Rishm Najm

Was invited by the Columbia Jinnah Forum at Columbia University to speak on media in Pakistan Prior to this they had hosted Pakistan's Minister of State and Chairman of the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority Bilal Bin Saquib and then earlier this week former Supreme Court Justice Mansoor Ali Shah The audience for my talk (titled "Unfiltered- Behind the Headlines. Off the Script") which was more of a conversation since that's always more interactive and hence better - comprised of both undergraduate and graduate students at Columbia. The graduate students included at least four who had served in various posts with the Federal Government, including the Pakistan Administrative Service, Pakistan Revenue Service and the State Bank of Pakistan. There were students who had come from Pakistan and represented Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Multan. They were studying at Columbia College (the undergraduate part of the university), Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, SIPA (School of International and Public Affairs) as well as Columbia Law School Many questions were asked including several that you expect to be asked of a journalist working in Pakistan. These related to 1. Censorship -- told them their is considerable self-censorship in the media 2. The role played by media owners in coverage and whether or not they hampered their own professional journalists from carrying out their duties -- many times they do 3. The role, and the financial viability of journalism and media in present-day Pakistan -- it had undergone a lot of change and posed many challenges, not everyone in media makes millions in salaries a month like some of the top anchors 4. How social and digital media have changed the media in Pakistan and how has traditional media responded -- the advent of digital and social media has transformed the media landscape -- both in good and adverse ways -- good because it has made itmore competitive and adverse because anyone can more or less take to social/digital media and start reporting and claim to be a journalist and gain a large following -- and in large part the traditional and legacy media have been in deep slumber and have failed to respond to these changes in any meaningful way which is why most of them are not doing too well financially 5. The advent of fake news and disinformation - and of echo chambers - for the former I said that media and legacy orgs have a direct interest in improving verification methods and fact checking techniques among their staff - and for fake news and disinformation people on their own also need to stop forwarding WhatsApp messages without verification 6. Other questions related to coverage in the news of various political parties and event - comparison of the media landscape in Pakistan with the US -/ told them a more apt comparison is with the South Asian and general region - for example look at what’s happening in India etc — also to the viability of being a journalist today — though many challenges it has opened up thanks to social media platforms which don’t require much by way of investment The evening was followed by tea - the way we have it in Pakistan - at a local restaurant The Columbia Jinnah Forum and PSA (Pakistani Students Association) people insisted on it - a special thank you to Isfandyar Khan, Haris Shah and Abdullah Yasir of the CJF for the invitation (always good to be invited to speak at one’s alma mater) The Columbia Jinnah Forum is on Instagram at instagram.com/columbiajinnah…