After the Oscar buzz: Is Pakistan ready to give prime time slots to honour killings?
On Feb 21, I received a call from my boss: "Shamil, we are going to discuss Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy’s documentary, A Girl in The River: The Price of Forgiveness tomorrow on prime time on our TV channel and I would like you to host it."
"For one hour?" I asked.
"No. It will be a transmission." This meant it would run for at least two hours.
Needless to say, I was stunned.
In my career as a broadcast journalist, I have seldom seen societal ills, such as honour killing, given prime time coverage in the media.
In part because such matters are considered taboo and also because they don't 'sell' — national politics and international affairs dominate much of prime time coverage.
Even if social issues are covered, it is done in a cursory manner in the daily news bulletins.
"A daughter was killed by her father," or "a brother murdered his sister in the name of honour", or as our Urdu newspapers cover it, "Aashna kay saath bhagnay wali, bhai kay hathon qatal".
That's it.
Recently, trends have been changing with regards to how these issues should be approached in mainstream media.
There is a growing consensus that these matters ought to be discussed and given adequate coverage.
On Feb 22, we were at the PTV studios. The screening commenced in the prime minister’s office at around 3pm. Many reporters and correspondents from state-run channel PTV were at the PM Secretariat, waiting for Sharmeen and the PM to speak to them.