Who got how much
time on Government-run PTV
By
Mohammad Shehzad & Zafarullah Khan
ISLAMABAD:
While the nation heads towards Election-2002 with a ban on traditional
means of political communication like public rallies and processions,
the state controlled electronic media has become a vital mode
of disseminating political views.
In order to ensure
equal and fair opportunities to the diverse political competitors
the Election Commission of Pakistan has issued a 13-points Code
of Conduct for the Electronic Media (Pakistan Television and Pakistan
Broadcasting Corporation) for General Elections-2002.
Liberal
Forum Pakistan (LFP), a non-profit, non-government organization
of a group of volunteers embarked on media monitoring for Election
2002 with a special focus on news bulletin on Pakistan TV at 9:00
pm and News at 10:00 pm Pakistan TV World News and current affairs
program, “News Night” to verify the regime’s
claim of being an impartial referee vis-à-vis various political
competitors for Election-2002.
The
monitoring was conducted by Zafarullah Khan, one of the founders
of LFP. His finding cover the period from August 27 to September
9, 2002.
Zafar
shared his findings with this scribe, which are given below:
First fortnightly report
KHABARNAMA
(News Bulletin)
During
the fortnight (August 27-September 9, 2002) Mottahida Majlis-e-Amal
(MMA) got maximum coverage for seven minutes and forty-eight seconds
in Khabarnama. The Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-I-Azam) remained
second by occupying news space for six minutes and forty seconds.
The Grand National Alliance (GNA) remained third by getting coverage
for three minutes and thirty seconds.
Among
others Pakistan People’s Party (Sherpao) got coverage for
three minutes and twenty-three seconds, Pakistan Peoples Party
(Parliamentarians) two minutes and fifty-three seconds, Pakistan
Muslim League (Nawaz) two minutes and fifty-one seconds, Pakhtoonkhawa
Milli Awami Party together with Balochistan National Party two
minutes and twenty six seconds.
The
independent candidates from (FATA) Federally Administered Tribal
Areas (one minute and fifty five seconds), Awami National Party
(one minutes and 26 seconds), Mottahida Qaumi Movement (one minute
and nine seconds), Pakistan Awami Tehrik (55-seconds), Alliance
for Restoration of Democracy (50-seconds), Qaumi Jamhoree Party
(33-seconds), Pakistan Peoples Party (Shaheed Bhutto) 23-seconds,
Millat Party (22-seconds), Blochistan National Congress (22-seconds),
Tehrik-I-Istaqlal (17-seconds)
The
only independent candidate Mustafa Khokhar from Islamabad was
able to make it to the Khabarnama for seven seconds regarding
High Court’s decision on his nomination papers. The candidates
belonging to minorities got one minute and eight seconds, and
the citizen’s activities related to election-2002 were covered
for 51-seconds.
By
and large this coverage was accorded to the party leaders, their
rallies and press conferences. Regarding negative coverage only
the Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarian and the Mottahida Majlis-I-Amal
remained on the receiving end. There was two minutes and ten seconds
negative reportage against Benazir Bhutto, Asif Ali Zardari and
Larkana-Lahore idiom. Four minutes and fifty-one seconds tirade
against so-called “corrupt rulers of the past” and
one minute and twenty seconds reportage against the train march
of the MMA and inconveniencies caused by that.
In
collective frames one minutes and thirteen seconds were devoted
to highlight election manifestos and four minutes and forty-nine
seconds on start of the political campaign.
NEWS
NIGHT
During
the fortnight there were two episodes of the News Night that focused
purely on politics. On September 2nd, Federal law minister, Khalid
Ranjha (eight minutes forty-one seconds), PPP’s Syed Iqbal
Haider (five minutes and six seconds) and Tehrik-I-Insaf’s
Ahmad Raza Kasuri (four minutes and two seconds) discussed the
rejection of Benazir Bhutto’s nomination papers.
On September 3rd, the PPP’s Fakhar Zaman (six minutes),
the PML’s Wasim Sijjad (four minutes and eleven seconds)
and Jamaat-I-Islami’s Prof. Ghafoor Ahmad (four minutes)
discussed lifting of ban on political activities and given Code
of Conduct for such activities. In another episodes of the News
Night on September 6th an impression was given that restoration
of democracy was not an issue with the United States of America.
