I still remember the day I joined Pakistan’s largest media group (name intentionally hidden) as a journalist. When I turn my head round to see if I can go back and cancel my admission from department of Mass Communication, I find no ways. I often try to gauge what I have got from journalism or media, but I fail to find any victory. After spending more or less seven to eight years in media, I find the followings: waste of time, losing of social life, losing friends or family friends, losing health and sleep, and a list of other things.

The degree of Mass Communication is nothing but a burden on my shoulders that I can’t even switch my job to any other field. Most probably, a few of journalists will not agree to my points (because they do not have courage to say truth) but it is true that not all, but most journalists in Pakistan have the same feelings as I do.

Why? Because we are human being and we need money to run our homes; the owners of media houses in Pakistan are influential or more powerful; they think as if they are God (Na’ouzo Billah) and they willingly stop paying salaries to their employees for months. Even, those earning less than 20 thousands, in this era of inflation and unemployment, are not paid their salaries for months. Such owners are not afraid of their deaths, doomsday (resurrection) or hereafter!



Protest against layoffs and the non-payment of salaries in Tv channels

Most media owners are Muslims here and they know the basic teachings of Islam. The Last Prophet, Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), said, Allah says, “I will be against three persons on the Day of resurrection:

1.One who makes a covenant in my name, but he proves treacherous.

2. One who sells a free person (as a slave) and eats the price.

3. And one who employs a laborer and gets the full work done by him but does not pay him his wages.”

There are other hadiths, too but I think this hadith is enough for the Media owners to be afraid of doomsday! The owners, in Pakistan, are intentionally and unnecessarily stopping salaries of their employees.

The reason behind it links to previous corrupt governments as the collusion between media owners and the governments have been benefiting each other. I think I do not need to go in details.

There is some advice for the students, wanting to join media as a journalist, that they join other fields rather than news media if they want to run their homes. In case, they want to taste journalism, they should join it as a part time job and do other job, too. Otherwise, they will repent and face the same situation that most journalists have been in a fix today.

By: One of the many victims of Pakistani Media Owners