Pakistan

Global Media Monitoring Project 2009-2010

National Report 2009-2010
GMMP 2009 in Pakistan

Table of Contents
1
Preface 2
Executive Summary
A Day in the News in Pakistan 3
News Subjects 3
4
What News
Analyzing Each Medium 5
Compiling the Analysis 7

GMMP 2009-2010 and

Some Observations
from Pakistan 9
11
The Way Forward
Preface
The growth of electronic media is a vast phenomenon in Pakistan. The mushrooming of
channels can be traced back to the early 2000's when dozens of private channels in
English, Urdu and regional languages started capturing the attention of a large number
of audiences. These channels both news and entertainment- generated and continue to
generate massive media content but this content generally goes un-monitored for lack
of ethical guidelines, gender sensitivity and gender balance. Keeping in mind that a
large segment of Pakistani masses are un-educated and for them media is the only
source of information and entertainment and they do lack the ability and vision to
question the media messages/ content. As far as the regularity authority and governing
body for media is concerned the check and balance mechanism despite its existence is
mainly in action whenever the content is 'perceived' as anti-government and the
consequences could range from blocking the channels to pressurizing the channel
owners for removing such 'objectionable' contents. However, the way women are
presented, portrayed or projected, the connotations, jokes and humour that have
women as the 'centre piece' go totally unnoticed. It is primarily for this lack of gender
sensitivity, blindness and bias, that Uks started with its own mechanism of media
monitoring and content analysis and sharing it with the media for feedback and feed
forward.
It is essential to mention that in 2002 Uks became the first Non-Governmental
Organization in South Asia to compile and disseminate A Gender Sensitive Code of
Ethics for Print Media in Pakistan, it addresses journalistic codes and ethics for
gender-just reporting for the media.
Over the years Uks has monitored a representative sample of ten media outlets serving
each city. These include television stations and news publications in English, Urdu, and
regional languages. This is done using the methodology developed over more than ten
years of monitoring media on gender sensitivity, gender balance and gender-just
reporting. Uks is also maintaining a Print Media Database since 1998 to date. This huge
data is used by not only the Uks team but also the researchers to make comparisons,
find patterns and to study and analyze the trends in the media content over the years,
and now that this is available on-line, makes it an easier process.
In 2009 Uks took the initiative of making Pakistan a part of the Global Media
Monitoring Project for the first time. This provided the Uks Media monitoring team an
excellent opportunity and platform to exercise their skills and learn about the gaps and
issues in the current media setup in the country through the well established
methodology and guidelines shared by the GMMP.
The media monitors were trained before the actual monitoring day on both the
qualitative and quantative parts of analysis. The well structured and systematic
analysis exercise and the clear instructions given in the supporting documents
explained in detail by the Master trainer Ms Tasneem Ahmar. The training of monitors
made it very easy for them to carry out the actual activity.
The relevance of issues in GMMP 2009/ 2010 could easily be mapped to the gender and
media concerns in Pakistan. Almost all the gender and media concerns in Pakistan's
current media scenario were covered. The issues were fairly relevant because gender
blindness and missed opportunity was generally prevalent in the media as far as the
women issues were concerned.

1
Executive Summary

On the day of monitoring ( November 10th 2009) there were a total of 20 monitors who
were present at the Uks office in Islamabad where three groups were working on their
respective medium on three different floors of the office building. The monitors were a
blend of the Uks internal media monitoring team and students from Quaid-e-Azam
University's Gender Studies Centre.
The duration of monitoring was 10:00 a.m till 5:00 p.m. The media content included 4
television channels, 2 radio channels, and 4 newspapers.
For Television Geo TV, Aaj TV, Express TV and Dawn TV were selected. Geo is the
largest 'Urdu' language private tv channel in the country. Urdu is the national language
and the channel is therefore widely viewed all over the country. Dawn was the first
'English' language channel of the country and has great viewership and popularity. The
other two channels selected are also very popular among the masses.
For Radio National Broadcasting Service (NBS) and FM 97 were selected. NBS is
heard all over the country and FM 97 is quite popular among the listeners of all ages.
For Newspaper Jang, Express, Nation and Dawn were selected. The reason for this
selection was adequate circulation all over the country and popularity among the
readers. The news selected in national language was also transcribed into English and
transcriptions were shared along with coded sheets with the GMMP team.
This is the first time Pakistan has participated in GMMP.

