Consistent televised criticism of the government’s incapability to handle the flood situation resulted in increasing domestic discord during the 2010 flood in Pakistan. Flood coverage by most Pakistani television channels can be appreciated that they brought the magnitude of the calamity into public knowledge. But the laborious effort of these TV channels could have been more beneficial if they had not gone out of their way in adopting only an alarmist view. By drumming up the sentiments of an aggrieved population against an ill prepared government, the TV channels discredited the authorities by accusing them of not being worthy of receiving foreign or local assistance. This showed that the robust electronic media was the biggest threat to the feeble Pakistani State at a time of national trail.
This paper aims to indicate how electronic media, especially television can be used effectively before and during natural disasters ; followed by how the Pakistani television channels mishandled the flood 2010 reportage; concluding with suggestions for better disaster management strategies for future, similar, natural mishaps.
Pakistan – a country ill equipped for disaster management:
The massive flood in August 2010 in Pakistan left 1,985 dead, 2946 injured and disrupted one fifth of the country. According to UNICEF compilation of official figures, some 1.74 million homes were destroyed and at least 18 million Pakistanis were affected. It is suggested that the crises still lingers on, even after seven months. Situation was especially worrisome in Baluchistan where provincial disaster management authority had said that 25,262 people were being housed in disease infested 39 camps and over a million children remained out of school. Funding to meet the food and medical needs of refugees remained inadequate and the most vulnerable groups still suffered. ( Alam and Hassan, 2011:34)
This scenario is not unfamiliar. Pakistanis faced a similar devastation on October 8, 2005 in the form of a massive earthquake in the northern areas which caused irreparable loss of life and property at the time. According to approximate estimates after the earthquake, 80,000 people were killed and 3.5 million people were rendered homeless. President Musharraf ‘s government was severely criticized for its mismanagement on two accounts. Either the earthquake victims were left ignored or the aid was too slow in reaching the affected areas. The Musharraf government’s feeble responses in self defense fell deaf on the public’s ear because the masses believed that the delaying relief efforts had resulted in tremendous human loss.
Two major disasters in Pakistan’s recent history indicate that the Pakistani government is inadequate to manage colossal natural catastrophes. This might be true to other developing countries and since more and more environmental hazards are predicted by meteorologists, the need to develop support networks for better disaster management in future should be encouraged. Mass media can be an important devise in making strategies of assessment, reconstruction and rehabilitation around disasters successful.
How can mass media be connected to better disaster management?
Experts on disaster management suggest that information should be shared as soon as the disaster hits an area. Keeping to this focus “The World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction and the Roundtable on Media”, recommended the following principles of how the media can play a vital role in educating the public about disasters:
- Warning of hazards.
- Gathering and transmitting information about affected areas.
- Alerting government officials, relief organizations, and the public to specific needs.
- Facilitating discussions about disaster preparedness and response.
- Providing timely, accurate and sensitive communications.
- Demonstrating cost effective means of saving lives, reducing property damage, and increasing public understanding.
- Directing media communications towards educating and empowering people to take practical steps to protect themselves from natural hazards.
Why Television?
In 2005, SAFMA South Asian free Media Association had suggested that after the earthquake, capacity building of journalists should be encouraged in the affected area so that the trained journalists play a role in monitoring crucial rehabilitation and reconstruction activities, and keep the country informed of the needs of the respective communities. The report further recommended that with the rapid internet growth in the urban centers of Pakistan, there was a need to establish internet connectivity to remote areas of the region so that the country is better prepared especially in times of national, natural disasters(Irfan Ahmed,2005:149).
Although the suggestion for better internet access can be valued, in reality, television remains the most effective mediam for disaster coverage. Televised version of the disasters usually thrives because televised disaster coverage makes good stories and usually allows for attention –grabbing visuals. Television is also popular during disasters because it provides validity to the coverage ( dennis wenger)Moreover, the most popular medium in Pakistan is television therefore more investment and training in this medium should be prioritized regarding disaster awareness and management. Opening as test pilot project in Lahore in 1964, the Pakistan television expanded to 5 major, fully equipped centers by 1975. Especially after 2002, the growing impact of television in Pakistan cannot be overlooked. Since 80% of Pakistanis are rural based and have access to PTV, 70% of them are illiterate, television as an instrument of communication cannot be separated from the agenda of grass root development ( Pasha, 2006:261-265).
