Minorities in Media

The minorities living in Pakistan have a right to profess, practice and propagate their religion by all means. But these minorities actually suffer extensive socioeconomic discrimination in Pakistan. Even the mainstream media ignores minorities. The issues and problems of minorities are not highlighted or debated in talk shows and limited coverage is given to them by news media.

In March 2012, a Sikh gurdwara was demolished in Mardan, Peshawar. The temple was over 150 years old and was built in the name of Baba Karam Singh in 1846. It was demolished overnight by the land mafia. The 35 feet tall national heritage was turned into debris in the native town of Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ameer Haider Hoti. A well and some old constructions around the temple were also demolished by the land grabbers, said the report.

The temple is considered one of the holy places for the people belonging to Sikh religion. Thousands of people travel from all over Pakistan and India to worship this temple.

Firstly the temple should have been protected by the government and they should have stopped the land mafia from demolishing it. Secondly, when the temple got demolished there was no coverage by the media. Many people don’t even know about any such demolition because it was shown only on Dawn news and that too in a report of barely one minute.

The temple was of great historical importance to Sikhs so it is obvious that the demolition must have enraged the Sikh community. The question here is that why wasn’t any of this shown in the news channels or the talk shows? When anything happens to the Muslims our media over exaggerates it and shows it again and again for many days. But when the minorities face any turmoil, they get completely ignored by the media.

Mr. Mohammad Ali Ahsan, regional distribution manager at SAMAA TV Lahore, stated that it is true that media sometimes overlooks the problems of minorities and it is unethical at some point but we do try our best to give them the required coverage on occasions such as Christmas, holi, baisakhi or Guru Nanak’s birthday celebrations. When I asked him that these are only the positive news that they are covering, what about the negative news such as the demolishment of the gurdwara or hindu temples? Mr. Ahsan answered that well we do cover the negative news also but only to some extent, we show the viewer what he wants to see.

The disregard of minorities by the media is unethical and there should be a law that gives equivalent coverage rights to minorities in the mainstream media.