2
A Day in
the News in
Pakistan:

The News agenda in Pakistan on the monitoring day was primarily defense and
political news content in all the mediums. Other than the dominance of defense and
political themes the main stories were:
· Gilgit-Baltistan Elections (Politics)
· Bomb blast in Charsadda- (Terrorism)
· Sugar Crises in the country
· The Nuclear Issue
· National Reconciliation Ordinance
It can be safely said that no dramatic event that could possibly have an impact on the
news day was missed out.

News Subjects
A total of 43 news presenters were featured in the survey of whom 25 (58%) were
female and 18 (42%) were males. Out of a total of 35 reporters featured 3% were
female 31 % were male and the remaining were not known.
In surveying the presence of women and men in the news in Pakistan as news subjects
the total of 261 subjects included 70 (27%) females and 191(73%).

The survey of presence of female and male news subjects by medium found that on
television 68% were males and 32 % were females. In Radio the ratio was 90% males
to 10 % females. In newspaper 81 % of the subjects were found to be male and 19%
were female.

3
What News
The survey on the presence of female and male news subjects in Pakistan. by story
topic found the following: as a percentage of all female news subjects, the largest
number of female subjects (28%) was in the social and legal category, followed by
crime and violence (25%) , ( 21%) were in the politics and government category
(20%) in the celebrity art, media and sports category; 6% in science and health and
none in economics category.

Analyzing Each Medium

1. Television:

During television monitoring the news story about the tussle between two female
footballers was presented in a negative way. This particular news item was also
analyzed by Uks monitors through the case study templates provided by the GMMP.
Women were presented in a stereotypical way where the anchor explained how
females are always in the habit of showing their weakness through fake tears. The
language and expressions used by the anchor to explain the incident was not very
suitable, the way was rather insensitive. The footage was also shown over and over
again and this news item was also made part of the headlines. This served as a clear
example of blatant stereotypes.

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There was a news story about the non-availability of courier service for the last two
years in Khurram Agency. Views from the affected people of the community were
taken but these didn't include female opinions or even female presence at all. The
problems that they might have faced or were facing were not even highlighted.
Similarly presence/ representation of women from general public or even the political
parties in the news report about the election campaign for Gilgit Baltistan Elections
was missing.
Considering that media plays an important role to bring gender justice to the society
women should've given space to comment through the media or express their views,
opinions or feelings. On contrary the male counter parts views and opinions were
taken but the story missed out on the women view point.
The story about internally displaced persons was about the family living in a
makeshift house in Dera Ismail Khan. Keeping in view the fact that in a Pakistani
society it is the female who has to perform the major chunk of not only the domestic
work but also the related chores, the opinion of females regarding the problems that
they were facing in the current situation was a must but their problems and concerns
were not discussed or highlighted throughout the story however to project a balance a
minor girl was shown.
The above two case studies are examples of missed opportunities or gender blind
stereotypes.
There was news about Pakistan Fashion week that took place in Karachi. The concept
was that in the tough times when Pakistan was facing political and security crises such
events will help give a peace message to the world. But the footage of the fashion
week consisted of female models objectified and commodified to attract the attention
of masses in a way that the society particularly the males who could consider them as
objects of pleasure and anxiety release. The male models were also part of the event
but were never shown in the footage. This shows how media projects and presents
women. This news story was blatantly stereotyped.

