IGNORING the guestion whether the Lahore rally of the opposition parties was hugely attended or not, a TV channel behaved as if it was obliged by the Sharifs to call the rally a flop.

There is no doubt the number of people in the rally was much less than expected as it was claimed to be a gathering of almost all the opposition parties.

Almost an hour before the end of the show, at 9:30 pm, the TV channel showed its reporter telling viewers that the attendance at the rally was very thin. She reported that the container from where the leaders were making speeches was full to the capacity, but most of the chairs for the audience were empty.

To substantiate the claim, the channel ran a video clip of the empty seats. It was a pre-recorded and day-time shoot, as everything beneath the chairs and elsewhere was clearly visible.

That was nothing but an unfortunate an act of biased reporting.

Fatima Siddiqui
Islamabad

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2018