Dear Friends, I am a freelance journalist, based in Islamabad. Read about the JANW initiative. It was really the need of the hour. Space for dissent is shrinking in the mainstream press. We need to evolve alternative channels of communication, with the maximum public out-reach. Last month I wrote this piece after monitoring Pakistani print and electronic media. Would be interested to know about the way Indian media treated the issue. Can anybody write? Good news: anti-nuke rallies (though small in size here) arrested reasonable coverage in Pakistani print media. Hope this article won’t be too boring.

Cheers!

Media Watch

Glorification of Nuclear Nationalism in the

Re-Awakened State !

By Zaffarullah Khan

The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and the Indian Journalists Union (IJU) were the first sister organisations in the newly convert nuke states, India and Pakistan, which issued a joint statement urging upon both countries, `not to build up tension in the subcontinent by participating in senseless arms race towards the end of twentieth century when the entire world was moving towards a peace loving society, particularly when both the nations are celebrating the golden jubilee of independence.’ Both bodies appealed to the political parties and governments of these countries to desist from building up nuclear weapons and other destructive arms. `Let both the nations compete with each other in eradicating poverty and illiteracy and to attain self-sufficiency in all major fields and let us not divert our precious resources to destructive purposes,’ was their main message.

Contrary to these words of rationality from the sister organisations of working journalist’s in India and Pakistan, the response of Pakistani print and electronic media to the Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests by and large remained in favour of hawkish nuclear nationalism and it purposefully created a loud din in favour of the test option. The protagonists of non-proliferation were castigated as `traitors’ in the game of patriotism well played through the jingoistic rhetoric during the two weeks in between Indian test and the Pakistani equalisers.

Subsequently unlike Indians, 140 million Pakistanis had to pay the price of going nuclear as they have been deprived of all the 21 fundamental rights guaranteed to them as citizens by the Constitution. The suspended rights include freedom of speech, freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of movement. The country’s courts also cannot come forward to declare any action of the state void or inconsistent with the law. More alarmingly, the right to life and liberty save in accordance with law has also been suspended. Similarly, there are no more safeguards available against arrest and detention and no right to have a lawyer of choice. This midnight blast by the President, who clamped an emergency, was ignored by the majority amid the euphoria of nuclear tests. The rich ones lost their forex accounts. Now the rupee is eroding and the economy sliding down, putting question marks over the very existence and viability of the re-awakened state with its nuclear nationalism.

The rationale of such a hawkish rhetoric churned out by the state-controlled electronic and private print media in Pakistan could be traced in a couple of inter-linked developments. Soon after the Indian nuclear tests, the Pakistani premier said, we can pay India back in the same coin within 24 hours. Secondly, instead of summoning an emergency session of the parliament to devise a consensus- based national response, the prime minister preferred to consult the owners and editors of the national press to chart out the country’s response. Premier Nawaz Sharif’s meeting with the editors/owners of newspapers, who en bloc advocated a matching response, was twice telecast on the state-controlled Pakistan Television. (Only a few were silent, and only one Mujeebur Rehman Shami advocated prior calculation of the economic pros and cons of going nuclear). This very gesture of the press clearly conveyed that there was no space left in the newspapers for dissenting views on the nuclear issue. Hence the minor peace lobby tried to make best use of the Internet and E-

mail. These two modes of communication experienced pluralistic debate on the issue and that still goes on. The total number of E-mail and Internet users in Pakistan exceeds 60,000.

Coming back to the premier-press meeting, the mainstream press embarked on a well-orchestrated campaign to create jingoistic hysteria and tried to exacerbate traditional tensions between India and Pakistan. Amid such situations there is a practice in Pakistan that self-appointed custodians of `national interest’ buy space in newspapers. In the wake of recent nuclear developments number of `ghost writers’ monopolised the newspapers’ space. The state bore the cost through its numerous `secret funds’. Secondly the state-controlled electronic media, Pakistan Television (Ptv) and Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) also contributed its share in cultivating jingoistic chauvinism. A private company which offers economic news bulletin "Tijarti Khabrain" on Ptv aired opinions of a few independent economists and columnists, who appeared to be in support of non-proliferation just a day before the country opted to explode its nuclear devices in Chagai. Because the overwhelming

opinions in the said bulletin were against mimicking India, the very next day the company was asked to pack up its business.

