Journos defy Emergency with Gandhigiri, Pak style

MUZZLED MEDIA TAKES TO MUSIC: Pak's banned channels and their employees want their freedom back.

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Lahore: If you though Gandhigiri was limited to Indian shores, here’s a reality check. In perhaps the boldest show of defiance, Pakistani journalists took to the popular form of protest on the streets of Lahore during the Emergency.

From film songs – that certainly were no music to the Pakistan government's ears - to roses, Gandhigiri, Pakistan-style was on display outside the Lahore office of Geo News, the country's most popular Urdu news channel and the only one still off air.

Braving the odds, the journalists did not lose touch with their sense of humour.

Ironically, it was under President Musharraf's rule that most of these channels were set up. But when he imposed the Emergency, free media became its first casualty.

Now these channels and their employees want their freedom back. With Geo ko Jeene Do (Let Geo live) as their protest call, the journalists voiced their dissent.

When Emergency was declared, the government instructed cable operators across Pakistan to stop airing news channels like Dawn and Ary News, and all the channels of Geo Network - news, sports and entertainment.

Shah Rifat Alam is Lahore Bureau Chief of Geo's English News Channel and he says he still doesn't know why it happened.

“Geo was a cult in Pakistan. It was popular among government officials. It was the voice of the people,” he says.

Some have said the song and dance protest is a self-serving exercise by the Pakistani media, an act of vindictiveness. But Alam disagrees. “It's not fuelled by vindictiveness. There is no iota of vindictiveness. We have a stardard to live up to. We have a benchmark,” he insists.

When martial law is lifted, Geo is likely to return to Pakistani TV screens. But the defiance its journalists showed won't be forgotten soon.