interest in the Northeast.
In tales of electioneering, the Congress party in India is making a big splash with its "Jai Ho" campaign series. Hoping to score points off the hype surrounding Slumdog Millionaire, Congress unveiled three 60-second clips featuring the song. Propping up the feel-good vibe of "Jai Ho" are shots of Congress leaders, past and present, as well as jubilant crowds of aam aadmis. The meat of the exercise, however, lies in the lyrics by Ashok Chakradhar, poet and former professor in the Hindi Department at Jamia Millia Islamia University. The first bit celebrates the leadership provided by the party to the nation beginning with Jawaharlal Nehru and ending with Rajiv Gandhi. (Narasimha Rao is notable in having been excluded, ostensibly because the party couldn't think of anything he contributed.) The next two wax spots eloquent about the successes of the last five years: the nuclear deal, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and other development projects. CP has to admit that the videos are slick. Then again, with the party having dished out nearly USD 200,000 (that's no typo!) just to buy the rights of the song, anything with less panache would have been unacceptable.
The BJP responded quickly to the Congress extravaganza with satirical poems, composed in the style of the late satirist Kaka Hathrasi, blaming the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) for skyrocketing prices and 'terrorism'. And there's more to come: a 'Team Advani' video featuring senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders. This is pretty much what the "Jai Ho" videos do, but CP thinks Congress wins this round, at least online. While the Congress site had a full campaign section with all the materials just a click away, the BJP jingles are nowhere to be found on the latter's site. They aren't even on YouTube – is anything not on YouTube?!
Over in Burma, Buddhist monk Ashin Gambira, doomed to spend 68 years in jail, yearns for two things – tea and the Internet. As things stand, even if he weren't behind bars, he probably wouldn't have enjoyed being online too much anyway. According to a Reporters without Borders publication entitled "Internet Enemies", 12 countries including China and Burma have been branded 'cyberspace foes'; and ten countries, including Sri Lanka, have been placed under surveillance. These countries have managed to transform "their Internet into an Intranet". As conscientious as all three are in censorship, Beijing is by far the most innovative, paying people to leave pro-government messages online; using nearly 40,000 state and party employees to constantly patrol cyberspace; and designating an endless number of words as banned.
What does a website tell you about its owner? The answers are illuminating. Even with the hubbub about IT outsourcing to the Subcontinent, especially to India, Southasia's leaders have been slow to tap into these resources to create snappy websites. So says the BBC, at least, after completing a ranking of the official sites of Southasian heads of state. On a 10-point scale, Bangladesh, Bhutan and the Maldives tied for first place, with a score of seven; Pakistan had the weakest showing, with a measly four. Overall design, colour, content and frequency of updates were the criteria the Beeb used.
Some of the criticism of the sites is telling indeed. For instance, Hamid Karzai's site is relatively well designed but reeks of US involvement; much of Asif Ali Zardari's is under construction; and Prachanda's is bold at first glance but ultimately not very informative. CP feels compelled here to defend our intrepid leaders, however. With Internet usage not particularly high across the region, a sparkling site is probably not the best way for politicians to reach out to the people. Then again, why put up a site at all if it is going to be shoddily done and of little use?