NEWS
AT 10
The
News at Ten on PTV World News has opted for collective-news frame
for the reportage on politics. The anchorperson speaks to the
PTV World News correspondents in Karachi, Lahore, Quetta and Peshawar.
The so-called creative style deprives the viewers to watch the
footage of various political activities in the country, whereas
the reportage of the activities of the ministers carry proper
visuals and on occasions interviews.
Nonetheless
in terms of the individual news frames the activities of Muttahida
Majlis-I-Amal (MMA) were covered for four minutes and thirty-three
seconds, next to MMA was the PML (Q) that received the coverage
for two minutes and thirty three seconds. The PML-N got forty-nine
seconds, Pakistan Peoples Party thirty three seconds, the PML
(Zia) nineteen seconds and Millat Party seventeen seconds,
In
terms of negative reportage the PPP leader, Benazir Bhutto was
targeted for four minutes and twelve second in two special reports
about her disqualification. The PPP together with PML (N) was
also target of negative reportage for two minutes forty-three
seconds over their emerging political friendship.
In
terms of collective frames the filling, acceptance, rejection
and appeals about nomination papers, measures taken by the Election
Commission, meetings of European Union, National Democratic Institute,
the Canadian and the Norwegian observers also got coverage in
both Khabarnama and News at Ten.
The
Pakistan Television also announced its’ tariffs for paid
political publicity. During the first phase that will be till
September 15 the parties were given an option to buy time at the
rate of Rs. 20,000 per minute. The rates during the second phase
(Sept. 16 to Sept. 30) has been determined as Rs. 30,000 per minute.
During the third phase (Oct. 1 to Oct. 8, 2002) this rate would
jump to Rs 50,000 per minute. The telecast time on PTV was announced
between 21:30 hrs to 2230 hrs with an option of repeat on PTV
World at payment of an additional Rs. 100,000. The rates for commercial
spots (minimum one minute) during the prime time (19:00 hrs to
21:00 hrs) were Rs 1,32, 250. However there was no evidence of
any enthusiasm for paid political publicity among the parties
till September 9, 2002.
For
readers convenience and information, this scribe copies the code
of conduct for the electronic media Pakistan Tv f October 10 polls:
The
coverage on the electronic media should be fair, balanced and
unbiased in favour of any political party, a candidate or a leader
in respect of the following:
· Campaigning and excerpts from campaign speeches;
· Symbols, banners, flags and other campaign material of
parties;
· Results of opinion polls by non-political, professional
organizations with a proven track record;
· Party manifestos (critical analysis of which is also
perfectly legitimate);
· Candidates and their views in different constituencies
across the country;
· The positions taken by the main parties on different
issues important to the electorate;
· Debates between major parties and candidates;
· Analysis of previous voting pattern, victory margins
swings etc.
· There should be no coverage of any election speeches
or other material that incites violence;
· In any constituency, one candidate alone should not be
projected. While it is not necessary to cover every single candidate
(as some constituencies may have several candidates) at least
the more important should be covered in any report from a constituency;
· No one political party should be given substantially
more coverage than others. This ‘balance’ need not
be achieved in any single day or in a single story, but over a
reasonable period of time, say one week.
· Balance does not mean each party must get exactly the
same airtime to the last second, but parties should be given broadly
the same amount of time.
· Balance implies that no reasonable person should appear
that one political party is being projected to the exclusion of
others.
Second
fortnightly report
This
Report covers the period from September 10 to September 23, 2002.
KHABARNAMA
During
the fortnight (September 10 to September 23, 2002) in total twenty
five political parties made it to the PTV-Khabarnama and among
them Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-I-Azam) got the maximum coverage
for fourteen (14) minutes and four (4) seconds in Khabarnama.
The Muttahida Majlis-I-Amal (MMA) remained second by occupying
news space for nine (9) minutes and six (6) seconds. The Pakistan
Peoples’ Party Parliamentarian got five (5) minutes and
fifty-three (53) seconds to be on the third place in terms of
coverage.
