In an editorial published on Friday, The News (Jang Group) belittles Husain Haqqani’s concerns for his safety as there have “been no fulminating clerics calling for Haqqani’s demise, nor protests or rallies against his alleged treachery”. As journalists, we find it particularly troubling that The News would require such a burden of proof of threats to […]
Earlier this week, Jang Group published a front page story by a mysterious person supposedly named ‘John S Hamilton’ that raised eyebrows as well as many questions. On Wednesday, Jang Group followed up with another story about the memo case that involves another mystery. The latest media story from Jang Group reports that Judicial Executive […]
That was the question that buzzed on Twitter Tuesday as people tried to figure out the identity of the author of a front page story “Special to The News” that is supposed to be by ‘John S Hamilton’ of Woodbridge, Virginia, USA. At first glance, the article, ‘Understanding the DNA of a BlackBerry set’ appears […]
Is The News (Jang Group) reporting on court proceedings or trying to influence an issue that is sub judice? This question must be asked in light of a report by Ahmad Noorani of 31 December, ‘Asma focused on army bashing, not maintainability of petitions. The short, four paragraph piece in Saturday’s newspaper contains a sensational […]
For the second year in a row, Pakistan has been awarded the dubious title of ‘deadliest nation for journalists’ according to the international organization Committee to Protect Journalists. The most shocking event, obviously, was the brutal murder of Saleem Shahzad, a case that has followed the usual path to a dusty shelf where it will […]
The latest version of the media’s ‘memogate’ parlour game has turned from who knew what and when about the infamous memo to who knew what and when about the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May. Mansoor Ijaz invented this new version of the game by first alleging that Husain Haqqani and Asif […]
Farah Zia provides an excellent review of the way media handled the ‘memogate’ story as it broke. Now that the Supreme Court has begun hearing petitions on the case, it becomes even more important that media play its role of reporting facts and not intentionally or unintentionally influencing the outcome – an act that would […]
It is unfortunately more common that our reports examine inappropriate and unprofessional behaviour by our respected journalists. Occasionally, however, there are moments that make us proud to be associated with the profession and we do like to recognise these as well. After a week of media circuses, we are pleased to be able to once […]
Newsweek Pakistan shows us how easily media can start rumours. Following the resignation of Ambassador Husain Haqqani on Tuesday, Newsweek Pakistan posted the following on Twitter. A few minutes later, Newsweek Pakistan posted again, clarifying that they were unable to verify the claims of their anonymous source. While it is good that Newsweek Pakistan clarified their report, it […]
“It is also being said…” by who? Who is saying this? What is their credibility? “If we can speculate…” Please don’t! We need facts, not rumour and innuendo. This is not news. This is just gossip.