A Karachi-based satellite channel which uplinks from Dubai has taken the Pakistani market by storm. Given the sense and sensibility that drives this independent broadcaster, could the rest of Southasia be the next market?
Early morning on 30 January 2005, long before dawn but after the daily newspapers had gone to press, the building that houses the Jang Group of Newspapers in Karachi was attacked by 30 armed gunmen on motorbikes. The building's gatekeepers were beaten up and the first two floors were ransacked. Eyewitnesses later reported that a police van stationed at the street corner was filled with armed policemen who did not stir. Later that morning, a religious group claimed responsibility for the act and explained its motive.
The previous evening, the Pakistani channel GEO TV had aired a discussion on the ultra-sensitive topic of incest on its Agony Aunt programme, Uljhan Suljhan. Considering the subject, the channel had moved the programme out of primetime and its host, Hina Khwaja Biyat, had brought in a 'technical' panel comprised of a doctor, a psychologist, a medical researcher and a sociologist. A victim's letter was read on the air. In it, she wrote that her brother had sexually abused her for six years. Thrice, she had tried to commit suicide but failed. What should she do? The panelists pitched in with their advice, and as the program came to a close, the doctor identified a mutual dependency situation. The incest, the doctor feared, would continue. To prevent further complications in a sensitive situation, she strongly recommended the use of contraception. In one sweep, the programme had dared to discuss two taboos —incest and contraception — on a popular television channel, in a society where social issues tend to be dictated and defined by hard-line, self-proclaimed theologians. Or, they are simply not discussed. By 2:30 am, GEO's offices had been stormed.
When GEO began its transmission in August 2002 as an Urdu television channel, it was not the first independent broadcast to challenge the monopoly of the government's Pakistan Television (PTV). Indus Vision and ARY Digital were both launched in 2001, after General Pervez Musharraf's government declared it open season for private channels. By now, more than 13 independent channels have flooded the market — all of them reaching the Pakistani viewership through cable and satellite networks and accessing less than half of the population that state television reaches. 39 more licenses are soon to be issued, several of them for regional language channels. Moreover, Indian broadcasts are back on cable after having been banned shortly after the Kargil war, providing serious competition to CEO's generally average entertainment programs. Meanwhile, draconian press laws continue to infringe upon media's freedom, impacting the credibility of television news. The rising tide of fundamentalism in the country and the growing political role of Islamists mean even greater media suppression.