A Voice for the People

In the Urdu language, geo means life. GEO-TV hopes tobring life to the people of Pakistan.

Prior to the September launch of GEO-TV in Pakistan, thestation’s news staff completed various training exercises,including several mock newscasts like this one.

On Sept. 15, The first privately owned, 24-hour news channel waslaunched in Pakistan, bringing a new era of broadcast journalism to theIslamic nation. GEO-TV, which is broadcast in Urdu, the primarylanguage of Pakistan, will attempt to resist the censorship andgovernment regulation associated with the nation's state-run newschannel, PTV (Pakistan Television).

David Hazinski, associate professor at the University of Georgia'sGrady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, is the principlearchitect of GEO-TV and managed the station's launch. Hazinski wascontacted by the Jang Group, Pakistan's largest newspaper publisher andGEO-TV's owner, after he shepherded the successful launch of a similarstation in India in January 2001. Aaj Tak, the first all-news,Hindi-language channel in India, now has a 60% share of the newsaudience in India.

As one of the owners of Intelligent Media Consultants, anAtlanta-based company that helps its clients design efficient andprofitable network operations through the creative application ofbroadcast technology, Hazinski has worked all over the world launchingnews operations in markets starved for unbiased reporting. “Thisis really the cutting edge of technology and journalism,” saysHazinski, a former NBC news correspondent who says he and his partnershave helped launch at least a dozen news operations in the last 10years. “These are new markets. They haven't been exposed to lotsof TV.”

Because most of Intelligent Media's clients are unfamiliar withbroadcast news techniques, Hazinski says he is able to tailor uniqueapproaches that maximize their limited budgets. “These people arewilling to try new things because they don't want to pay the outrageouscosts associated with news production in the United States,” hesays. “Right now, based on what we learned in Pakistan, we'reconvinced we can launch a network today for half of what it would havecost three years ago. And no one would see any quality difference onthe air — even if we aired it in the U.S.”

At GEO-TV's main broadcast center in Karachi, Hazinski built anewsroom around 24 Mac G4s running Final Cut Pro. News footage iscaptured with 40 Sony PD150s and 15 PD100s. NewTek Video Toaster 2systems are used at bureaus in Islamabad and Lahore to switch betweenthe main broadcast center.

In addition to designing a systems approach for GEO-TV, Hazinskihelped teach the station's staff how to use the equipment and how toproduce television news. Greg Pope, a freelance editor and producerformerly with CNN, spent one month in Karachi this summer trainingGEO-TV's news staff, which primarily consists of newspaper journalists.“We basically had to convert people from print journalists to TVjournalists,” says Pope, adding that he had never taughtproduction techniques in a classroom setting to non-English speakingstudents. “These print people were basically issued cameras andediting equipment and within months were transformed from pen and paperto this new electronic media. Some of them didn't even know how to usea keyboard when we started.”

Considering the steep learning curve for the Pakistani journalists,Pope says he was amazed at their perseverance and enthusiasm.“These people are tired of having Western news and governmentnews shoved down their throats,” says Pope, who estimates that hetaught 100 people to shoot and edit video. “They want their ownvoice. They want to represent themselves in their own way.”

But there is still a chance that the government will shut downGEO-TV. Pope says that while he was training the news staff, it waswidely believed that there were spies for PTV within their ranks.However, in recent years the Jang Group has won many battles forfreedom of the press, so there is hope that GEO-TV will succeed.

“If they have minimal government interference, [GEO-TV] willchange the face of Pakistan,” says Pope.

Cody Holt is a freelance writer based in the Midwest. Email him atcodyholt@kc.rr.com.