However things got settled with an unwritten agreement that in future "the bomb option will be duly magnified".

Another factor which shaped the press response was the irresponsible attitude and taunting statements of the Indian home minister which re-enforced pro-bomb thinking as vital for national security and finally played the role of a catalyst in convincing Pakistan to walk on the `MAD’ [Mutually Assured Destruction] path.

The Day After

More shockingly the news story on state-controlled electronic media on May 28 did not tell the details about the test site, type of tests and other specifications. Rather entire time was consumed on the prime minister’s `self-congratulatory’ speech to declare Pakistan a nuclear state. The photograph of the test site was released almost after a week. Another communication gap which confused the people was foreign minister Gohar Ayub Khan’s claim that Pakistan conducted two more tests on May 30, whereas foreign secretary Shamshad Ahmed maintained that country had conducted just one test that day.

Later prime minister Sharif and information minister, Syed Mushahid Hussain took two separate groups of journalists to the test site and it was only then revealed that the country conducted its sixth test in Kharan desert (Balochistan). A slap on the face of investigative journalism in Pakistan. The independent journalists and foreign media crews are still not allowed to visit the test site and write about possible radiation in the vicinity.

The state-controlled television did not miss the opportunity to belittle opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on the nuclear issue and mixed up her two separate statements to make a humiliating copy for a news item.

Among the print media the coverage in the national Urdu press was by and large emotional, instead of being informative. It appeared to be extra-jubilant over matching the number of Indian tests in Pakistani response. A couple of days later, another test further equated the score with India. The press came up with a response that now Pakistan and India had conducted an `equal number of tests’. Had it been a cricket match, it would have ended in a draw, but unfortunately this was the game of possessing and playing with dangerous toys. At risk are over a billion people living in South Asia with numerous problems like under-development, poverty, illiteracy etc.

However, the national English press remained pluralistic in terms of offering a modest space for dissent. It also lived with an argument that it was a `now-or-never game’ for Pakistan to divorce its policy of nuclear ambiguity. Post-test comments and analyses appearing in the press ignored the safety aspects like radiation, etc. Only a few English newspapers raised concerns on issues like an effective, cautious and transparent command and control system.

A glimpse of headlines from the Urdu press:

1. "Five "thappers" (slaps-worthy rejoinders) on the face of Vajpayee" (Daily Khabrain, Islamabad)

2. "Allah-u-Akbar, Five tests of Islamic Bomb" (Daily Ausaf, Islamabad)

3. "Al hamdullilah, Islamic bomb tested" (Daily Nawa-i-Waqt, Islamabad)

"The print media, seething with rage, had already fought and won many crusades before the nuclear dust raised a tempest", writes a columnist because, before the Pakistani tests, the vocabulary used by the Urdu press in its post-Indian test reporting kept up the emotional upsurge and inculcated a single- track thinking that the Indian nuclear tests should be retaliated against with `our tests’ alone. The Hindu religion and Indian mentality were diagnosed in more than one way, to reiterate all stereotypes with which Pakistanis are living since the partition of subcontinent. To be precise, the hangover of the two-nation theory attained a new connotation -- `two nations, with their separate Hindu and Muslim bombs’. The media quite conveniently ignored the odd paradox that both the Hindu and the Muslim bombs respectively in India and Pakistan had been fathered by Muslim scientists.

In Pakistan, the print media did not miss the opportunity to sensationalise the tirade of country’s nuclear scientists who were fighting among themselves for "monopolising credit" of bestowing the capability on the country. However, the government which was propagating an image of national unity in the wake of nuclear tests had to intervene and ask the scientists to end their war of words.

