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| Pakistan Ad Spending. Source: Aurora/Dawn |
How much was the Nawaz Sharif led PMLN government spending on advertising? Did Nawaz Sharif and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi increase media advertising budgets to buy favorable coverage at taxpayers' expense?
Are Pakistan government and national security establishment unique in wanting to manage media coverage? Do Western government manage media as well? If so, how? How do their media management techniques differ?
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Viewpoint From Overseas host Misbah Azam discusses these questions with panelists Sabahat Ashraf and Riaz Haq.
https://youtu.be/Nz1axuB5j-Q
Related Links:
Haq's Musings
FMCG Growth in Pakistan
Is Media Free?
Pakistan Retail Sales Growth
Advertising Revenue in Pakistan
Pakistan FMCG Market
The Other 99% of Pakistan Story
PSL Cricket League Revenue
E-Commerce in Pakistan
Fintech Revolution in Pakistan
Mobile Broadband Speed in Pakistan
19 comments:
Given the size of the economy and population, and the fact that many of the channels do not provide much in the way of original programming, there was bound to be consolidation at some point. This is a normal process. For most of the last century the US got by with three TV networks (ABC, CBS, NBC), with Fox and CNN coming on in the 1980's.
According to sources, team IK has approached Lars Anthonisen of Google to spearhead media strategy for Naya Pakistan. Deliberations are on if he or Google will get involved in official capacity. Efforts are on to bring a small Google incubator team to Karachi. If this happens it would be a great leap forward.
Artificial intelligence will soon gain a foothold in newsrooms. In Pakistan, the first AI reporter is crunching numbers, tracking the stock market, and piquing the interest of media houses.
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1059184/ann-video-a-new-age-of-ai-reporters-in-pakistan
Artificial intelligence will soon gain a foothold in newsrooms. In Pakistan, the first AI reporter is crunching numbers, tracking the stock market, and piquing the interest of media houses.
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1059184/ann-video-a-new-age-of-ai-reporters-in-pakistan
Anees Shaikh of Dante
https://youtu.be/IOim12K__xg
A Pakistani tech company has developed an artificially intelligent journalist, the first of its kind, which can produce a complete news item in just a few seconds.
Dante is currently producing 350-word closing reports for the Pakistan Stock Exchange, as well as six-month charts and graphs showing market trends.
“This news-writing bot produces 100 percent original content in just two to three seconds after accessing relevant data from newswires, local and international media outlets,” Anis Shiekh, founder of baseH — the company that created Dante — told Arab News.
“It’s not going to replace reporters and editors. Rather, it will help newsroom staff carry out their work smoothly and quickly.”
Dante can automatically develop and maintain its own archive, and can provide context and background to articles.
“With Dante’s help, media outlets can produce endless original content as it neither sleeps nor tires,” Shiekh said, adding that it can easily produce content in different formats such as online, radio, print and television.
Content generated by Dante was shared with senior Pakistani journalists and editors for feedback.
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1187761/media
The U.S. Has Been Named as One of the Deadliest Places in the World for Journalists
http://time.com/5483773/us-deadliest-countries-journalists-deaths-2018/
Two narco-states, a near failed state and the U.S. These were among the deadliest places to practice journalism in 2018, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which added the U.S. to the worst offenders list for the first time in the annual roundup’s 23-year history.
The home of the first amendment ranked in the top five most lethal countries for members of the press, behind Afghanistan, Syria, Mexico and Yemen, while tying with India.
Six journalists lost their lives in the U.S. over the past year. Four, as well as a sales accountant, were brutally killed when a gunman opened fire on the Capital Gazette newsroom in June in the deadliest single attack on the media in recent history. Two other U.S. journalists, a cameraman and TV anchor, were killed by a falling tree in May while covering a storm in North Carolina.
Hostage-takings, imprisonment and disappearances all increased. In total, RSF recorded 80 journalists killed this year, 61% of whom were targeted in retaliation for their work. Another 348 were detained, and 60 held hostage.
“Journalists have never before been subjected to as much violence and abusive treatment as in 2018,” the press watchdog said in a statement.
While RSF named Afghanistan the deadliest country for journalists this year, with 13 deaths, 45% of the worldwide murders the group recorded occurred outside of conflict zones. These included the high-profile killings of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and Slovakian data journalist Ján Kuciak. Their shocking murders, as well as the high number of cases in which reportage led to prolonged incarceration, such as with Myanmar journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, have demonstrated “the lengths to which press freedom’s enemies are prepared to go,” RSF said.