The Grand National Alliance (GNA) and its’ constituent parties
(Millat Party one minute and twenty six seconds), got four minutes
and fifty-four seconds.
Among
others Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) got coverage for four minutes
and thirty-one seconds, Muttahida Qaumi Movement three minutes
and twenty six seconds, Pakistan Tehrik-I-Insaf two minutes and
forty-four seconds, Pakistan Peoples’ Party (Sherpao) two
minutes and twenty six seconds, Pakhtoonkhawa Milli Awami Party
together with Balochistan National Party two minutes and twenty
seconds, Awami National Party one minute and thirty four seconds,
Pakistan Awami Tehrik one minute and twenty three seconds, Pakistan
Muslim League (Functional) one minute and eleven second, Pakistan
Muslim League (Zia) one minute and three seconds, Tehrik-I-Istaqlal
forty five seconds, National Awami Party of Pakistan thirty nine
seconds, Alliance for Restoration of Democracy and Qaumi Jamhoree
Party thirty six seconds each, Pakistan People’s Party (Shaheed
Bhutto) twenty six seconds, Balochistan National Congress twenty
five seconds and Pakistan Gharib Party seven seconds.
The
candidates from (FATA) Federally Administered Tribal Areas (two
minute and forty five seconds). The only independent candidate
Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad from Rawalpindi was able to make it to the
Khabarnama for forty-nine seconds. The candidates belonging to
minorities and women got coverage within the time accorded to
the above-mentioned political parties.
By
and large this coverage was accorded to the central or provincial
party leaders, their rallies, meetings, press conferences and
the announcement of their manifestos.
Regarding
negative coverage only the Pakistan Peoples Party remained on
the receiving end. There was two minutes and forty three seconds
reportage on the conference arranged by Transparency International.
About four political parties namely; Pakistan Tehrik-I-Insaf,
Pakistan Awami Tehrik, Awami National Party and the Pakistan People’s
Party failed to attend the conference attended by President, Pervez
Musharraf but only the People’s Party was criticized for
not attending it and press clippings about its’ governments’
dissolution in 1996 were shown with negative commentary on September
19, 2002. However on September 13 there was two minutes and thirty
five seconds coverage of the conviction of one of its leader,
Asif Ali Zardari on corruption charges.
NEWS
NIGHT
During
the fortnight there were only three episodes of the News Night
that focused on Elections 2002 in one way or the other. In one
episode on September 11, the present political leadership (without
naming anybody) was criticized for failing to meet the leadership
criteria set by country’s founder Quaid-I-Azam Muhammad
Ali Jinnah. On September 18, 2002 Secretary Election Commission,
Hassan Muhammad provided information about the arrangements for
the election. The program was informative and had neutral contents
except a tirade against “so-called old faces.” However
in the News Night of September 19, 2002 the official of Transparency
International criticized Pakistan Peoples Party and Pakistan Tehrik-I-Insaf
for not attending their conference.
NEWS
AT 10
The
News at Ten on PTV World News totally recycled the footage of
PTV Khabarnama in its coverage of the political activities. However
it started showing the visuals of the election campaign that was
a positive development after our first Media Monitoring Report.
In terms of extra reportage than the repeat of PTV news the News
at Ten came-up with stories on emerging culture of seats adjustment
(on September 16, 2002) and an independent candidate from Rawalpindi,
Sheikh Rasheed criticized the two major ruling political parties
of the past and questioned their new friendship.
The
News at Ten was also creative to analyze the political situation
of various areas Rawalpindi (September 19) and Hazara (September
21). It also accorded reason able coverage to Dr. Ismara Khan
who had filed a petition against the denial of the right to contest
on reserved women seat while being the resident of the federal
capital.
Other
Election specific programs:
Election
Column:
On
September 16, 2002 the PTV started a comedy program, “Election
column.” Of-course the genre is creative but it demonizes
the politics, politicians and the parties and instead of serving
the purpose of political education it can further erode the citizens’
trust in the politics. Secondly the PTV accords priority to this
program by airing it before the educative and informative, Election
Hour.