What was television’s role during Flood 2010?
Unfortunately, the Pakistani private channels during flood 2010 first raised the public outcry, then portrayed the failure of the government in coping with a devastation that was much beyond its capability and, subsequently, dubbed it as corrupt and not worthy of honestly handling the national and international donations.
Although the picture was not entirely bleak and there were some good examples of responsible reporting, Various television channels targeted President Asif Ali Zardari who continued with his untimely foreign trip, despite a popular backlash at home. This, however, diverted media’s focus from prolonged tragedy in Pakistan. Since the focus was on either the negligence or alleged corruption of President Zardari and the government, the efforts at rescue were either ignored or portrayed in a bad light. Instead of emphasizing greater public mobilization in support of the victims of floods, various television channels incited an aggrieved populace by over-playing an incompetent response by the government in the beginning
As a result the Pakistani floods did not get the due importance from the international media and the international community in its initial stage. Anti government rhetoric increased the trust deficit between the flood governing bodies and international and local donors. The atmosphere of confusion and unreliability affected the national morale and international commitment. Some TV channels showed that the aid which had managed to reach in the form of blankets and food items had been sold at a profit further raising foreign and local suspicion.
Pakistani TV anchors could have made a considerable difference in uplifting the national mood because they enjoy massive viewership, yet they gave the impression that the media had reached places where the government had not yet approached. Such kind of reporting portrayed only these anchors in a positive light reducing flood reporting to a self-promotion campaign. This trend was set by two eminent TV anchors (one from Geo and the other from Aaj) and was caught on by some others starting a competition among the anchors in portraying the worst. Some of them had even set out a monetary fund in which people were coaxed into donating money for the flood victims. Such efforts can be clearly appreciated only if they have transparency, accountability, follow up procedures and checks on commercial benefits of advertisements to their respective media bodies.
Another aspect of flood reporting became evident when some TV anchors provided a platform to portray their favored politicians in good light and demolish others they did not like. However, by exposing fake camps for image building the channels performed their job well. But some journalists preferred to become embedded reporters by riding and flying with the leading personalities and even arranged mock shows of distributing the relief goods. It cannot be denied that media across the world has been used for similar purposes, but during a disaster the reporter is supposed to provide an objective view of the situation rather become a promoter of a politician’s image.
Quite ridiculous were the reporting scenes when certain anchors/reporters while riding the helicopters of army or boats of navy made vehement claims about non-existence of any government machinery in the affected areas. The TV anchors, who are not trained for reporting, made a mess of their job, compared to those with a reporter’s background. Many did not have any clue about the area and the local people, especially the rural population. Some of them had not done their homework, nor had any idea of disaster management. While civil society websites were providing number details which were aimed at providing better flood management, the same figures were used by some TV anchors for faultfinding
Even the Indian media was quick to realize that the 2010 flood reporting was politicized from the beginning. Various articles in the Indian media were self critical about under-reporting the tragedy of the floods in Pakistan, and for focusing instead on more trivial issues like President Asif Ali Zardari getting a shoe hurled at him in Birmingham. Columnists like Kalpana Sharma accused the Indian media of ignoring a huge human tragedy and detailed how Indian news emphasized political angles rather than human tragedies (Hiranandani: 2010)
While reporting a natural disaster, the journalist can either work towards benefiting the affected or cause panic and despondency. It cannot be denied that the Pakistani respective authorities were initially negligent attracting media attention right after the floods. But any responsible journalist should have soon realized that the flood reportage could not only be reduced to covering political incompetency.
How can media assist in future disasters?
Covering any natural disaster, especially if it is on a big scale is very difficult. Even the American media faced immense criticism for its coverage of hurricane Katrina in September 2005. The American media was severely criticized for providing sketchy information and presenting rumors as facts (Mann, 2007: 231). At the same time President Bush was accused by the media of slackness in responding to the hurricane. President Bush’s defenders gave a lot of explanations of which one was that Bush was correct not to visit the disaster sites immediately because to do so would have greatly complicated the relief efforts on the ground.