The group’s findings underscore the rising animosity journalists across the world encountered in the past year, a problem that has been enflamed by world leaders’ and politicians’ invectives against the media, including the frequent “enemy of the people” salvos fired off by President Donald Trump.
“The hatred of journalists that is voiced, and sometimes very openly proclaimed, by unscrupulous politicians, religious leaders and businessmen has tragic consequences on the ground, and has been reflected in this disturbing increase in violations against journalists,” said Christophe Deloire, RSF’s Secretary-General.
“Amplified by social networks, which bear heavy responsibility in this regard, these expressions of hatred legitimize violence, thereby undermining journalism, and democracy itself, a bit more every day,” he added.
In a separate report issued Wednesday, the Committee to Protect Journalists found the number of journalists killed in reprisals for their work nearly doubled worldwide compared to 2017. As of Dec. 14, at least 34 journalists were singled out for murder.
The New York-based organization said the uptick in killings, combined with the sustained high number of jailings, adds up “to a profound global crisis of press freedom.”
Last week, TIME recognized four journalists and one news organization targeted for their work — Jamal Khashoggi, Maria Ressa, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo and the Capital Gazette of Annapolis, Md. — as the Person of the Year.
The Pakistan government’s financial squeeze on journalism
https://www.cjr.org/analysis/journalism-pakistan.php
By Umer Ali
“It is the worst financial crisis the media industry has seen since it was liberalized,” Afzal Butt, the president of Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, says. (Pakistani broadcast media, previously under the exclusive control of the government, was in 2002 opened up to private ownership.) But the financial paralysis of news outlets has not been entirely a function of the market. It has been a direct result of the government’s recent austerity measures.
Over the summer, the government—the biggest source of advertising revenue for media organizations—stopped paying what it owed. “News media in Pakistan, despite knowing its drawbacks, still rely heavily on government advertisements and subsidies,” Saroop Ijaz, Human Rights Watch’s Pakistan reporter, says. At the time, the cut-off was seen as part of a broad effort by Imran Khan, the cricketer turned politician who was elected prime minister in August, to slash government expenditures.
Yet many journalists and free-press activists believe the motivation was more sinister. In their view, the government has attempted to financially squeeze dissenting voices among the news media. “It’s not like a flash flood that caught townspeople by surprise,” Butt says. “It’s a properly planned crisis orchestrated by several state organs.”
Pakistan’s government has stifled reporters and other critics before. Other methods have included arrest, prohibitions on leaving the country, abductions, and violent attacks. Pakistan’s military, which wields significant influence over civilian matters, “quietly, but effectively, restricts reporting by barring access, encouraging self-censorship through direct and indirect acts of intimidation, and even allegedly instigating violence against reporters,” according to a recent report by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Around 60 journalists have been killed in Pakistan since 1992, and CPJ estimates that the military, government, or associated political groups were responsible for half of those killed in the past decade.
Matiullah Jan, an Islamabad-based television journalist known for his pro-democracy views, was among the first victims of the layoffs this fall. Previously, he says, officials would directly threaten journalists to gag criticism—something Jan believes he experienced last year, when two men on motorbikes pulled up next to the vehicle he and his children were traveling in and smashed the windshield with a rock. “Now they are using sophisticated methods to trigger a financial crisis,” he says.
In addition to limiting advertising, Jan explains, the government can attempt to bring down networks’ ratings by shuffling channel assignments—making shows difficult to find—or pressuring cable operators to take critical news channels off the air (both of which happened to Pakistani TV network Geo this spring), or limiting circulation of certain newspapers.
One of the newsrooms that believes itself to have been targeted by financial suppression is Dawn, Pakistan’s largest and most respected English-language daily paper. In 2016, Cyril Almeida, a reporter for Dawn, reported leaks from the proceedings of a national security council meeting, during which the government confronted military leadership over inaction against certain terrorist groups. “Dawn leaks” became a major political talking point, and led Pakistan’s information minister to resign. During a government-commissioned inquiry into the matter, Dawn editors refused to name their sources, and Almeida was temporarily barred from leaving the country. Since then, the paper claims, government officials have choked the paper’s circulation, barring its distribution in several cities and military cantonments, special zones across the country that are controlled and managed by the armed forces.