Journalists as activists in the post-bomb situation

Rightwing journalists sabotaged a press conference by Pakistan-India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy in Islamabad. They attacked Dr. Eqbal Ahmad and Dr. A.H.Nayyer and abused female peace activists. Shabab-i-Milli, youth wing of Jama’at-i-Islami, joined this crusade.

Two days later Shabab-i-Milli staged a demonstration in front of the parliament building and criticised all non-governmental organisations (NGOs) for being anti-nuclear. They dubbed the NGOs as the agents of America "Yahood" (Jews) and India "Hanood" (Hindus). Whereas the Pak-India People’s Forum is not an NGO but a forum, just like the Shabab-i-Milli.

An editor of Islamabad-based English daily Pakistan Observer hosted a reception in honour of Shahabab-i-Milli to acknowledge its `national services’, which were disturbed by the newspaper’s employees who have not been paid their salaries for the last six months.

Cartoons are not a norm in Pakistani Urdu (national language) press but, during the period of nuclear hysteria, lines and caricatures were used to translate `un-reportable’ verbal insults against India and `doves’ supporting non-proliferation. Most of the English newspapers also came up with similar stuff. However, Zahoor, cartoonist of daily The Frontier Post, Peshawar, came up with a series of anti-nuclear cartoons. Bravo, Zahoor!

Whether India and Pakistan will ever be able to live in peace like good neighbours or not, history tells us that, on December 14, 1948, through a Delhi Agreement, the two states recognised and sought the cooperation of the press, asking it not to indulge in propaganda against one another and refrain from presenting exaggerated versions of news or publishing material likely to exacerbate acrimony between Pakistan and India. A similar clause once again figured in the joint statement issued on the conclusion of foreign secretary-level talks in Islamabad in June 1997. But, in the wake of May Madness initiated by India and followed by Pakistan, our press played the role of an agent provocateur. Even the tone and temper of satellite dish channels was changed for a while. Now while the dust of nuclear tests is settling and harsh economic sanctions and realities are going to eat up the nuclear euphoria, the press in the both country needs to passionately analyse its role and should promote a culture of dialogue instead of showing the people the path of mutual destruction.

This message was received on August 9, 1998.

Journalists Against Nuclear Weapons

Mission statement

Journalists who attended the meeting on July 26, 1998, decided that a forum under the name of journalists Against Nuclear Weapons be formed by professional journalists who are concerned about nuclear weaponisation, especially in the context of the tests conducted by India and Pakistan.

The forum shall

network with other organisations, particularly those of professionals and working people, who share similar views against nuclear weaponisation;
build up a campaign involving all sections of the people about the dangers of nuclear weaponisation, and the insecurity created by the tests;
draw attention to the economic costs of the nuclear weapons programme and the anti-people priorities of public spending that it will entail, especially for a developing country like India;
counter attempts that seek to justify the recent tests as a scientific achievement and as a deterrent against war;
warn of the perils of ultra-nationalism, jingoism and communal chauvinism that have resulted from the nuclear tests; and
call for greater transparency on the part of the state regarding all issues connected with nuclear weaponisation so that people have a say on any future measures.

The forum will strive to promote a consensus among all sections of the people on the following goals: a) stopping weaponisation of India’s nuclear programme and b) evolving a national policy on adherence to international treaties that would be fully consistent with the objective of global

nuclear disarmament.

The forum emphasises that the dangers of nuclear weaponry as a part of the security systems of states, which first became manifest to the world tellingly in Hiroshima and Nagasaki five decades ago are all the more glaringly brought out by the tests conducted by the BJP-led government without even a pretence of inviting a public debate and by the ongoing efforts to make India a part of the so-called ‘ nuclear club’.

The Media Bomb

A Review of Press Responses to Pokharan II

Journalists Against Nuclear Weapons

1998