By: Syed Shahzaib Haider
I feel sad and broken to write today about the inconsiderate behaviour of our media during the pandemic. Seems like nobody cares of what they are doing to our people or what may be the consequences of what they are saying 24/7 using the august forum of national television channel of the country. I start with what we are listing from them since the spread of the virus started in our beloved country Pakistan.
The moment you put the news channel on the first thing you will see is the number of people died from the virus and the number of new patients enrolled which makes me think that who on earth wants to know that
I at the first place totally understand the implications of the ongoing situation and the threat we have from the spread of the COVID-19 as it is very much clear that it is a communal disease and it passes on to the people from the infected ones which may lead a person’s health to serious conditions god forbid, but what makes me frustrated is to listen to the news channels mostly the private media houses.
The moment you put the news channel on the first thing you will see is the number of people died from the virus and the number of new patients enrolled which makes me think that who on earth wants to know that or I may say that who as human wants to listen to such depressing news. It’s such a disgusting way to let people know or to make them aware about the situation. Instead, our very own Pakistan Television I see is playing a very important role with complete responsibility by not just spreading the fear or the panic but by telling people only how to stay safe from this virus in a very reasonable manner.
The important and alarming situation which almost all the media channels accept some of them are ignoring is that people are getting sick of listening to the type of reporting they do all day and every day. People I personally know are getting so anxious and going into depression because of such terrible way of reporting every time they put their television on, what is more, is that people under the lockdown situation can’t get out of their houses they only have a few options left to do at home either they pray five times a day or they sit in front of television to get aware of what’s going on around.
It’s high time to understand as a nation that anxiety and depression itself is a disease which makes people sick and can get worse. It may lead a patient to have nightmares or the patient start to have feeling that he or she may die anytime soon and that uncertainty doesn’t allow them to perform any of their normal life routine work they may completely be unable to relate to their families or to talk like a normal person to anyone around and in the worst-case scenario, the patient starts to witness breathlessness, diarrhea and much more.
I simply ask my very respectable media people who are sitting on grand forums about who is responsible for this kind of sickness spread in an abundant number of people than the coronavirus patients and trust me I know that it takes a normal person not less than eight months to completely recover from the anxiety-depression in some cases it takes even more time than what is mentioned.
I am failing to understand how is it possible that a man or a woman who is not a doctor and not in any way is related to the health department is sitting on television and saying things about a very sensitive health-related issue as we have seen our front line warriors our doctors have taken full responsibility of this job and they are doing tremendous work saving our lives and then randomly coming on television and making people aware of how to be safe and what precautions are important for public safety. Media correspondents and newsreaders are also doing a great job the way they are risking their lives to get the authentic news across the country.
However, in the end, I appeal to some of our television anchors those who run their own talk shows, they have to be very responsible because if they continue to have such irresponsible behaviour towards public they are going to put more people in danger of having anxiety and depression syndrome which may not be a piece of very pleasant news for them either. Because right being a responsible citizen one needs to be calmer to handle the situation and I am sure the kind of news reporting I have mentioned above is definitely not going to help us be calm and composed.
The writer is a special correspondent and columnist at The Dayspring, he can be reached at [email protected]