Journalist Saleem Safi accuses #PMLN and #NawazSharif of corrupting #Pakistan #media with "Lifafa" (Checkbook) #Journalism in #Pakistan. #Lifafa #corruption https://youtu.be/YoqA_W0qJ8o via @YouTube
ISLAMABAD INSIGHT: THE STATE OF THE MEDIA
Unlimited Greed Brings
Pakistan Media Under
Overdue Scrutiny, Much
Needed Axe
Shaheen Sehbai
THE LAST DECADE or so has seen
the Pakistan media, especially the TV
guys, grab immense power and
unmatched notoriety while making tons
of money, mostly undeserved.
All this was done, in most cases, while
blatantly flouting basic media ethics.
Some media houses had actually
started believing and publicly claiming
they were kingmakers and could make
or overthrow any government.
Not so anymore. The 2018 general
election saw this media role at its best,
or probably the worst.
Ruling politicians and greedy business
tycoons who fraudulently acquired
massive government lands, contracts,
favours and kickbacks, dumped billions on the media believing that it will
shield them from the law and from all sorts of accountability, if ever it
happened.
They were wrong. The day of reckoning will come so soon, no one had
imagined.
The people of Pakistan threw up a new leadership in 2018 and broke the
iron-fist hold of political/business mobsters who were holding the country
hostage for years.
Most importantly national institutions finally realized the danger to the
country and stood up firmly to play their role.
The army and the judiciary joined hands with desperate citizens to
challenge the deeply rotten status quo for the first time and rightly so.
As a result a new set up came into power and now details of how the
politicians, tycoons and the media gurus gobbled up billions are emerging.
Since Imran Khan’s PTI was not a partner in this mammoth national
crime, it has no hesitation in releasing these details. Mindboggling figures
are available.
Only the government media advertising was upwards of Rs50 billion. Big
business houses dished out many more to buy the screens and selfproclaimed important people sitting behind these small screens.
The media was up for a grand loot sale.
Since the story thus emerging is about its own dirty linen, the media would
never have told it. Thanks to the social media the shackles have been
broken and information is now flowing freely.
Starting with the electronic media, as it has grown out of proportion and
way too big for its shoes, one official list recently came out showing the
rates at which 36 news TV channels were receiving ads from the
government.
While the full list, issued by the Information Secretary, is available on the
social media, a quick look shows Geo News was getting the highest rate of
Rs290,500 per minute, Dunya TV was receiving Rs270,000, the seven
channels getting Rs245,000 each were Abb Tak, ARY, Express, Roze
News, Samaa, 92-News and Hum News. News One got Rs240,000.
Others rated over Rs200K included: 7-News (227.5K), Lahore News,
Sindh TV, Neo News, KTN News, Khyber News, K-21, Dawn News, Din
News, City-42, Capital TV, Apna TV (210K each).
Waseb TV had a rate of 190K, Business Plus (182K), Aaj News,
Channel-24, Channel-5, Royal News, VSH (175K each), Such TV (147K),
K-2 (140K), Star Asia (130K), GNN (122K), and the lowest 105K going to
Punjab TV and Mashriq TV. Public TV was not yet rated.
Pakistan #digital #media a threat to broadcast industry. Digital media will soon be replacing broadcast media in #Pakistan. Pak digital media credited for taking up issues that are not covered by #broadcast or #print media which adhere to different rules. https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/04/opinion/pakistans-digital-media-a-threat-to-broadcast-industry/
Last year, one of Pakistan’s most watched television news channels, Waqt News, shut down, citing financial reasons. Tribune 24/7, an English-language news channel owned by Express Media Group, one of Pakistan’s largest media conglomerates, fired more than 100 employees and shut down in a similar fashion. The fact that two news channels owned by two of Pakistan’s most well-established media groups shut down abruptly was a warning sign that more channels might shut down in the future and that digital media are set to replace Pakistan’s broadcast-media landscape.
However, what really frustrated Pakistan’s broadcast industry was when emerging digital-media outlets got the opportunity for an exclusive press conference with Finance Minister Asad Umer. This did not sit well with broadcast journalists, and they criticized the press conference and referred to digital-media journalists as “social-media activists” and “Asad Umer’s social-media team” among other things.
But their frustration was not actually regarding being unable to score an important press conference, but the fact that digital media are the future and will soon be replacing broadcast media in Pakistan. The broadcast media are engaging in an “us vs them” debate as described by the website Bolo Jawan, which commented that they are being threatened by the rising trend in digital media and, because of the financial crunch in the country, when it comes to the broadcast-media landscape, things do not look promising.
