Blame them not

There has been much debate about journalists and their conduct since the Axact scandal came to light. There is harsh criticism, severe judgements and malicious campaigns. Those who left their jobs and moved to a greener, but now exceedingly troubled, pasture of a new media enterprise connected with the Axact company’s questionable operations are daily targets of cruel jokes.
The mainstream media is glutted with petty talk about greed coming back to haunt them or of other such superficial, morale-of-a-sad-story type of conclusions. Mud is being flung at them via social media as well. Here some Twitter tarzans (many of them using fake names, hedging their identities, offering zero information about themselves) are bashing them for being ‘purchasable’ and for being ‘part of the crime’. Generally, in the guise of this controversy, an open season seems to have been declared on media persons of all variety, regardless of where they work. An attempt – which could be deliberate as well – is being made to portray journalists as sad, shady characters who hanker after money, power and pelf caring two hoots about principles and professional codes.
It is axiomatic to say that nobody is above the law, and that no one is outside the purview of public or legal scrutiny. But to hold an entire lot responsible for the deeds of a few is patently absurd. And then to do so for all the wrong reasons is even more shameful.
A vast majority of those who agreed to hook up with the new media enterprise did so for more financial gains. There is absolutely nothing with that. Contrary to public perception, the bulk of the workforce in any news channel or newspaper has shoe-string salaries. These are young men and women with dreams, hopes and ambitions who have to cope with the strains of expensive urban life in Karachi, Lahore or Islamabad. Those who are in distant cities fare even worse as they get the last end of attention and financial compensation for their work. Camera crew, non-linear editors, graphic designers, producers, reporters, desk editors and the staff that assists them form the backbone of all news and current affairs operations. Yet, they just make enough to get through the month.
While facilities vary from organisation to organisation, average financial comfort in the media industry is poor. There is little job security and almost non-existent health and life insurance. Over the past many years the monthly salary cycle has been completely off-track in most organisations. Most workers in the industry remain unpaid for months.
Their employers preach them patience but that does not stop the to-be-paid bills to land on time. No sooner does the calendar page flip to the next month than the house-owner, milkman, grocer, school administration, domestic staff start knocking on the door. I know not one but several cases where acute depression and suicidal tendencies developed among colleagues on account of held-up salaries. Combine this situation with a growing sense of being totally vulnerable to social and political upheavals, and you have half the reason for workers exercising their right to look for better financial arrangements.
The other half of the reason relates to the other undeniable right that each individual has: to earn a better living, to upgrade his or her living standards, to have cash in hand and savings in the account. Don’t lawyers aspire to work for more recognised law chambers or doctors for hospitals that offer them improved work environment? Don’t teachers, religious leaders, professors, engineers, government servants, policemen, soldiers all struggle throughout their lives to push themselves up the social and financial ladder? Don’t businessmen want to expand and companies want to grow?
What is wrong with people wanting to live in ease? If the cash-flow is legitimate, auditable and tax-paid, nobody has the right to tell or ask anyone how much s/he is making and for what purpose. It is none of anyone’s business. Let it come. The more, the better. To make more money to look after one’s family, to nurture one’s talents, to send children to good schools, to take care of old parents, to help relatives, to live a good life. This is what every normal person wants. This is what every normal qualified person should have the opportunity to get.
Our colleagues who aspired to do this for themselves and for their families did nothing wrong. They opted for what seemed like an exceptional avenue to fast-track progress. Criticism against them is uncalled for, hypocritical and speaks of a twisted mindset that wants to build an empire of wealth for itself but hurls boulders at those whose aim is to simply move a notch up.
Similar ignorance and duplicity is being exhibited in pointing fingers at a large number of senior journalists who joined the group. Let us be honest here. Each new entrant into any professional market and making claims about adding advanced value to the field is bound to draw attention. Yes, in this case, these claims were taller than most, some downright questionable. However, new software, news systems, modern studios, international reach and multimedia platforms to enhance professional performance are not unearthly promises. Big things are happening in the global media market and it is exciting to think that cutting-edge technologies can be made available to generate more impact. That some of these promises now look spurious is hindsight. We are all very wise as far as hindsight in concerned.
But before the New York Times story hit the fan, the whole enterprise was smartly packaged. Two of the country’s well-known names in journalism were picked up to form the facade of this media venture. This immediately bought the idea outward legitimacy. This was reinforced by the way the entire government and state system endorsed and embraced the venture. Everyone nodded in praise as marketing boasts of an upcoming ‘great media revolution’ echoed all around. Nobody put up any warning sign outside the building in Karachi that offered 5-star hospitality to all visitors. Last week a diplomat friend told me how he ignored a travel warning and went to Karachi to meet the team leaders of the media enterprise only because “those who had invited him had such good reputations.” He said he was so impressed with what he was told and what he saw. This man has spent 40 years dealing with media across the world.
Indeed there were some who had been warned by their respective organisations, which they were leaving, that not all was lily white at their new destination. Some chose to ignore the advice, putting it down to the usual methods channels use to retain their brand names. Others shrugged it off. Yet others said they understood the risks but had no option but to join. But by and large, most went ahead and took up jobs on what at that time was a fair assumption that this would exactly turn out to be how it had been pitched to them: a genuine, new media project. That it became ‘Axactly’ in the end, was (and is) no fault of those journalists and media persons who are working there.
Yes, those in the top most management position who were privy to the company’s workings, its financial profile, and its larger operations carry the burden of either poor choice or of a poor strategy to keep information away from their other colleagues who were joining them for the assumed trust in the worthiness of the whole scheme.
Similarly it has to be said that anyone involved in criminal activity, of fraud, of money laundering, of other illegitimate action must be punished through a transparent and fearless dispensation of justice. No punches should be pulled nor any thrown unjustly. Dust to dust, ashes to ashes. Just as scam-makers and their accomplices cannot be allowed to hide behind the shield of media freedom, Axact issues cannot be made a handle to beat those workers and professionals who came on board in good faith not knowing how slippery the deck was.
The writer is former executive editor of The News and a senior journalist with Geo TV.
Email: syedtalathussain@gmail.com
Twitter: @TalatHussain12