The Saleable Pakistan Journalism | How Politicians and State institutes use Journalists.

Real Face of Jang Group's Saleh Zaafir:) the house in which he lives in Islamabad is meant for Government Officer, and Zaaifr was given the house of 4 Canal in his wife name who is a Teacher in Grade 17 but Former Prime Minister Youfus Raza Gillani (Zaafir is personal contact of now Former Prime Minister) allowed Zaafir to live in House which is meant for Federal Secretary, the same Saleh Zaafir "day in day out lecture" everybody like his catamite boss Mir Shakil ur Rehman.

Jang Group has a staff of intelligent, well trained reporters and commentators that regularly produce useful reporting on local and national events. Why they continue to soil their reputation by falling prey to internet hoaxes, petty gossips, and political skulduggery is a question that Mr Rahman would do well to consider. Perhaps there is some personal animosity among some of their reporters, or perhaps it is simply the attempt to be the first to ‘scoop’ a juicy story. Whatever the cause, though, being the media group to take the latest internet hoax and run with it may cost them quite dearly

Former Guardian editor C.P. Scott observed that “comment is free, but facts are sacred”. Pakistani journalists must ask themselves: are they disseminating the whole truth or nothing but the truth, or merely presenting their own version of the truth? (Courtesy: Journalism or artistry? 

I found the answer in a book called Secrets of the Press, in a 1999 essay ‘Dumbing up’ by British writer and broadcaster Peregrine Worsthorne, who retired from journalism as the editor of the Sunday Telegraph. He starts the essay talking about when he joined the profession, shortly after the Second World War. For the entire two years of that first job, he wasn’t allowed to write a single line, and was instead expected to content himself with subbing the writing of others, correcting grammar, fact-checking, etc. For an aspiring writer such as himself, this was frustrating in the extreme. He likens it to expecting a future virtuoso pianist to concern himself with misprints in the concert’s programme. This essay was written at the end of his career, however, and after decades of experience here is how he put the difference between then and now: “The most important qualification for being a journalist when I began 50 years ago was not an ability to write. That was even a disadvantage or a liability, since literary facility could so easily tempt a journalist into embroidering the tale which needed, above all else, to be told plainly and unvarnished.” Worsthorne writes that in that age, raking up muck was considered unworthy of a quality press, for “an adversarial stance, while being the easiest to take, might not always be the right one”.