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2. Print:
In newspaper analysis the monitors came across derogatory news headlines
especially in the urdu language newspapers. For example titles like 'Raid on
brothel, 4 people including 3 women arrested' the names of females is also
mentioned in the news item. Which is against the code of ethics the fact that the
arrested persons included women was highlighted and the overall impression that
this news item gives is that women are the objects of sex and have everything to do
with brothel houses. This is an example of victimization of women through media.
A news story explains what the lady speaker (Fehimida Mirza) has to say about the
th
National Poet (November 9 was the poet's birthday). Ms. Mirza is the first female
speaker of the country but she is portrayed in media in a rather feminine way. The
media always tries to bring forward the soft aspects of her personality rather than the
important work she does being the first female in an important position in this male
dominant society. Also the space and importance given to the news item containing
her was given less coverage than a male counterpart who got his news printed on the
front page. This clearly depicts the glass ceiling that the females have to face being
in a male dominant world
Similarly there was a story in the newspaper about a famous and popular Top model
and one of the best performing actresses in the country. The story highlights the fact
that despite her achievements, she is 'still a single' the news story explains that she
will be playing the role of late Prime Minister Benzair Bhutto. The reporter's focus is
on asking the actress about when the she plans to tie the knot. This story gives the
impression that no matter how well settled a woman is in her career and no matter
how high she aspires to go she ultimately needs a male in her life to have a safe and
respectable standing in the society. Reading
between the lines helps analyze that her being
married tells the society that she is not 'available'
and no one can harass her or make a pass on her.
However in the newspapers monitored on
th
November 10 2009, there was surprisingly one
story found and analyzed as a case study that
challenged stereotypes. The story revolved
around Ms. Naheed Khan (Secretary to late
Prime Minister Ms. Benazie Bhutto) her strong
statements against the investigation of the Prime
Minister's murder and the selection of party president were openly explained in the
story. This was an attempt at depicting the powerful role of women in Pakistani
politics that is a positive thing. The noteworthy thing is that her husband who is also
a Senator was referred to as 'her husband' which is unusual because successful
women are usually introduced as some ones 'wife, daughter or sister'. Therefore it
was concluded that this story shows the empowered dimension of women and
challenges the stereotypical image of women in the Pakistani society.

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3 Radio:
For Radio it was observed that generally the news revolved around national & local
government elections and politics. In the entire day there was only one women
central news item. It was about a development initiative taken for them. This news
item explained that the Federal Minister for Population Welfare has announced safe-
mother homes and multi-purpose centers for women all over the country. This was
the only positive news item about women.
There news item about the developmental projects in the country where the Prime
Minister was announcing them while addressing the public procession in Gilgit

Baltistan Elections, It was observed that the news had no opinion of the female
population neither did any plan concerned women.
Women could have been made part of the news item by highlighting the
government's agenda for women development. They may have been encouraged to
cast their vote via this particular news item. But unfortunately all of these things
were missing. Therefore we can clearly say that this news story was a missed
opportunity or gender blind.

Compiling the Analysis:

The analysis work was spread over duration of 2 weeks with at least one hour on
average dedicated to analysis activity every day.
Therefore approximately 10 hours were spent on the analysis of each part of coding.
There were a few problems faced during the analysis compilation like:
The categories for subjective analysis were broad and they needed to be more
specific. Although the guidelines were clear but still it was difficult to understand
and relate with the examples given in the training material. It was suggested to the
GMMP team via the feedback form that for future exercises it will be good to add
examples from the Asian Media.

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Uks Research Centre on Women & Media is already a Media watch group and for the
Uks team both the staff and students, it was a great learning experience. The fact that
we were part of a global activity all happening the same day and date was indeed a
thrilling experience.
Uks has also tried to incorporate the GMMP style of Media monitoring and analysis
in its own media monitoring methodology.
The feedback form, Contextual information form, the transcriptions, the coded sheets
for each medium and the clippings etc were all shared in both hard and soft form with
the GMMP team

8
GMMP 2009-2010 and Some Observations from Pakistan
No doubt the Global Media Monitoring Project is a step forward towards the
improvement of current media scenario in the participating countries as it brings out
data based on qualitative and quantitative content analysis on one day in almost 130
countries around the world. It was indeed an honour for Uks Research Centre -a
pioneer in media monitoring and analysis in the Pakistan- to participate in this
activity. As the first timer, Uks research team found the exercise both challenging
and exciting. There were, however, some observations that may suggest way
forward for the 2015 GMMP and also for media content analysis in Pakistan.

