Sethi: Pakistani media challenging military

[EFerrari]

By Kavita Menon/CPJ Senior Program Officer

Pakistani journalist Najam Sethi was in the United States last week to talk about the challenges facing his country at a critical moment. Ever the contrarian, he also sees opportunities. "For the first time the media is challenging the military," he told an audience of friends and colleagues at CPJ offices in New York. "That's the biggest positive development out of the whole Pakistan debacle."

He was referring, of course, to the "OBL incident"--when, during the early morning hours of May 2, a commando unit of U.S. Navy Seals infiltrated Pakistan and carried out a raid that killed Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. The attack occurred in the garrison town of Abbottabad, home of the country's most prestigious military academy and a popular retirement destination for former generals and army officers.

Sethi--editor of The Friday Times and host of a popular Urdu-language political program on Geo TV--notes that the focus of the Pakistani media has not been on how Bin Laden was able to find sanctuary in the country. Instead, attention has turned to the effectiveness of the Pakistani military and intelligence services. "If you don't have the ability to stop two U.S. helicopters from coming in and wreaking havoc, why are we giving you billions of rupees every year?" Sethi asked, echoing a question he says is reverberating across the media spectrum--from the elite English-language press to the populist Urdu-language broadcasters.

Sethi was in the United States for the launch of a report issued by the Asia Society, "Pakistan 2020: A Vision for Building a Better Future."

http://www.cpj.org/blog/2011/05/sethi-pakistani-media-challenging-military.php

[99th_Monkey]

1. I saw Mr. Sethi on C-Span. Impressive guy.. Refreshingly expressive. nt

[EFerrari]

2. I don't know him at all

and will have to look him up.

It strikes me that we're so propagandized here, we don't think of Pakistan as having a media or any number of other democratic institutions. In fact, the people of Pakistan have consistently rebelled against a number of dictators and despite the deck stacked so much against them, continue to fight for democratic reforms in their country.