Pakistan’s digital media are credited for taking up issues that would not be otherwise covered by broadcast or print media as they adhere to different rules. This does not necessarily mean that the digital media are entirely free from restrictions, as attacks on journalists and those associated with the media are common and digital media do not get any special privileges either. Despite that, Pakistan’s digital media have touched upon topics that have often been considered taboo, such as the debate regarding the blasphemy law, normalizing relations with Israel and LGBTQIA rights. This has not saved digital media from any criticism, since Pakistan is a highly conservative country religiously and culturally, but debates regarding such topics are something the digital media need to be credited for.
There were about 44.6 million Internet users in Pakistan in 2017, with an Internet penetration rate of 21.8%. Those numbers are expected to rise in coming years. It might look like a dark future for the state of the broadcast industry, but in order to keep up with the rising trend of digital media, broadcasters must quickly immerse themselves in the country’s digital-media landscape, as print did when broadcast media were a new phenomenon. The broadcast industry does possess the resources to do so, but if it fails to take steps, people serving in that industry will suffer, and no amount of criticism of digital media will be able to save them.
#Pakistan electronic media regulator auctions 70 licenses for #satellite TV: 8 new channels in #news category, 27 in #entertainment, 12 channels of #regional languages, 12 in #education, 5 in #sports, four in #health and 2 in the #agriculture category. https://www.dawn.com/news/1479795
The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) on Wednesday initiated an auction at its headquarters in Islamabad for the issuance of 70 more licences for satellite TV broadcast stations.
The auction will continue until tomorrow during which licences will be auctioned in seven categories — news, current affairs, education, sports, health, entertainment and agriculture.
Representatives from 187 companies have been participating in the auction.
According to the details, licences for eight new channels will be offered in news category, 27 in entertainment, 12 channels of regional languages, 12 in education, five in sports, four in health and two in the agriculture category.
As many as 21 companies participated in the open-bid round for auction of eight licences for news and current affairs. Out of the 35 companies pre-qualified for the auction, 14 didn't take part. Al Kamal Media Private Company placed the highest bid in the sector at Rs283.5 million.
Pemra Chairman Saleem Baig inaugurated the auction. In his speech, he said that 70 licences will be issued today. He hoped that each TV channel would provide livelihood to a large number of people.
He said that the authority works in consultation with all stakeholders. Currently 88 local TV channels and 227 radio channels are being operated in the country. He said that eight Internet Protocol TV licences have been issued, besides one DTH which is expected to be operational soon.
The Pemra chairman expressed his hope that today's auction would be held in a transparent manner.
Out of the total 70, 47 licences in three categories — news and current affairs, entertainment and regional satellite TVs — will be auctioned today.
The base price for news and current affairs TV licence has been fixed at Rs63.5m, entertainment TV licence at Rs48.5m, and regional at Rs10m. The successful bidder will have to submit 15 per cent of the bidding price today.
Pakistan Broadcasters Association's objection
A day earlier, the Pakistan Broadcasters Association (PBA) had criticised Pemra's decision to conduct an auction without taking up a petition filed by PBA against the proposal.
The association has now appealed to the prime minister to intervene and stop the process. According to a press release, the PBA had filed the petition in compliance with an order of the Sindh High Court.
“The present cable network in Pakistan is based on the analogue system, which has a capacity to carry a maximum of 80 channels at a given time. But since Pemra has already issued 121 licences for satellite TV broadcast stations, at least 40 channels cannot be aired," it read.
“Therefore, issuance of more licences will put a large number of channels off the air, resulting in irrecoverable losses to the media industry at a time when it is already suffering due to the economic slowdown,” the press release said.
The New York Times casually acknowledged that it sends major scoops to the US government before publication, to make sure “national security officials” have “no concerns.”
By Ben Norton
https://thegrayzone.com/2019/06/24/new-york-times-media-us-government-approval/
Indeed, the Times report on the escalating American cyber attacks against Russia is attributed to “current and former [US] government officials.” The scoop in fact came from these apparatchiks, not from a leak or the dogged investigation of an intrepid reporter.
‘Real’ journalists get approval from ‘national security’ officials
The neoliberal self-declared “Resistance” jumped on Trump’s reckless accusation of treason (the Democratic Coalition, which boasts, “We help run #TheResistance,” responded by calling Trump “Putin’s puppet”). The rest of the corporate media went wild.
But what was entirely overlooked was the most revealing thing in the New York Times’ statement: The newspaper of record was essentially admitting that it has a symbiotic relationship with the US government.
In fact, some prominent American pundits have gone so far as to insist that this symbiotic relationship is precisely what makes someone a journalist.
In May, neoconservative Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen — a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush — declared that WikiLeaks publisher and political prisoner Julian Assange is “not a journalist”; rather, he is a “spy” who “deserves prison.” (Thiessen also once called Assange “the devil.”)