What the GMMP 2009-2010 cannot encompass in one day?

The big question for Uks is: whether one day's monitoring is enough to gauge the
media's blindness, fairness, support or bias towards women as subjects and sources
of news content? For example, in Pakistan, monitoring the media on November 10,
2009 has not indicated much towards media's gender sensitivity or lack thereof, as
there were no such reports that could bring out these elements. So, the results may be
mild or normal and may give an impression that the Pakistani media does not have
much gender bias in its news and current affairs content. This could be correct for
some days, events or happenings but cannot be presented as a representative picture.
There are biases at various levels, from selection of news stories on women to how it
is presented, who presents, writes or produces it, what does the tone of the news
caster suggest and how the pictures or visuals are selected. It has also been observed
that whatever the medium, whether on radio, TV and newspapers wherever opinions
are needed the trend is to start with the male voice and at times to forgo the female
voice at all. During the national budget it is a routine to solicit women's opinions
strictly as housewives rather than in a professional capacity. There are women who
are expert economists but their voices are severely under projected. So unrelenting
is our lack of acknowledgement of women and their issues that even their number is
erroneously reported as being at 52% of the population when the census puts it at 48
%. Women are still not given their due place either in newsrooms or in news stories.
The two factors are directly proportional to each other. It is fact that more women are
needed in the news room to get a fair projection of women related issues however
media projection of women in a healthy and productive light is important to shift
societal attitudes in favour of women working in the field. Regrettably it is men who
decide what news, views and visuals are to be heard, read and seen. While there are
more women today in the media in the capacity of reporters, camera persons, sub
editors, news anchors producers and directors the actual reflection of women's
problems on the airwaves and in print has been hazy to say the least.
This male domination of our newsrooms becomes overwhelmingly prominent
during news coverage of disasters or crisis. The October 8, 2005 earthquake in
Pakistan is just another example of how the media continues to be heavily male
dominated. No wonder then that most of the news coverage was devoid of any
gender sensitivity, presenting women as mere helpless victims. While men were

9
were projected or presented as brave survivors, helping other, media's bias for
reporting sob stories of women survivors was more than obvious. Rather than
bringing up stories of how courageous most of these women were in the given
situation, the focus was more on establishing that women were so dependent on
their biological completeness, including their eligibility for marriage and ability to
procreate that now since so many had been rendered disabled, many found it
useless to live on.
This is just one example. But our media is full of many more citations of gender
biases and blindness. There is a need to address this gender insensitivity. There is
also a need to address some other crucial but hidden (or not so prominent) issues of
harassment at work places and other discriminations meted out to women media
persons. This is why Uks has always felt that it is essential that there be more space
for women's voices and concerns in the media. We have always focused that there is
an urgent need to bring forward women's issues and give women and their concerns
a proper place in the mainstream media.
Keeping in mind the justified or self created limitations that the media is so often
complaining about, there is a need to find a way out for making women more
prominent in the media coverage-be it print, electronic-including the internet. We
also realize that space for - women issues- is shrinking in the media and there is a
visible preference for politics, business, sports, entertainment and show business.
Another related issue is the Glass Ceiling Effect or the extremely low percentage of
women in top media positions.
Then we have the gap between the number of female students in departments of
Mass Communication and their visibility in media. All major universities in
Pakistan have Mass Communications departments with high representation of
female students. In some universities they outnumber male students, yet when it
comes to entering the practical field, we find very few women in the media,
especially in the newsrooms.
Another important issue is Night Shifts. Women are not put on night shifts because
that would mean providing transport facilities etc. But women journalist says that
this is just one way to justify keeping women out of serious journalism.
Sexual harassments, unwanted advances, indifferent managements, professional
demotion, personal vendetta, uneasy relations, generation gap, constant irritants
and character assassination are no less important issues.
Thus it is felt that there is an urgent need for regular interaction and networking
with decision-makers in national publications/production houses, to bring out in
the open the support of like-minded journalists in the media and most important,
that of the public.