Election
Hour:
A
special program has been started since September 16 and this enables
the political leaders to present their party manifesto for initial
few minutes and later face the questions from a panel. According
to the anchor of the program the political parties will be invited
on the basis of an alphabetical order. During the period of this
monitoring the pre-recorded programs of the following politicians
and the parties were aired; Asfandyar Wali and Qazi Anwar of Awami
National Party, Dr. Abdul Hayee Baloch of Balochistan National
Movement, Sanaullah Baloch of Balochistan National Party, Mullana
Shah Ahmad Noorani of Muttahida Malij-I-Amal, Aftab Ahmad Sheikh
of Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi of National
Alliance and Dr. Tahirul Qadri of Pakistan Awami Tehrik.
Nonetheless
it is not understandable that why the PTV that has acquired pretty
good specialization in airing live programs have opted to telecast
pre-recorded programs comprised of the interviews of the major
political leaders.
Special
Bulletin Election-2002
The
PTV on September 20 started a special bulletin Election-2002 though
this late-night program borrows the footage from the PTV Khabarnama
and the News at Ten however on occasions it comes-up with interesting
information about Election 2002. Every day in this bulletin the
names of the candidates from at least fifteen National Assembly
constituencies along with their election symbols are announced
and shown.
Paid
Political Publicity:
The
Pakistan Television announced its’ tariffs for paid political
publicity. During the first phase that was till September 15 the
parties were given an option to buy time at the rate of Rs. 20,000
per minute. The rates during the second phase (Sept. 16 to Sept.
30) have been determined as Rs. 30,000 per minute. During the
third phase (Oct. 1 to Oct. 8, 2002) this rate would jump to Rs
50,000 per minute. The telecast time on PTV was announced between
21:30 hrs to 2230 hrs with an option of repeat on PTV World at
payment of an additional Rs. 100,000. The rates for commercial
spots (minimum one minute) during the prime time (19:00 hrs to
21:00 hrs) were Rs 1,32, 250. However there was very little enthusiasm
for paid political publicity among the parties till September
23, 2002.
Third
fortnightly report
This
Report covers the period September 24 to October 7, 2002
PTV
KHABARNAMA (9:00 p.m.)
During
the fortnight Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-I-Azam) got maximum
coverage of seventeen (17) minutes and fifty seven (57) seconds,
whereas the Pakistan People’s Party remained second by getting
seventeen minutes (17) and twenty two (22) seconds. The Muttahida
Majlis-I-Amal got twelve minutes and one second to become the
third widely covered electoral competitor.
During
the fortnight thirty-two parties made it to Khabarnama, while
the election related activities of two civil society organizations
namely; Liberal Forum Pakistan (49-seconds) and Aurat Foundation
(two minutes and nine seconds) were also covered. The only independent
candidate apart from the candidates from FATA, who was covered
in PTV Khabarnama was
ex-minister, Abbas Sarfraz who got coverage of one minute. In
terms of negative reportage
on September 26, a twenty-one seconds story repeated charges of
alleged corruption against the PPP leader, Jhangir Badar.
Among
rest of the parties the Grand National Alliance got eleven minutes
and twenty nine seconds, Pakistan Tehrikk-I-Insaf four minutes
and twenty-five seconds, Muttahida Qaumi Movement four minutes
and one second, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz four minutes, Awami
National Party three minutes and twenty seven seconds, Pakistan
Awami Tehrik three minutes and sixteen seconds, Pakistan People’s
Party-Sherpao two minutes and twenty-five seconds, Pakhtoonkhawa
Milli Awami Party two minutes and six seconds, Jamhoree Wattan
Party one minute and thirty nine seconds, Tehrik-I-Istaqlal one
minute and thirteen seconds, Pakistan Muslim League-Junejo and
Pakistan Peoples Party-Shaheed Bhutto forty-five seconds each
and Pakistan Muslim League-Functional thirty-nine seconds.
The
other parties that got coverage in the prime-time Khabarnama include;
Pakistan Sunni Tehrik (33-seconds), Qaumi Jamhoree Party (31-seconds),
Pakistan Muslim League-Zia (30-seconds), Pakistan Ghareeb Party
(24-seconds). Mohajir Qaumi Movement (24-seconds), Pakistan Democratic
Party (21-seconds), National Awami Party (21-seconds), Mohajir
Ittihad (20-seconds), Balochistan National Party (20-seconds).
