Dancing with the media

When Imran Khan became prime minister of Pakistan in August last year, comedian Trevor Noah in his The Daily Show, a popular American late night television programme, compared him with President Trump. He said that Imran’s story was “unnervingly similar” to that of Donald Trump. They came from privileged families and were known for good looks. And he cited some other similarities.

That, of course, was a rather frivolous presentation. But the world watched the two leaders with serious intent when they sat together in the White House earlier this week. This was an occasion for many to think about their life stories and their politics. In any case, this was a significant encounter against the backdrop of a tumultuous period in the world’s history.

So, what striking similarities or stark differences did one notice when the two leaders met and spoke before the cameras? That they represented countries that are oceans apart is hard to not take into account. Yet, the two seemed to be bound together in a regional, strategic context. For that matter, it was important to see if the two leaders were able to forge some kind of a personal relationship. They are talking about the rapport that was evident.

Setting aside the many headlines that the prime minister of Pakistan’s visit to the United States has generated and the feeling of having won a world cup that he has returned with, I want to take notice of one glaring similarity between Imran Khan and Donald Trump. Both have a genuine problem with the media in their respective countries. This relationship is essentially rooted in the reality as well as the perception of how political polarisation has evolved in the two countries.

It is interesting that both have to deal with a media that is not willing to bow down before them, which they may deem as heretical because of how they have built their own image. But this striking similarity has a number of variables, depending upon the nature of governance and democratic authority in either country.

Consider the fact that supposedly the most powerful leader in the world, the elected president of the sole superpower, is just not able to tame the critical media he must live with. This confrontation between the liberal media and the president of the United States deserves a separate analysis. With reference to the Imran-Trump summit and the issues it has identified, one can only say that Trump has been a bonanza for America’s comedians and cartoonists – and the president can only respond with his own angry and sometimes spiteful comments. Trump calls his media “fake news” and goes as far as to define it as the “enemy of the people”.

Incidentally, the White House meeting also provided a hint about Trump’s frustration in this context. As news-channel ABC reported, he asked a reporter in the Oval Office at this week’s meeting with the Pakistani leader: “Are you from Pakistan?” When the reply was in the affirmative, Trump said: “Good, I want a couple of Pakistani reporters. I like them much better than our reporters”.

You see, our reporters have this opportunity for jobs abroad. But they have to be ready to applaud the Great Leader. We surely have such reporters in Pakistan and it will be exciting to have a poll of the viewers of our news-channels to select at least two such reporters who could be sent to Trump as a gift from Pakistan. By the way, which two would you select for this assignment – and will they be the ones you most want to get rid of?

This is good material for Trevor Noah. One amusing twist here is that though Imran Khan, too, would not be happy with his critics in the Pakistani media, he would never want to trust the American reporters to cover his performance in office. There were some reports in American newspapers during the visit about the state of the media in Pakistan.

It is with some hesitation that I now come to the remarks made by Imran Khan when he was asked about media freedom in Pakistan. During his press talk in the company of President Trump in the White House, he said: “To say there are curbs on Pakistani media is a joke”. Well, at least the media professionals in Pakistan are not laughing.

There is more. In his conversation with a US think tank, he asserted that the media in Pakistan is freer than that in Britain. He was quoted as saying that “it is not just free but it is out of control”. Those who know about control may be invited to comment on this remark.

I have my own examples of how the media is managed but not wanting to be subjective about it, let me just quote some lines from a published editorial on this subject. “Former president Asif Zardari’s interview was pulled a few minutes into transmission; 21 TV channels were sent show-cause notices for airing Maryam Nawaz’s live press conference; three channels were taken off air without assigning any reason; another channel, a few hours before the prime minister arrived in the US, was either forced off the air or had its channel number changed in many parts of the country”.

To be fair to Imran Khan, he did say that he himself and his party had been the beneficiaries of media freedom. This is very true. Imran Khan was very much in the news and on the small screen during the long years he was struggling as a politician. The coverage of his ‘dharna’ in 2014 was in fact an example of over-exposure.

Remember the language he used that was broadcast live? One of his proposals to dislodge the government was to encourage civil disobedience. He set alight an electricity bill with a great touch of drama. We have seen how the opposition has fared during the past year that Imran Khan is in power. Yes, the lead in this newspaper on Saturday said that “Govt to be soft with opposition rallies, protests”. We will see.

Meanwhile, let me refer to one tongue-in-cheek justification for the PTI’s resolve to stifle the freedom of the media. In his column for the BBC Urdu website, writer Mohammed Hanif has drafted a response on behalf of the PTI. In satirical idiom, the PTI is telling Pakistani journalists that yes, it was the media that assisted the party’s rise to power. Would we now allow you to create another PTI?

The writer is a senior journalist.

Email: ghazi_salahuddin@hotmail.com