10
The Way Forward

For the 2015 GMMP, Uks would like to suggest a regular media content analysis by
the participating countries through a mutually agreed format. This could be based
on a one-day every month, for example every 1st of each month, or any other
methodology that would have a relatively bigger sample and include more analysis
than one-day's.
Between now and 2015, a regular monitoring of the media is carried out to analyse
the media content on how various governments/countries are progressing (or
failing to progress???) on meeting the Millennium Development Goals would help
GMMP in compiling a comprehensive report on the role of media in
helping/supporting policy makers and governments in achieving the MDGs. The
media is growing powerful, especially if we look at the expansion of television and
FM radio in many countries, especially in the global South. It is this power that the
media can use to hold governments accountable because achieving the MDGs is
basically a question of governments acting upon their promises, responsibilities
and obligations to their people. For this the masses must be made aware that it is
their right to know how and what their government is doing to achieve the goals. It
is the media that must play the desired role of continuing informing the public
about the development goals and how forward or backward the governments are in
achieving these. The next step of this monitoring would be to look at the media
content through the gender lens.
Similarly, media should also be monitored regularly on what ever happened to
Section J of the Beijing Platform For Action (BPFA) after governments
adopted it and committed themselves to implementing the recommendations.
The 2015 report may include a section of regular monitoring of each partner
country on the status, profile and progress of women in/and media in their
country. If we look at the Pakistan scenario, as things stand today, not much
has been done at the government level to incorporate the clauses in Section J.
It is only at the level of media monitoring groups that have been raising their
voices and concerns on the existing and persisting gender biases in the
Pakistani media. The National Plan of Action, for example is still way
behind in implementing what it had promised in its last report.
Another area that has not really been discussed is how women are portrayed or
projected by the foreign or international media in a country. For example, in
Pakistan, most of the images that go out as representing or reflecting Pakistani
women are majorly faulty. If one were to only depend on the foreign media
working in Pakistan, the world will have images of fully veiled women,
abused and battered women and women who are paper dolls. The reality,
though underrepresented is that women of Pakistan are progressing against all
odds. They are making a difference in their lives and impacting upon others.
The world never gets to see Pakistani women who are fighter pilots, who are
patrolling officers on highways, who run industries, are heading multi-

11
national and even at the grass root levels they are coming forward. This
ignorance, bias or indifference could be witnessed in many countries-how
foreign media depicts women of a country.
There is need for more intense and comprehensive training and recruitment of
volunteers (media monitors) through collaboration with the partner institutions
must be done well in advance for the next media monitoring activity. In this was the
accuracy of survey can be ensured
GMMP must also look at addressing the following issues through advocacy and
campaigns.
· Positive portrayal of women in the media
· Better/more representation of women in all tiers on the media
· Highlight cases of harassment and discrimination against women in the
media
· Provide strength and support to women in media
· Initiate open dialogue and critique of media trends that are damaging to
women of and in the media
· Promote professionalism, ethics and social responsibility in media
· Bring forward success stories of women in the media
· Share information and resources
· Create awareness on the glass ceiling effect
· Endorse gender equality and justice within the media and society
· Facilitate a platform for media women and (supportive) men
· Support and promote more women inducted in the media
· Support and promote better environment and facilities for women working
in the media
· Support and promote women breaking the glass ceiling and reaching top
positions
· Ensure there is positive and equal coverage of women

· Initiate a regular media watch group

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