PAKISTAN: Furore Over Leaked Tape Cause for Media Soul Searching

By Zofeen Ebrahim

KARACHI, Pakistan, May 31 (IPS) - The continuing debate on the purported audiotape implicating Pakistani television anchor Hamid Mir, popular and controversial in equal measure, has raised serious concerns about the media amid calls for an impartial investigation to uncover the truth behind the recording.

An audiotape in which Mir was purportedly speaking with an unidentified Taliban about a former intelligence operative was released earlier this month on a blog believed to be run by the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), of which Mir had been known to be one of the more vocal critics.

"It’s a very serious allegation and shows how vulnerable we all are," said Kashif Abbasi, host of a current affairs show on the private TV channel ARY News. He has called for the "setting up of a committee of credible journalists" to investigate the accusation against Mir prompted by the audiotape.

Abbasi’s sentiment appears to resonate with other members of the local media.

"If the tape is genuine," said senior journalist Huma Yusuf, then Mir "has gone well beyond the ethics of his profession."

She added: "Ascertaining the veracity of that audiotape is essential, and the journalistic community should demand that it be done by an impartial, international organisation."

The alleged conversation between Mir and a Taliban member revolved around Khalid Khwaja, formerly with the Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan's military intelligence agency, and who was kidnapped and killed last month by a little-known Taliban-linked group, called Asian Tigers, a few days after the alleged conversation.

The controversial audiotape was uploaded to an online site called ‘Let Us Build Pakistan," which claims to be a "project of critical supporters of the Pakistan People’s Party."

Mir was alleged to have instigated the Taliban to kill Khwaja, whom he referred to as a former "CIA [Central Intelligence Agency of the United States] agent.

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