Meera and the media (From Dawn, Pakistan)
By Hasan Zaidi 
The ongoing Meera controversy raises serious questions about the role of the media and manufactured consensuses, about sensationalism, motivation and a lack of ethics. Indeed, about a society willing to accept any hypocrisy and all conspiracy theories as well. It seems that nobody has bothered to ask the basic questions. Everyone has jumped on the bandwagon, which is how a media circus is created out of thin air.
Early in the morning on Friday, February 25, I received a call from Mahesh Bhatt, the Indian film producer whose latest under production film Nazar stars Meera. He had been deluged by calls from the Indian media asking for his comments on the 'fact' that Meera had been "heavily fined" by the government of Pakistan for shooting "vulgar" or "bold" (the two being interchangeable phrases in Pakistani lingo) scenes in the film. Furthermore, he said that the Pakistani government was considering a ban on any other Pakistani actors going across the border to work in Indian films.
Understandably perturbed, he wanted to know why this had happened when he saw his film (still unedited, and therefore unseen) as heralding collaboration between Indian and Pakistani filmmakers, something he had promoted as a guest of the Kara Film Festival two years in a row.
My first reaction was that the story made no sense. How could a government fine anyone - that being the province of the judiciary - much less Meera, for something no one had even seen yet. I was sure this was just another Pakistan-bashing story manufactured by the Press Trust of India, the wire agency that 'broke' the story to the Indian media.
What was discovered over the course of my investigations into the story and the subsequent events that followed, is how a media circus is born out of nothing at best, and malice at worst. Searching for references to the story on the net, there were already stories in the Indian media following up on the original PTI report.
The Hindustan Times quoted Meera as saying: "It's my body and I should have freedom to decide what I want to do with it." Another quoted her as saying she would rather that her head be chopped off if she had done something wrong than suffer the indignity of a fine. I finally found the PTI report.
Reading the PTI 'news', it became clear that it was based on nothing more than "media reports" from within Pakistan. Now, one knows the credibility of such celebrity media reports that appear mostly in the vernacular press - and this one had not even made it out of the showbiz sections. But I decided to follow the lead to the Pakistani wire agency quoted as having released the story of the 'fine'.
Not able to find the original story on the wire agency's online site, I called up its Karachi bureau. I was directed to approach its Islamabad office from where the story had originated. A hassled and slightly defensive sounding desk incharge on the other end gave me some of the details I had already been informed about.
"But how is this story even possible?" I inquired from the desk incharge. "Meera is not employed by a board like the PCB which can fine the cricketers on its payroll. Aren't the courts the only places where people can be fined?" Reasonable questions and scepticism that would spring to mind.
The response was surprising. "Well, the government will get it done through the courts, of course," he shot back. "Look, this is a matter of national integrity, frankly because it involves Hindus and Muslims." I asked to be sent a copy of the original report, which was delivered half-an-hour later.
One perusal of the original report put everything in perspective. There were no named sources, only the ubiquitous "well placed sources" who had told the reporter of the outrage within the Ministry of Culture at Meera's "objectionable scenes." The same sources had told the reporter "that people are severely reacting (sic) to some of the vulgar scenes of Pakistani actress Meera as they are against Islamic ethics and moral values."
As if to drive home the point of its lack of objectivity or credibility, the short, flimsy 'news' item ended with the following parting shot: "It must be mentioned here that no actor or actress is allowed to spread vulgarity as we live in an Islamic state." Bravo! I thought to myself, to anyone who takes such a 'news' item with any degree of seriousness.
Unfortunately, the Press Trust of India is not the only one out to believe any piece of libellous gossip. By the afternoon of that day, a local television news channel had picked up the PTI report (an interesting turnaround for a story that originated in the mind of a Pakistani journalist in Islamabad) and used it as the basis for extensive coverage on the issue, well into the realm of the sensational.
Putting it among its top headlines, the channel claimed Meera was "facing severe criticism from the public" over the unseen scenes. No public voices were ever shown to back up its contention. It presented the alleged fine by the ministry of culture as fact without ever questioning it or bothering to get the government's point of view. And interviewing the Pakistani star in Mumbai over the telephone, it inquired of her why she had done scenes "not in conformity with Pakistani and Islamic values."
Even as it interrogated the starlet about her betrayal of "Pakistani and Islamic values", the channel ran clips of a song sequence from Nazar, that frankly contained nothing more licentious than any Pakistani film and certainly a whole lot less than many other Indian films or other films shown in Pakistan on cable or available openly in the video stores. Meera's retort to the questioner, asking if he had ever seen Pakistani films, was quite apt in my opinion.
To top it all off, the channel also asked her if she had received the notice from the ministry of culture, which she obviously denied. Not once did it cross the mind of the channel to check if any notice had actually been sent, what it could possibly contain (would it tell her to stop doing "bold" scenes?), or what the modalities would be for Meera to receive such a thing in Mumbai (would it be faxed across to her? Would the local postman bring it?).
Suddenly, by the evening, the Meera controversy was big news. And notable people were weighing in with their opinions on it. The federal minister for culture, Mohammad Ajmal Khan, adding his two bits the next day, told reporters that he was "saddened along with the rest of nation" that Meera had "taken part in such immoral scenes." A "high-level meeting" would decide what action the government would take, he added, after meeting with Pakistani film producers, the actor's union and the censor board.
For his part, the Pakistani ambassador in Delhi, Aziz Ahmed Khan, tried to set the record straight by pointing out that no ban was in place on Pakistani actors working in India. But his voice was drowned out in the din of others competing to prove their 'patriotism'.