What was the Post columnist’s rationale for revoking Assange’s journalistic credentials?
Unlike “reputable news organizations, Assange did not give the U.S. government an opportunity to review the classified information WikiLeaks was planning to release so they could raise national security objections,” Thiessen wrote. “So responsible journalists have nothing to fear.”
In other words, this former US government speechwriter turned corporate media pundit insists that collaborating with the government, and censoring your reporting to protect so-called “national security,” is definitionally what makes you a journalist.
This is the express ideology of the American commentariat.
NY Times editors ‘quite willing to cooperate with the government’
The symbiotic relationship between the US corporate media and the government has been known for some time. American intelligence agencies play the press like a musical instrument, using it it to selectively leak information at opportune moments to push US soft power and advance Washington’s interests.
But rarely is this symbiotic relationship so casually and publicly acknowledged.
In 2018, former New York Times reporter James Risen published a 15,000-word article in The Intercept providing further insight into how this unspoken alliance operates.
----------
Risen detailed how his editors had been “quite willing to cooperate with the government.” In fact, a top CIA official even told Risen that his rule of thumb for approving a covert operation was, “How will this look on the front page of the New York Times?”
There is an “informal arrangement” between the state and the press, Risen explained, where US government officials “regularly engaged in quiet negotiations with the press to try to stop the publication of sensitive national security stories.”
“At the time, I usually went along with these negotiations,” the former New York Times reported said. He recalled an example of a story he was writing on Afghanistan just prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks. Then-CIA Director George Tenet called Risen personally and asked him to kill the story.
#India's #Modi government uses #ad spending to ‘reward or punish’ #media. “Rewarding or punishing media outlets through the allocation or non-allocation of #advertising by the government is common practice" to influence #editorial policies. #FreeSpeech https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/india-modi-government-media-ad-spending-newspapers-press-freedom-a8990451.html
The Indian government’s decision to stop buying adverts in three major newspaper groups has drawn a spotlight on a system that critics say is used by the state to control media coverage.
Last week it was reported that prime minister Narendra Modi’s administration had frozen all advertising spending with the publishers of the Times of India, The Hindu and The Telegraph, three of the country’s highest circulation English-language outlets.
The decision appears to have come after all three papers published articles or a series of articles that irritated the central government.
The government has strongly denied using advertising expenditure to influence editorial content, saying the existence of critical stories in Indian media is evidence enough that this does not happen.
But speaking to The Independent, Reporters Without Borders’ Asia-Pacific bureau head, Daniel Bastard, said: “Rewarding or punishing media outlets through the allocation or non-allocation of advertising by the government is common practice, and an effective way to [make them] toe their editorial line.”
He added that it was this political leverage over the media that has seen India under Modi constantly drop places in the organisation’s World Press Freedom Index.
India ranked 80th of 139 countries surveyed when the index began in 2002. This year it ranked 140th, behind the likes of Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Myanmar and South Sudan.
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, a senior MP with the opposition Congress party, called the move “undemocratic and megalomaniac”, telling parliament it appeared to be “a message to media from this government to toe its line”.
The scale of government advertising in Indian newspapers would be unthinkable in many developed nations.
Reuters, which first reported on the freeze, estimated government spending accounted for 15 per cent of all advertising revenues for the Times of India newspaper group and for the ABP Group, which publishes The Telegraph.
Some of this comes in the form of government tenders for contracts, but a lot of it is to publicise and extol the virtues of government schemes, often accompanied by an image of Modi himself.
The administration went on an advertising blitz in the 10 days before campaigning rules kicked in for the May general election, placing more than 160 adverts in just three leading papers, of which 93 were full-page.
“Most featured a picture of Modi and highlighted government initiatives,” the Reuters news agency reported at the time, but they also highlighted party-political campaign issues, including that Modi was “putting farmers first” and “national security is top priority”.
In a nation where all political parties invest in newspaper advertising, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has become “one of, if not the largest advertiser in the country” in its own right, according to Bastard.
#Pakistan #media media ownership concentrated in a few hands, aided by lax legal restrictions on cross-media ownership. Top 4 news #television channels in Pakistan (Geo News 24%, ARY News 12%, PTV News 11% and Samaa TV 7%) at the end of 2018 was 68.3%. http://pakistan.mom-rsf.org/en/findings/concentration/
Summary of key findings in terms of audience shares:
Television: top 4 TV channels command over two-thirds of all TV news channel audiences.