Since natural calamities are inevitably expected to increase all over the world, such catastrophes pose more of a threat for developing countries like Pakistan because of lack of preparedness. The media can play an active role in the preparation phase before a disaster. Assessing disaster vulnerable areas can always minimize human loss and economic damages. For example, Incase of floods, every monsoon season should be taken as an opportunity to fight and protect vulnerable areas. Preventive measures and techniques focusing on flood forecasts and suspected disease outbreaks should be available through repeated radio bulletins and television shows before every flood season.
It is true that Pakistan’s fast expanding media is still very young. However this does not mean that it should not pay attention to the quality of its content. It is not advisable to release half-baked information and news in a bid to be the first to release news without checking and rechecking the reliability of its source and without processing it through tough editorial control. A lot of information –news and visuals come to the print and electronic media for onward [transmission. There is a need to use professional editorial judgment to decide what will be released and in what manner with a focus on their impact on the society (Rizvi, 2010:107).
Television, radio and mobile phones can play an important role in assessing and reducing disaster damage by providing first hand information about the affected area. Such information can encourage community help. Allocated space for disaster updates should be prioritized by television /radio channels in order to mobilize action. All key stakeholders including local governing bodies, politicians and NGOs should try to design communication strategies which ensure damage control for the most vulnerable, especially women and children in case of future disasters.
According to reports by the BBC, during flood 2010 women and children’s health and hygiene suffered the most. Save the Children stressed that approximately 100,000 women were due to give birth in the coming month after the flood placing grave risks on expecting mothers and their respective newborns. Arguably, women were great sufferers but also great winners in the Pakistani floods. For the first time we saw female anchors covering ground disaster. The flood 2010 coverage showed that the women not only reported from ground, but also emerged as active participants of the reconstruction debate. Unfortunately the women anchors stressed more on governance issues rather than highlighting the health and safety challenges which was the predominant concern for women in the affected areas.
Training journalists for disaster reporting
While reporting a disaster, the impact of human suffering is usually amplified, therefore the reporter should not only expose pictures of human mishaps. Neither should the reporters believe the opposite that the audience are mainly cynics, fed up with repeated images of human grievances. A fine line should be towed in the middle by the journalist (Hoijer, 2004:515-529).
a) Practical Guidelines for improved disaster reporting are
1. Reporters should prepare themselves with the contexts of the disaster at hand and critically analyse any information received from official sources.
2. Reporters should become active participants in the fact gathering process as opposed to merely acting as “reactive documentarians”.
3. Reporters should seriously consider the positives and negatives of the information they intend to release and how it will contribute to the crisis.
4. Reporters should validate that the information being provided is accurate.
5. Reporters should work at setting the national agenda so as to keep those issues raised by the disaster, as government priorities (Elliott, 1986, as cited in Walters, Wilkins, and Walters, 1989:169-170)
b) Ethical instruction for journalists reporting disasters:
Tim Costello, the CEO of world vision Australia lectured on the good and bad of disaster reporting on 20th April 2011 at Melborne University. Acording to him, disasters are no more isolated events. The role of media and disaster reporters becomes more crucial because of what media chooses to cover and ignore during a disaster. The reporter can try to be a dispassionate observer but a journalist has a profound moral dimension which he cannot and should not ignore. There are basic guidelines for disaster reporters
- The disaster reporter should always treat victims with dignity and respect. A question that a reporter should ask himself is how would I want to be treated in a similar situation?
- Approach survivors with sensitivity and know when and how to back off. Clearly identify yourself. Expect harsh responses. Don’t respond back harshly by saying I am just doing my job.
- Don’t overwhelm the victims by asking them the hardest questions first. The worst mistake a reporter can make is to talk too much.
- Find positive ways of people helping in communities. Include acts of kindness in your reporting. It provides hope for a community.
- Constantly ask yourself: How much we need to cover? How are we covering it?
- A suffering community is much more than an isolated event of individualistic challenge. The coverage must reflect that.
Conclusion
Pakistan stands as the most scrutinized State as far as the function of the government is concerned. Compared to the other states of South Asia, Pakistan’s governance is the most investigated and criticized. Media’s relentless focus on governance has engaged public interest. As observed by some media experts the 2005 coverage of the earthquake turned out to be too negative as an accountability process. During the 2010 floods, this excessively negative attitude remained the same- if not more intensified (Ahmed, 2010: 109-114). After the 2005 earthquake coverage, this was the second instance where Pakistani media was remarkably critical but not equally responsible.
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