Why Shahid Masood reluctant to tender apology to SC for his goof-up?

By Raza Ruman

(Pak Destiny) One fails to imagine why this so-called and senseless anchor Dr Shahid Masood insisting to bite the dust. Despite given a chance to aplogise for his lies he chose to prove his lies right… one wonders how.

Even his fellow anchors Hamid Mir, Nasim Zehra and Kashif Abbasi tried their best to convince him to tender opology or face contempt of court or other charges in Zainab case for changing the direction of the case to protect the suspect Imran Ali but Masood insisted that he will come up with proof.
Masood appeared such a shameless creature in the SC today that he tried to belittle the court by passing irrelevant comments considering it a studio of his talk show. It is believed that shameless Masood is waiting go ahead from his unknown masters for his next step but the whole new media industry is convinced that he will soon be booted out of this profession badly.

 

Dawn News reported about today’s Supreme Court hearing in Zainab case

The Supreme Court on Sunday formed a new joint investigation team (JIT) to probe the claims made by television anchor Dr Shahid Masood about the suspect in Zainab Amin’s rape and murder case.
Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar gave the order for the JIT while presiding over the three-member apex bench conducting a suo motu hearing into the Zainab case at the SC’s Lahore registry.
The chief justice ordered Masood, who was present in court, to appear before the newly formed JIT — which will be led by director general of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Bashir Ahmed — and present evidence to back his claims.

The anchorperson had claimed during a late night show that Zainab’s suspected rapist and murderer was a member of a pornography gang, which also includes a Punjab minister. During the previous hearing of the case, Masood had also told the court that the suspect has 37 foreign accounts.
His claims about the bank accounts, however, were rejected by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in its report to the JIT that was formed earlier by the Punjab government to probe the rape and murder of Zainab.
“Do not talk about unrelated matters; give us proof of the bank accounts,” the chief justice told the anchor on Sunday. “If the statements you have made turn out to be true, we will give you the medal for number one journalist.”
“If your news turns out to be untrue, [then] you cannot even imagine what will happen,” the chief justice warned.
During the hearing, Masood requested time from the court to allow him to complete what he wished to say regarding the case. He went on to claim that Zainab was gang raped, adding that only one criminal had been arrested.
“They are trying to protect the gang that they have nurtured,” he added.
“Are you aware that these allegations can change the direction of the investigations?” the chief justice asked the anchor.
The court told the anchor that they could order his name to be put on the Exit Control List, saying that he would have to appear before the JIT formed by the court.
The chief justice clarified that the Bashir Ahmed-led JIT would operate separately from the one formed earlier by the Punjab government.

Journalist Fahd Hussain opinion

“From a handful of news channels in 2002, their number today stands at 36 (as per latest Pemra data). Here’s some quick math to illustrate the crisis: if we take 7pm, 8pm and 10pm as key talkshow slots every evening and divide this by the number of news channels, the market requires (3×36=108) ‘anchors’ to feed these slots every single day. A whopping figure of 108 trained, editorially strong and mature ‘anchors’ can certainly be a sweet dream for Pakistan but it certainly is not a reality.

Consider this: can a person be an attorney general without being a lawyer? Can a person be a surgeon general without being a doctor? Can a person be a corps commander without being a soldier? But a person can be a primetime anchor in Pakistan without being a journalist.

Distressing enough? Consider this: professional news channels across the world are centred on their newsrooms. These newsrooms are peopled by trained journalists who filter and judge information flowing like raging rivers from across the world. It is here that key editorial decisions are made about content that will grace the screen of the channel. The process of verification — so essential to the conduct of professional journalism — is revered by news managers as a key commandment.

In Pakistan, however, these fundamentals are contemptuously brushed aside in primetime so that the ‘anchor’ can fling his/her ‘breaking news’ at will. There are exceptions of course. At Express News (where I work) all breaking news, regardless of who is bringing it, must go through the filter of the professional newsroom before going on air. There are only one or two other channels where such strict workflows are in place. In all other channels, the ‘anchor’ by-passes all filters and broadcasts information as per his/her sweet will. The result is what happened with Dr Shahid Masood’s humungous error.” – Pak Destiny