Radio: top 4 radio stations command over half of the news radio audiences.
Newspapers: top 4 newspapers command over four-fifths of the newspaper audiences.
News websites: top 4 native online news websites command over half of all online media audiences.
top 4 news radio stations in Pakistan (FM106 Gujranwala & Sadiqabad 9.3%, FM100 Lahore 6.2%, FM103 Lahore, Faisalabad and Multan 6% and FM107 Karachi 5.6%) at the end of 2018 was 56.2% (total top 10 radio audience share percentage of 48.2% used as the 100% benchmark). This means 4 of Pakistan’s 209 FM stations with highest audience share have an accumulative audience share of over half of all news radio listenership audience in Pakistan.
The same analysis shows that the audience share for top 4 newspapers in Pakistan (Jang 27%, Express 18%, Nawa-i-Waqt 14% and Khabrain 11%) at the end of 2018 was 80.4% (total top 10 newspaper audience share percentage of 85% used as the 100% benchmark). This means 4 of Pakistan’s 847 newspapers accredited with the Audit Bureau of Circulation with highest audience share have an accumulative audience share of four-fifths of all newspaper readership audience in Pakistan.
The same analysis shows that the audience share for top 4 news websites in Pakistan (dawn.com 4.96%, jang.com.pk 4.22, thenews.com.pk and express.pk 2.72%) at the end of 2018 was 56.9% (total top 10 newspaper audience share percentage of 26.4% used as the 100% benchmark). This means 4 of Pakistan’s native news websites with highest audience share have an accumulative audience share of over a quarter of all news website audience in Pakistan.
Key finding
Media regulations in Pakistan undermine fair competition through unfettered cross-media ownership
Lack of diverse media ownership leads to censorship in Pakistan says new report
Study ties lack of pluralism to censorship and falling standards
https://globalvoices.org/2019/07/29/lack-of-diverse-media-ownership-leads-to-censorship-in-pakistan-says-new-report/
Aided by lax legal restrictions, Pakistan is a “high-risk country” in terms of media pluralism as more than half of mass media ownership is concentrated in the hands of a few — a model which has resulted in closure of businesses, a fall in journalism standards and rise in censorship, says a new research study.
These findings, coupled with the ruling party's increasingly hostile attitude towards journalists that are critical of government institutions, have led to the deterioration of the country's once-vibrant media environment and paved the way for continued threats to press freedom.
The research study by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Freedom Network looked at a number of factors when assessing risks to Pakistan's media pluralism, including media audience concentration, cross-media ownership concentration, regulatory safeguards, political control over media outlets and net neutrality.
Riaz Haq
@haqsmusings
#Pakistan #media media ownership concentrated in a few hands, aided by lax legal restrictions on cross-media ownership. Top 4 news #television channels in Pakistan (Geo News 24%, ARY News 12%, PTV News 11% and Samaa TV 7%) at the end of 2018 was 68.3%. http://pakistan.mom-rsf.org/en/findings/concentration/ …
Who owns the media in Pakistan| Media Ownership Monitor
Most of the ownership of top 40 – by audience share – news television channels, radio stations, newspapers and news websites in Pakistan are concentrated in only a few hands...
pakistan.mom-rsf.org
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9:36 AM - Jul 19, 2019
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The report found that the top four television channels, radio stations, newspapers and news websites had over 50 percent of the country’s entire audience share.
In addition, unbridled “cross-media ownership concentration“, which measures concentration across media sectors, has allowed more than 68 percent of market control to stay in the hands of eight media organizations. These organizations (Jang, Express, Dunya, Nawa-i-Waqat, Samaa, Dawn, Dunya, ARY) — and the government — have a significant presence in more than one media sector.
According to the report, the current legal framework does not prevent cross-media ownership and the country's regulatory bodies are accused of failing to ensure a “level playing field” and “fair competition” in the market.
The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), which is responsible for regulating radio, television, and distribution services of electronic media in the country, is often accused of being more of a media content regulator than a media industry regulator. According to the report:
…instead of regulating the industry, the regulators have traditionally concentrated on content monitoring and censoring media on the behest of state institutions and governments”.
In addition, PEMRA only has regulatory control over private-sector media and its ordinance excludes existing and future operations of any government-controlled media. This infrastructure has helped to create an environment where the government has the power to exercise control over the media without many checks.
According to the report, the state influences the functioning of the media market by “discrimination” in the distribution of state advertisements. The state has long remained one of the most important sources of funding for the country’s private broadcast and print media. It generally distributes advertisement on the basis of audience share; however, violations have often been reported with ad volumes being reduced for certain media houses “as a tool of punishment”.