In
terms of priority election campaign news has yet to become the
first story. During the fortnight it was either fifteenth or the
sixteenth story even after the story about elections in Indian
occupied Kashmir. Nonetheless during the last two days it has
reached to be the fourth or the fifth story.
The PTV also covered the activities of the Election Commission
and foreign election observers pretty fairly. During the fortnight
the government also got a fair opportunity to malign the rulers
of the past. On September 28, the president criticized the rulers
of the past and their family oriented politics for one minute
and fourteen seconds and on October 2, he questioned those who
say that there are only two leaders (now in exile) in the population
of 140 million for two
minutes and twenty-one seconds.
NEWS
AT TEN
Although
the NEWS AT TEN by and large picked-up the footage from Khabarnama
but it accorded top priority to the campaign news. Secondly it
prepared special informative reports about women candidates, leaders
contesting from more than one seat etc. The special news bulletin
of PTV World News “Election-2002” also presented names
and symbols of the candidates along with informative reports.
ELECTION
HOUR
In
this pre-recorded 50-minutes programme during the fortnight leaders
of thirteen political parties had the chance to present their
manifesto and respond to the questions from the panel. During
this fortnight following leaders appeared in “Election Hour”,
Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao (PPP-S), Sirajuddin Shiekh (PML-F), Hamid
Nasir Chatta (PML-J), Raja Zafarul Haq (PML-N), Ghinva Bhutto
(PPP-SB), Ejazul Haq (PML-Z), Makhdoom Amin Faheem (PPP-P), Imran
Khan (PTI), Mian Muhammad Azhar (PML-Q), Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan
(PDP), Mehmood Khan Achakzai (PkMAP), Asghar Khan (QJP) and Farooq
Leghari (Millat Party/GNA). A handicap of Election Hour being
pre-recorded appeared on September 30 when the PPP-P chairperson,
Makhdoom Amin Fahim was interviewed. The Election Hour maintained
that the party has yet to
make its ’ manifesto public whereas it had been released
by the time this pre-recorded program was aired.
In
the first program of the series the host had announced that the
PTV will be inviting parties in an alphabetical order. But to
the viewers surprise in the last episode on October 6, 2002 the
president of Pakistan Millat Party and leader of Grand National
Alliance, Sardar Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari was the guest. It is
pertinent to mention that the head of Grand National
Alliance, Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi had already appeared in the Election
Hour on September 22, 2002.
Contrary
to this example only the head (Maullana Shah Ahmad Noorani) of
another six-religious parties electoral alliance Muttahida Majlis-I-Amal
was invited to the Election Hour and rest of the heavy weights
like Maullana Fazlur Rehman, Maillana Samiul Haq and Qazi Hussain
Ahmad were not provided individual opportunity the way Pakistan
Millat Party was facilitated.
PAID
PUBLICITY
Only
two political parties namely, Pakistan Muslim League-Qauid-I-Azam
and Pakistan Awami Tehrik availed the opportunity of paid political
publicity during the fortnight. However, Pakistan People’s
Party-Parliamentarian complained that the PTV censor committee
didn’t approve their advertisement as it carried the footage
of two former Prime Ministers namely, Zulfiqar Ali
Bhutto and Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto.
LIVE
PHONE-IN PROGRAM
The
PTV has started a live phone-in program “Aap-ki-Rai”
(Your Opinions) in which special focus is on the emergence of
a new leadership and the attributes the citizens would like to
see in their representatives in the National and Provincial Assemblies.
The Live Phone-In option that was denied to leaders of the political
parties in Election Hour has now provided an
opportunity to embark on tirade against the politicians. The PTV
has announced to air this program on October 9, 2002 as well when
the formal election campaign would already be over.
NEWSNIGHT
During
the fortnight there were only two programs that focused on emerging
political culture (October 5) and the campaign (September 28)
and nobody was specifically targeted.
Mohammad
Shehzad is a freelance journalist based in Islamabad. Email: rageshri2@yahoo.com
