The reporting on the assassination in Pakistan

[Pygoscelis]

Driving home last night and listening to the CBC I heard about the assassination of the minister of minorities in Pakistan. He was the sole Christian member of Pakistan's cabinet and was a vocal opponent of Pakistan's blasphemy law (apparently saying anything bad about Islam in Pakistan gets you executed).

I expected to hear more about this and to be bombarded with it especially from Fox News and other conservative media. I wasn't. In fact I did not hear about it again. I looked at Fox News' website and I was amazed how burried the story was. They did not all jump up and down like hysterical lemurs as they usually do, and did not attempt to paint this into propaganda against muslims. The only report I could find from them is this: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/03...ooting-attack/

In Canada the Prime Minister denounced what happened and spoke well of Islam. So did the UN: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2...inorities.html

Could media islamophobia be starting to erode?

[tigerkhan]

^ i not much aware of these politics and media... but being in Pakistan i can told about the real facts about assassination of that person. i am 1000% sure that this accident involve some foreign agencies or may be ISI or what so ever but not Taliban. Bcz Taliban can never handle this in Islamabad. bcz i am in Islamabad and i know its not possible that a person shot a minister and ran away. Islamabad is totally sealed and there is too strict security checking. 2ndly amazing thing, he was a minister and there was NOT A SINGLE GUARD with him... why his security was removed b4 this accident ???????????? honestly i told u, both these person, late governor and this minister were killed in Islamabad and both these assassination were related to Pakistan's blasphemy law, however its not the fact. i am sure there are some other factors and power behind these accident and being a normal person we dont know who these are and what are their purpose behind this killings.

[Aprender]

Very good question pygo. I hope so. I'm tired of it being shoved down my throat in journalism school.

[glo]

Well, the BBC did report the assassination. In an (as I thought) measured way (as I usually find the BBC to be).
You may or may not agree. See for yourself.

Mr Bhatti, a Christian, was shot dead on Wednesday by the Taliban after he urged reform to blasphemy laws.

There were emotional scenes as several thousand Christians buried their leader in his home village near Faisalabad.

Earlier, hundreds turned out for a church service in the capital. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told them his colleague had been "very rare".

Wednesday's assassination in Islamabad was the second this year of a Pakistani politician who wanted to reform the controversial blasphemy laws.

[...]

The apparent ease with which Mr Bhatti, a PPP leader, was killed has caused great concern.

He had just left his mother's home in a suburb of the capital when several gunmen surrounded his vehicle and riddled it with bullets in daylight, say witnesses.

The minister's driver was spared before the gunmen escaped.

Mr Bhatti was without guards or the security escort that is standard for all Pakistani ministers, and it is not clear why. Police and federal officials are investigating.

Even before his assassination, Mr Bhatti had predicted his own death in a chilling video. He told the BBC he had been denied more protection but would defy the death threats from Islamist militants for his efforts to reform the blasphemy law.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12644082

The article makes a clear mention of religion.
Do you consider it to be islamophobic or anti-Islamic in it's reporting?

(I guess I am trying to get a handle on what Pygo means by islamophobic reporting. Personally I would say it is about how something is reported (i.e. the language used and how it is presented) rather than whether it is reported or not. It's the media's job to inform us - but that should be done in a measured and impartial way, as much as possible.)

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[glo]

Here is Al Jazeera English reporting. They go as far as showing a picture of the bloodied car.

Pakistani Taliban claim responsibility for the shooting attack that killed Shahbaz Bhatti, the only Christian minister.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/as...659294319.html

[Dagless]

Ah you watch Fox News, that explains a lot ;)
It was reported lots on the BBC here (BBC News and News 24). The guy even made a video to be given to the BBC in case he died; which they played parts of.

[glo]

I must say that I have little concept of what US news channels are like ...
I tend to get my news from the BBC, and occasionally from Al Jazeera.

Dagless, did you watch the video of Mr Bhatti, predicting his assassination? I would be interested to see it.

[سيف الله]

Salaam

Is it eroding? not really

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...ml#dsq-content

read the comments, pretty much replicated in most of the mainstream newspapers

On a more generalised basis

Daily Star reporter quits in protest at tabloid's 'anti-Muslim' coverage

Richard Peppiatt admits producing fictional stories about celebrities and accuses tabloid of inciting racial tensions

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011...-quits-protest

[Muhaba]

they are probably afraid that people in pakistan will start protesting like those in Libya and might cause a revolution in pakistan, which im sure they don't want.

[Dagless]

I must say that I have little concept of what US news channels are like ...
I tend to get my news from the BBC, and occasionally from Al Jazeera.

Dagless, did you watch the video of Mr Bhatti, predicting his assassination? I would be interested to see it.

Yes I saw the clips but not the whole thing (I'm not sure if it was ever televised in its entirety). This is the video on the bbc site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12620506

[3rddec]

While I have deep reservations about the use of these Laws in Pakistan and how little much of what is comming out of Pakistan reflects the true Muslim. I would suggest that it was pragmatism as the reason. Why would America or anyone in their right mind stir up the melting pot that is Pakistan a country with nuclear weapons at a time like this.

[Pygoscelis]

The article makes a clear mention of religion.
Do you consider it to be islamophobic or anti-Islamic in it's reporting?

No. I agree with you that reporting is one thing but the way it is done is where the islamophobia comes into play. Religion HAD to be addressed in this story, because it is about a Balasphemy Law (a low explicitly enforcing religion). But what they didn't do here was blow it way out of proportion, make it front page news for weeks, have pundits generalize this one action by some crazy muslims to all muslims. By islamophobia I mean the way people reacted following 9/11, basically deciding that all muslims are terororists because of the actions of a few nutters.

This blasphemy law SHOULD be called out for the nasty repressive law that it is, but it should be done in a way that addresses the law, and not by painting people by it. The media is doing a good job of this I think. Though maybe the story just isn't in the ears of the right rightwing media yet.

[Pygoscelis]

While I have deep reservations about the use of these Laws in Pakistan and how little much of what is comming out of Pakistan reflects the true Muslim. I would suggest that it was pragmatism as the reason. Why would America or anyone in their right mind stir up the melting pot that is Pakistan a country with nuclear weapons at a time like this.

Interesting point. Had Afghanistan and Iraq had nuclear weapons, do you think we would have a a similar non-reaction? Maybe they would have kept their cool and looked at 9/11 for the criminal action that it was, instead of as an act of war by "muslims". The reaction in the US to 9/11 disgusted me. The day of, it was all supportive and "we will rebuild" and then the next day it was all about painting the new outgroup (muslims) as all being terrorists. It was (and still is) pretty sick. Usually people hate on me here for criticizing muslims of falling into tribalism, but it does run in both directions. And a muslim person stuck in a tribal mindset could even with some legitimacy that "they" ("the west") started it.

Would be nice if people could realize we are all individuals and we are all fellow humans, and that ingroup should not trump human decency.

[LavaDog]

There would have probably been more about if it nothing else was going on but right now they are more interested in getting us into Lybia.

[Perseveranze]

BBC is Islamaphobic.

[CosmicPathos]

well the guy got what he was looking for.

[3rddec]

The BBC has a liberal bias against anyone with strong religious beliefs that challenge aspects the liberal agenda. Don't feel you are alone; just ask Catholics how the BBC portrays them.