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My own newspapers saddened me but not Indian
I am writing it on Thursday 7th March, 2013 at 0225 hrs Kuwait Time and 0425 hrs Pakistan Time and it is very much shocking indeed to pen that when I visited the web sites of 5 leading dailies namely Pakistan Observer, News, Nation, Dawn, Tribune at this hour I was utterly shocked to note that there was not even one photo what to talk of more about funeral procession of former Venezuela President Hugo Chavez who had died earlier yesterday in Caracas.
However under the given situation which was very much shocking and suffocating indeed I was too curious to see as to how Indian newspapers reacted to the news. I visited the web site of Times of India and very much surprisingly the newspaper had put up its main news under the caption, ‘PICS: Hugo Chavez’s Funeral Procession’ with as many as 12 photos, may be more but I did not click to next since I wished to comment on the same. From basic journalism point of view such an important news which is about none but head of a state should not and cannot be ignored unless we biased though journalist is not supposed to be biased in any case but yet not one but all the newspapers under reference ignored. In Dawn photos only I could see his one photo with some deatiled news but it was one of the file photos but at least Dawn took lead over other newspapers which did not even flash the news at least under main news as I did not read total news in all 5 dailies. Comparing the per capita income of the countries of the year 2011 it is noticed that Venezuela has a figure of US $ 12,749 and 12, 586 as per World Bank and IMF whereas our figures are just $ 2,745 and 2,786 respectively so from economic point of view, if not otherwise, we should not have ignored him either.
What does our such attitude towards head of state prove? Whom to blame in this case in newspapers-owner or editor in chief or both? Is it justified to ignore the death of an important head of state? Why did Times of India flash so many photos of Chavez funeral procession and how much did it gain monetarily, if any? How Pakistani newspapers could be deprived of getting all those photos of Chavez funeral procession which Indian newspapers could obtain? Is it a matter of pride and not shame for our leading newspapers to ignore such an important world leader? Should I appreciate Times of India or still condemn it?
Iqbal Hadi Zaidi / Kuwait
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