IT is time our electronic media revisited its strategy regarding the coverage of acts of terrorism and stopped its unconscious support to terrorists. What motivates me into writing these line is the service — yes, service — our TV channels rendered unto the terrorists who attacked the Karachi Police Office recently and were killed after a four-hour shootout.

Did our electronic media report this the way it should have been done or did it keep the 220 million people of Pakistan in a state of panic they did not deserve? One of the basic principles of TV reporting is to avoid panic-inducing news-casting, but our TV reported the attack by three terrorists as if a Normandy-type invasion had begun.

Imagine that millions of people were watching TV at home, in trains, at airports, in planes, in buses, in restaurants and in thoroughly unnecessary traffic jams triggered by the panic created by live and dramatised coverage of an act of terror.

Live coverage of acts of terrorism is against basic principles of news-casting because it helps terrorists, whose handlers watch TV and inform those in action.

Such unprofessionalism was on display during the terrorist attack on Manawa police station in Lahore and during the attack on GHQ in Rawalpindi where, thanks to our TV channels, the terrorists were getting minute-by-minute reports on what the police and military were doing. On Feb 17 in Karachi also, our channels were virtually acting as the terrorists’ helpers by informing them about the arrival of the Rangers and the army.

If the channels were to act responsibly, they should have reported the attack and then a few hours later informed the viewers that all was normal and that the terrorists had been killed and three policemen and a civilian had also lost their lives. Instead, the channels paralysed Pakistan and made the people feel the terrorists were on their doorsteps, if not inside their homes. Terrorists should not be turned into heroes. What do terrorists and their handlers want? Maximum publicity, of course. And this is what our TV people did.

If the government forbids live coverage of such incidents, it will be accused of silencing the media. It is, therefore, for the TV bosses themselves to evolve a code of ethics and forbid live coverage that terrorises the people and plays into the hands of terrorists.

A senior citizen
Karachi

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2023