Malcolm Turnbull says News Corp the most powerful Australian political actor
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/utterly-unaccountable-turnbull-labels-news-corp-the-most-powerful-political-actor-in-australia-20210412-p57idq.html
Giving evidence by video link, Mr Turnbull said the Murdoch media business had evolved into a powerful political force that, unlike political parties, was unaccountable to the Australian public.
“This is the fundamental problem that we’re facing: the most powerful political actor in Australia is not the Liberal Party or the National Party or the Labor Party. It is News Corp. And it’s utterly unaccountable,” Mr Turnbull said. “It’s controlled by an American family and their interests are no longer, if they ever were, coextensive with our own.”
Mr Turnbull, a Liberal, has joined former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd as a strident critic of News Corp and has backed his push for a royal commission into the influence of the Murdoch empire on the Australian media and political landscape. The media diversity inquiry, which is examining issues of media concentration in Australia, was established by the Senate after more than 500,000 people signed a petition by Mr Rudd voicing those concerns.
In his evidence to the inquiry in February, Mr Rudd said News Corp used systematic character assassinations to cultivate a culture of fear among politicians and engaged in campaign journalism against issues such as action on climate change.
At the same public hearing, News Corp Australia executive chairman Michael Miller dismissed Mr Rudd and Mr Turnbull’s criticisms as “a convenient diversion from their own failings” during his evidence. News Corp executive Campbell Reid gave evidence the company was “professional, accountable media” that operated in the Australian landscape “with an extraordinary degree of both government, and indeed regulatory, oversight and legal oversight if we get things wrong”.
“Our editing process – for all professional media – is high stakes because we can be charged with contempt of court, our journalists can be threatened with jail, we can be taken to the Press Council, and we can be held up to scrutiny by other organisations, which is completely different to the misinformation industry that is perpetuated by and is a driver of, frankly, profit online,” Mr Campbell told the inquiry in February.
Mr Turnbull echoed many of Mr Rudd’s concerns, saying he had experienced “bullying and standover tactics” from News Corp when he served in the Parliament.
In 1791 it was articulated in the First Amendment to the US Bill of Rights. In 1795, Edmund Burke stood up in the British House of Commons and asserted that the press had become what he called “the fourth estate of the Realm”.
https://theconversation.com/media-have-helped-create-a-crisis-of-democracy-now-they-must-play-a-vital-role-in-its-revival-139653
If the media are to play their part in any democratic revival, however, financial and material security will be only a part of what is required.
One factor that has contributed to the present crisis in democracy is polarisation, the opening up of deep divisions between the main political parties of mature democracies. This has been magnified by media partisanship.
There is a lot of research evidence for this. One of the most significant is a 2017 study that showed the link in the United States between people’s television viewing habits and their political affiliations.
A further factor in the crisis has been the emergence of the “fake news” phenomenon. In the resultant swirling mass of information, misinformation and disinformation that constitutes the digital communications universe, people have returned to traditional mass media in the hope that they can trust what they see and hear there.
Read more: Trust in quality news outlets strong during coronavirus pandemic
The Edelman Trust Barometer, an annual global study of public attitudes of trust towards a variety of institutions, including the media, showed that since 2015, public trust in the traditional media as a source of news had increased, and their trust in social media as a source of news had decreased.
Populism and scapegoating
A third factor in the crisis, exacerbated by the first two, is the rise of populism. Its defining characteristics are distrust of elites, negative stereotyping, the creation of a hated “other”, and scapegoating. The hated “other” has usually been defined in terms of race, colour, ethnicity, nationality, religion or some combination of them.
Powerful elements of the news media, most notably Fox News in the United States, Sky News in Australia and the Murdoch tabloids in Britain, have exploited and promoted populist sentiment.
This sentiment is reckoned to have played a significant part in the election of Trump.
It is also considered to have played a part in the outcome of the Brexit referendum.
It follows that if these are contributing factors to the crisis in democracy, then the media has a part in any democratic revival.
To do so, it needs to take four major steps. One is to focus resources on what is called public interest journalism: the reporting of parliament, the executive government, courts, and powerful institutions in which the public places its trust, such as major corporations and political parties. This work needs to include a substantial investigative component.
A second is to recommit to the professional ethical requirements of accuracy, fairness, truth-telling, impartiality, and respect for persons.
The third is to take political partisanship out of news coverage. Media outlets are absolutely entitled to be partisan in their opinions, but when it taints the news coverage, the public trust is betrayed.
