October 18, 2005
Government urged to set up National Media Centre
By Awais Saleem
“THE recent earthquake has highlighted the need for a permanent ‘National Media Information Crisis Centre’ for ensuring dissemination of information to media organizations in an organized manner on such tragic happenings.” The Chairman Punjab University Mass Communication Department Prof Dr Mughees-ud-Din Sheikh floated this idea while talking exclusively to The News here Monday. He stressed that this Centre could also take the free media into confidence on national issues.
He cited the example of government officials in Islamabad and Azad Kashmir issuing contradictory statements about the death toll and rescue/relief operations. This created confusion in public, he said. “May be the authorities can’t reveal details to the masses to avoid panic, but they should take the media into confidence,” he said. This was the reason that everybody wanted to rush to the affected areas with relief goods instead of relying on official information, he said. “The 38,000 deaths being insisted upon by the government, is hard to believe because in the same vein, it is being said that the number can be double or even go beyond,” he said.
Such misconceptions, he believed, could only be clarified through a crisis centre. He opined that the state controlled media had largely been ‘defensive and apologetic’ about the earthquake, probably to cover the lack of preparation. The private media has also slightly compromised on its social responsibility in a bid to take lead over the others, he said.
However, there were quiet a few positive aspects of the coverage of private media houses as well, he said adding that they reached the affected areas and identified lapses in certain areas to enable the authorities to fix them. Mughees said the media’s role as ‘social; ombudsman’ could significantly help the government because its agencies alone could not undertake all operations.
He said that the general public had donated generously to relief efforts on the appeal of private media, which was a feather in their cap. Their portrayal of reality should be appreciated. He was of the view that the media should not bash government at such a crucial juncture. “It is a fact that the relief goods can’t reach all affected areas overnight,” he said. The media should have highlighted success stories as well where the relief workers had overcome critical situation, her said. He urged the media to urge both the government and the common people to remain calm in this hour of turmoil. He also suggested that the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) could have deputed information officers so as to ensure supply of proper information. “The lack of this has made a certain overseas television channel run a story that the terrorists in the North had also died in the quake,” he said.
The government, he stressed, should invite representatives of media organizations, critics and researchers to give shape to the idea of ‘National Media Information Crisis Centre’ (NMICC). He said three DMC employees, Qudoos, Imtiaz and Illyas, had lost several of their family members in AJK. A number of AJK university students also suffered in this tragedy, he informed.
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