REPORTER'S NOTES: 'Once Again, the Army was Angry'

   By Zofeen Ebrahim, Asia Media Forum

Hamid Mir, bureau chief of Geo television, was the first to break the news about the collapse of the Margalla Towers in Islamabad on Oct. 8 at 9:10 am, about 17 minutes after the quake.

   "We also reported that a big part of Kashmir was destroyed on the afternoon of 8th during our emergency live transmission. I was conducting the live transmission when a caller from Murree informed us that he was coming from Muzaffarabad and he witnessed massive destruction around 9 in the morning near Muzaffarabad. We got his number and address and called back to counter-check. He was our only source at that time and when he went on air the government came hard on us and said that we are just airing telephone calls of irresponsible people."

   According to Mir, tension began between Geo TV and the army high-ups soon after. "When I appealed on air to people to bring heavy machinery to the site of the collapsed Margalla Towers, army high-ups reprimanded me and said that we are creating panic and giving the impression that government is short of equipment in the capital. We were forced to stop our live transmission around two in the afternoon."

   "It was clear to us by the same evening that Muzaffarabad and Balakot had been destroyed. We sent our teams with satellite phones to the two sites the same evening since all other communication systems had collapsed." In the wee hours of October 9, Mir's reporter called from Balakot to say the city was no more.

   "Ours was the first among the media to reach there. Our second team could not reach Muzaffarabad due to the road blockade. Meanwhile I rushed to Bagh in the morning of 9th and came back the same evening. My visual story was full of tears, cries and public outrage. It showed that no government was visible in Bagh and no ground operation had been initiated by the army even on the third day. My report was the first visual source of information for the general public but once again army was angry. General Shaukat Sultan, the official army spokesperson exchanged heated words with the television management. Even by the third day, says Mir, no ground operation was started in Bagh. "President Musharraf himself accepted in his recent press conference that the army reached Balakot after three days. But when I reported the same, his press secretary was
furious."

   According to Mir, the government's anger and pressure forced all the private channels, including Geo, to overplay the efforts of army. This exaggeration disturbed the public and they started abusing us because relief goods had not reached many areas even after 15 days." According to Mir it was a tricky situation. We had lot of stories on camera about the abuse and ill-treatment of
army towards the affectees but we never aired those stories in the "national interest".

   In retrospect he think the media showed their weakness. "No doubt there were army officers like Brig. Ehsan in Muzaffarabad who showed tremendous courage even after losing his real son, but it was an individual example of greatness, army as an institution failed to rescue people in the affected areas in the first week."

   He does not hold the soldiers for this lapse but the people at the helm of affairs. "The planning was poor." Some top journalists including who had been covering the quake from the affected region including Mir were invited by Musharraf seven days after the disaster to hold a brainstorming session. "I had proposed to the president to form a volunteer movement but he had rejected that.  Three weeks later he announced the same. If you ask me, he was not three days but three weeks late."

   The president had expressed his displeasure on Mir's programme in Neelam Valley where he had organized the first ever face to face between the army and the affectees. "For the first time, the people of Pakistan watched the public criticizing the army on their face."

   "I think that electronic media played a key role in bringing the actual disaster right into their homes. The media spent a lot of long cold nights in these hill areas without tents or food. In return we received flak from the government. But even the army was not spared. The officers in the effected areas were and still are working day and night but get no appreciation from the people. We all belong to the same nation and are working for it, but we seem to be embroiled in fighting with each other in this situation," says an irate Hamid Mir.