The fourth is to recalibrate the relationship between professional mass media and social media.
That recalibration involves taking a far more critical approach to social media content than has commonly been the case until now.
While it is true the early practices of simply regurgitating stuff from social media have largely been abandoned, social media still exerts a disproportionate influence on news values. Just because something goes viral on social media doesn’t make it news unless it concerns a matter of substance.
Can Pakistan's corrupt media be checked? - Committee to Protect Journalists
by Mazhar Abbas
https://cpj.org/2012/06/can-pakistans-corrupt-media-be-checked/
This corruption within the media is spreading like a cancer, and there seems to be no antidote. If it is not checked, it could prove fatal for the media industry. We must take steps to address this problem ourselves. If not, Pakistan’s journalists could lose the credibility they have earned from years of struggle.
Not 'Lifafa', Pakistani media has a new name: 'Basket Journalists'. Thanks to a leaked audio
https://theprint.in/go-to-pakistan/not-lifafa-pakistani-media-has-a-new-name-basket-journalists-thanks-to-a-leaked-audio/795962/
New Delhi: A new leaked audio between Pakistan Muslim League (N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz and party leader Pervaiz Rashid is fuelling the Pakistani public’s anger towards the media.
While the politicians can be heard purportedly scheming to control independent media, the audio claims that certain journalists will receive ‘baskets’ from former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. The ‘aam aadmi’ of Pakistan now have a new name for those who are betraying public trust: ‘Basket Journalists.’
Ad revenue in Pakistan
https://aurora.dawn.com/news/1144596#:~:text=OOH%20ad%20revenue%20increased%20by,Rs%200.07%20billion%20(5%25).
Total Ad Revenue Rs. 88.73 billion in 2021-22
Total ad spend (revenue) has increased by Rs 13.09 (17%); in FY 2020-21, it increased by 17.04 (29%).
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In FY 2020-21, the combined revenues of Facebook, Google and YouTube accounted for 85% of the total ad spend on digital; this year, they account for 87%.
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TV ad revenue increased by Rs 4.64 billion (14%).
Digital ad revenue increased by Rs 3.15 billion (19%).
Print ad revenue increased by Rs 0.21 billion (2%).
OOH ad revenue increased by Rs 3.7 billion (44%).
Brand Activation/POP ad revenue increased by Rs 1.26 billion (50%).
Radio ad revenue increased by Rs 0.07 billion (5%).
Cinema ad revenue increased by Rs 0.06 billion (60%).
TV percentage share decreased by 1.4.
Digital percentage share increased by 0.27.
Print percentage share decreased by 2.19.
OOH percentage share increased by 2.51.
Brand Activation/POP percentage share increased by 0.93.
Radio percentage share decreased by 0.17.
Cinema percentage share increased by 0.05.
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TV percentage share decreased by 1.4.
Digital percentage share increased by 0.27.
Print percentage share decreased by 2.19.
OOH percentage share increased by 2.51.
Brand Activation/POP percentage share increased by 0.93.
Radio percentage share decreased by 0.17.
Cinema percentage share increased by 0.05.
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Compared to FY 2020-21, the rankings of the Top Three newspapers remain the same.
Most newspapers have registered slight increases in their revenues.
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Compared to FY 2020-21, the Top Five channels have retained their positions.
In FY 2020-21, Radio Awaz Network was #7; this year it is #9.
In FY 2020-21, FM 105 was #9; this year it is #7.
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Compared to FY 2020-21, the rankings of the Top Seven channels remain unchanged.
In FY 2020-21, PTV Home was #8 and Samaa was #9. This year, their positions are inverted.
In FY 2020-21, PTV Sports was #14. This year, it is #10.
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In FY 2020-21, the combined revenues of Facebook, Google and YouTube accounted for 85% of the total ad spend on digital; this year, they account for 87%.
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Compared to FY 2020-21, the rankings of Lahore (#1), Karachi (#2) and Hyderabad (#8) remain the same.
In FY 2020-21, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Islamabad and Multan were #3, #4, #5, #6 and #7, respectively. This year, they are #4, #5, #7, #3 and #6.
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Product categories that were introduced this year are Real Estate (#1) and Retail/Online (#5).
In FY 2020-21, Beverages, FMCGs and Telecoms were #1, #2 and #3, respectively. This year they are #2, #3 and #4.
In FY 2020-21, Fashion and Electronic Appliances were #4 and #5 respectively. This year, they are #6 and #7.
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Compared to FY 2020-21, the rankings of all the elements remain the same.
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