'President and PM dominated media in 2005'

By Sohail Ahmed

The VVIPs, especially the president and the prime minister, dominated the front pages of both the English and Urdu newspapers in terms of the number of times they got reported for any reason during the month of August 2005, says a media monitoring report “Watching the Watchdog: How Pakistan is Front Paged and Headlined” launched by Centre for Civic Education Pakistan (CCEP) Wednesday.

Findings of the report are based on monitoring data of five public and private TV channels and 11 regional and national newspapers all over the country. The first media monitoring exercise was aimed at gauging the trends, priorities and contents of print and electronic media, public as well as private, during the August-October 2005 period.The main purpose of the study is to see as to what extent the Pakistani media is able to strengthen democratic institutions by provoking people into genuine thinking and action on national issues.The protocol personalities cluster, which included the president, the prime minister, the governors, the chief ministers and the ministers, got the highest frequency of reference, i.e 1,752 times, on all sample front pages during the monitoring period. Five Urdu language newspapers collectively front-paged protocol personalities 1,197 times while six English language newspapers collectively front-paged protocol personalities 555 times, the report says.

According to the report share of the president and the prime minister on the front page of English language newspapers, the prime minister got front-paged by 11 newspapers for a total of 542 times, the president 479 times, the ministers got the front page coverage for 406 times, the chief ministers 304 times and the governors 187 times. Among the newspapers, the Balochistan Times, Quetta, got the lead while giving front page coverage to 51 times each to the president and the prime minister, The Statesman, Peshawar, gave coverage to the prime minister on front page 38 times and president 33, The Nation, Islamabad, president (36), prime minister 35, Daily Times, Lahore, president 32, prime minister 10, Dawn, Islamabad, president 21, prime minister 19, The News, Karachi, president 19, prime minister 22 Similarly among all the sample front pages in general and Urdu front pages in particular, Urdu Daily Jang, Rawalpindi, front paged protocol personalities for 458 times, the highest, followed by 270 times by Daily Aaj, Peshawar. Maximum frequency of the front page coverage by Daily Jang, Rawalpindi, for a protocol personality was 171 times given to the prime minister during August 2005, followed by 58 times by Daily Intikhab, Quetta, (monitored for 25 days).

The report says the president get front paged by Daily Jang, Rawalpindi, 94 times, again the highest for the president among all sampled newspapers, followed by 57 times given to the president by Daily Intikhab, Quetta. The lowest front page coverage of protocol personalities for 48 times came from English language Daily Time, Lahore, followed by second lowest 50 times by The News, Karachi. Among the political parties MMA got front-paged by 11 newspapers for a total of 380 times, PPP-P 190 times, ARD 86 times, PML-N 65 times, MQM 52 times, ANP 36 times, BNP 18 times, PTI 10 times, JWP 10 times, PML-F 3 times and PKMAP 3 times.The report indicated that the social cluster was third in front page priorities, which means that a collective frequency of coverage relating to issues like health, education, environment, gender and human rights. The front pages of 11 newspapers referred to these social issues for 579 times in monitoring period of 320 days, i.e. one month for 11 newspapers. Urdu daily Aaj, Peshawar, front-page social issues for 151 times, followed by 138 times in Intikhab, Quetta, and Jang Rawalpindi, 80 times.However, the report says Urdu daily Jang, Rawalpindi, front paged social issues for 80 times is the highest among the national newspapers. Among six English newspapers, Balochistan Times, Quetta, front paged social issues 56 times, followed by The Nation, Islamabad, 45 and Dawn, Islamabad, 40 times.

The report also gave a brief picture of electronic media particularly the state-run television PTV dominated by president and prime minister in news headlines. All the TV channels collectively headlined protocol personalities 166 times including PTV 55 times, KTN 34, GEO 33, APNA 31 and AVT Khyber 13 times. Private TV news collectively headlined the president and the prime minister with 46and 24 times. Among private TV news channels GEO headlined the president 18 times, KTN 13, APNA 10 and AVT Khyber 5 times. Likewise among private TV news APNA lead the headlines for the prime minister with 10 times, GEO 9, KTN 4 and AVT Khyber once. Similarly other protocol personalities headlined by all the TV channels included chief ministers 24 times, ministers 16 and governors 6 times. KTN headlined CM 13 times followed by APNA and AVT Khyber with 4 times each and then GEO only once. The Post