Electronic media managers from eight prominent television channels have evolved first-of-its-kind voluntary framework to standardise professional guidelines regarding terrorism coverage.
According to a press release issued here on Thursday, representatives of KTN, Samaa, Dawn News, Dunya, Express News and Express 24/7, ARY, Geo and Aaj News met here to conclude a two-week long internal debate on how best to respond to viewer feedback on reporting incidents where large scale loss of human life has occurred.
The group, comprising key news decision-makers in their respective organisations, recognised that public's abiding trust in the media placed a heavy responsibility on news managers to further improve the quality of video news product.
Applying their collective experience and judgement, they agreed on harmonising existing professional methods to perform the task of honest reporting in these times of extreme crisis and national danger. Members of the group, a voluntary gathering open to all, agreed among themselves that formalisation of policies on reporting and newsgathering in terrorism-related cases was the need of the hour.
The areas where the agreement was reached pertained to field and live reporting, viewer exposure to extreme and disturbing visuals, dead bodies, badly injured people, accounts of emotionally-distraught as well as eyewitnesses, and real-time decisions on releasing information during war or in the case of hostage-situation.
The news managers decided that they will desist from showing graphic and disturbing images on the screen, and as and when required, utilise a delay mechanism in their transmissions. This will enable the channels to edit out undesirable footage. The news managers also developed a consensus on putting greater efforts to check information before flashing breaking news about bomb blasts etc.
The news managers also agreed to exercise extreme caution when covering incidents involving hostages. They decided that in such situations, they would take all steps necessary to ensure that information being relayed through the channels does not, in any way, help the hostage-takers. Better training for camera crew, safety orientation of reporters were other areas where the group agreed to implement swift measures in line with the potential and constraints of each channel.
They also agreed to introduce strict safety measures for their crews covering disaster situations. They also requested all TV channels to cooperate with them in following these voluntary guidelines, and welcomed suggestions to further improve their coverage. The electronic news managers agreed among themselves that more discussions of this sort with their colleagues from other channels were required to further elaborate this framework.
Through such discussions, Pakistan's news channels would be able to honour the faith hundreds of millions of viewers have reposed in them, and who look up the Pakistani media as the most trustworthy institution central to the struggle for a better, prosperous, democratic and secure Pakistan. The news managers reiterated that these voluntary guidelines drafted by them would further enhance the professionalism in Pakistani channels.
They resolved to implement these decisions to the best of their abilities. The Pakistan Broadcasters Association (PBA) has already given its voluntary code of conduct on coverage of terrorism to the government. Now since the electronic news
managers have also agreed to voluntarily follow their own set of guidelines, they called upon the government to desist from imposing any guidelines formulated by official functionaries, as such guidelines would be seen as restrictions that would run counter to the spirit of freedom of expression. They also called upon the government and the military to stop pulling channels off-air as such moves are counter-productive. The top news managers also decided to hold such meetings on a regular basis with the aim to review such matters, and improve and revise these guidelines if and when the need is felt.
The news managers, who formulated these guidelines, are: Azhar Abbas, Managing Director, Geo News; Syed Talat Hussain, Executive Director, Aaj News; Abbas Nasir, Editor, Dawn News and Dawn; Ali Qazi, CEO, KTN; Tariq Wasi, Head of Operations, ARY Digital Network; Mohsin Raza, Director, News ARY News; Fahad Husain, Director, News, Express News and Express 24/7; Owais Tohid, Director, News, Dunya TV; Nasim Zehra, Director, Current Affairs, Dunya TV; and Amir Zia, Director, Current Affairs, Samaa TV.