Media Challenges on Both Sides

 
Before we embark on this adventure, here's a little more information on the participants. They are:
American Journalists
Ms. Terry Anzur, News Anchor, KFI News, Burbank, California
Ms. Tara Bahrampour, Immigration Reporter, Washington Post, Washington, DC
Mr. Dan Boyce, Capitol Bureau Chief, Montana Public Radio, Helena, Montana
Mr. John Diaz, Editorial Page Editor, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco, California
Ms. Larisa Epatko, Reporter-Producer for Foreign Affairs, PBS News Hour, Arlington, Virginia
Ms. Jenna Fisher, Asia Editor, The Christian Science Monitor, Boston, Massachusetts
Pakistani Journalists
Mr. Shabbir Ahmad, Producer, Geo TV Network, Islamabad
Mr. Mahboob Ali, Correspondent, Geo TV Network, Mingora, Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Mr. Sajid Hussain, Assistant Editor, The News International, Karachi
Mr. Abdul Ghani Kakar, Chief Investigative Reporter, Daily Awam, Quetta, Balochistan
Mr. Azam Khan, Reporter, Radio Pakistan, Charsadda, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Ms. Aneela Khalid Khan, Reporter, Radio Mashaal and Reporter/Anchor, AVT Khyber, Islamabad
Ms. Sumeera Riaz, News Producer, Express News TV, Lahore
Ms. Imrana Saghar, Reporter, Daily Express, Multan, Punjab
Mr. Mushtaq Sarki, Reporter, Sindh TV News, Karachi
Ms. Hafsah Syed, Executive Producer/Head of Features, Dawn News TV, Karachi

Each participant was asked to prepare a brief presentation for panels on such topics as US aid to Pakistan, economic relations. Along with Jenna Fisher of the Christian Science monitor, I presented the American view on challenges facing the media. Jenna discussed the budget cuts that have limited foreign coverage by US media outlets in recent years. I showed video of how US TV networks covered the killing of Osama Bin Laden, taking into account the short attention span of the US audience, our tendency to focus on one big story at a time, and the narrow focus on how any event impacts Americans, often leaving important international voices out of the conversation. Representing the Pakistani side, Sumeera Riaz emphasized the free and independent media that has developed in Pakistan in recent years, largely due to the development of private TV and radio stations as an alternative to state-run media. Sadly, the other Pakistani journalist on our panel, Abdul Ghani Khakar, was delayed in Pakistan by US visa issues.

Pakistan remains one of the world's most dangerous countries for journalists.. Americans may remember the beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002. Several of the Pakistani journalists spoke of colleagues they have lost, brave reporters who literally died to tell a story.  But many of the Pakistanis in our group spoke of the daily pressure of more subtle threats, such as intimidating phone calls, when they report something that angers a corrupt politician, a sectarian group or the military. Read more from Reporters Without borders, here: http://en.rsf.org/pakistan-14-journalists-murdered-in-13-04-04-2011,39950.html

 There were moments that touched the heart. TV reporter Aneela Khalid Khan and Imrana Saghar of the Daily Express spoke of the high price Pakistan has paid for the war on terror, losing lives, schools, hospitals and an entire generation of opportunity.
Sparks flew during a discussion of Pakistan's nuclear weapons, when Dan Boyce of Montana public radio introduced an Atlantic Magazine cover story with the headline, "The Ally from Hell." Both sides didn't hold back when discussing how the domestic political realities in both countries prevent policy makers from doing the right thing.
Guiding our discussion are experts from the East-West Center. Among them, environment and energy expert Toufiq Siddiqui, part of a team that won the Nobel Prize for research on climate change. He educated the American participants on critical shortages of energy and water in Pakistan, preparing us for the frequent blackouts and power surges we would later experience on our visit there, and something the Pakistanis endure every day. Guiding our American steps in Pakistan will be Shabbir Cheema, a senior fellow with Asia Pacific Governance and Democracy initiatives. This native of Pakistan, veteran diplomat and scholar immediately impressed me with his skill at defining the narratives of both sides and guiding the sometimes emotional discussions to areas of common ground. Discussing the tangled history of US military and humanitarian aid to Pakistan, he said of the American view, "The CNN soundbite is: 'We didn't get our money's worth.'" Pakistanis, on the other hand, feel betrayed by a relationship that emphasizes military aid and feeds corruption at the expense of effective solutions to the urgent needs of a developing nation.

Journalists on both sides did their homework and came prepared to get the conversation started. Mushtaq Sarki from Sindh TV even looked up my website and wanted to know more about my textbook on multimedia storytelling. http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1405198699.html

I was fascinated by Mehboob Ali's TV story on skiing the mountainous Swat area, which most Americans associate with the fight against Taliban extremists. Here's the link on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJO2h8lae7A&feature=youtu.be

Break time meant more photo ops and a chance to sample some authentic Hawaiian food. Here's June Kuramoto of the East West Center teaching us how to eat poi. (Hint: add some sugar.) She also handled the daunting task of reservations and logistics for all of the participants' travels.

Read more on the East-West Center's web site, here:
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/seminars-and-journalism-fellowships/journalism-fellowships/pakistan-us-journalists-exchange