Members of the Peshawar Press Club and Khyber Union of Journalists blocked the Sher Shah Suri Road for over two hours after doctors of the Khyber Teaching Hospital allegedly beat up the reporter of a TV channel and locked him in a room. PHOTO : PPI
The death of a police official on Friday turned into an issue of the media’s right to information, when journalists covering the incident were assaulted at the Khyber Teaching Hospital.
In the second attack on the police force within one week, Head Constable Shahzad Gul was fired at in front of the Assembly of God Church in Umidabad around 8am. The assailants also snatched his rifle, while Gul was rushed to the hospital by residents where he succumbed to his injuries.
“Gul was an old man, so he was assigned church duty which is comparatively easier,” shared a police official. According to the police, Shahzad Gul joined the force in 1983 and was a resident of Shahgai village, Daudzai.
His late rites were offered in Malik Saad Shaheed Police Lines with a guard of honour. His body was taken to his ancestral graveyard for burial.
Hospital unrest
Initially, Gul was taken to the Khyber Teaching Hospital where Sameen Jan, a reporter for Dunya TV was covering the incident. The doctors allegedly misbehaved with him and a scuffle broke out.
Soon after the incident, other doctors from the hospital reached the spot and reportedly beat up Jan and locked him in a room. Meanwhile, the channel’s employees also arrived at the hospital and fought with the hospital staff. As a result, all wards of the KTH, including emergency ward services, were shut down for almost five hours causing discomfort to hundreds of patients.
The situating was further aggravated when a group of journalists, including members of the Peshawar Press Club (PPC) and Khyber Union of Journalists (KhUJ), arrived at the hospital but the administration locked the gate, refusing to let them in and called the police. The enraged journalists then blocked the main GT Road for over two hours disrupting the flow of traffic.
What added to the drama was the reaction of the government’s spokesperson and Minister for Health Shaukat Yousafzai. The minister had spoken to Dunya TV when the clash was on-going and assured he was heading to the KTH to resolve the issue. However, he failed to show up even after two hours had elapsed.
Our reporter was covering the injured police constable but the doctors tried to stop us and started insulting us claiming taking photographs were not allowed. They called in other doctors and assaulted us, said Nasir Dawar another reporter from the channel.
On the other hand, the KTH chief executive and medical superintendent spoke to Dunya TV’s reporters and assured them of a legal solution. The hospital administration also summoned junior registrars, Professor Zafar Duranni and Dr Muhammad Khalid, to investigate the matter.
The statement issued by the hospital states a patient identified as Wasif Khan was admitted to the orthopaedic ward and was being prepared to be shifted for surgery to the Lady Reading Hospital when reporters, including Sameen Jan, Nasir Dawar and Imran Yousafzai, were taking pictures in the ward. Trainee Medical Officer Dr Samiullah Wazir asked them to stop as they were interrupting the medical staff’s work, but the journalists did not, the statement said.
“The Dunya TV team decided to discuss the matter with senior authorities and went to the causality ward where they began broadcasting statements claiming they were manhandled by Dr Samiullah and other doctors,” the statement reads, adding the channel’s reporters physically assaulted doctors and seriously injured Dr Saqib, Dr Khursheed and Dr Samiullah Wazir.
Meanwhile, the PPC and KhUJ have jointly decided to ban Health Minister Shaukat Yousafzai from entering the press club and announced that no media coverage will be given to his activities. They have also put a ban on the coverage of both provincial and young doctors’ association.
PPC President Nasir Hussain and Secretary General Yousaf Ali announced they would hold a protest in front of the press club every day and would organise a demonstration outside the Chief Minister House in three days.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 6th, 2013.
COMMENTS (6)
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I was physically present at the site of this scuffle. The media we not covering the slain cop incident, rather the dunya news camera man had brought a relative of him for treatment. He had a bone fracture and was advised to bring gypsona bandage to make a back slab for his leg. Instead of 3 bandages which were advised he brought one, and when Dr Samiullah, asked him that you have to bring two more, the dunya news cameraman started saying that you doctors are theifs and I am a media reporter and will highlight this. This resulted in a scuffle between the two. The cameraman then called his fellow reporters who came in a live broadcasting can and entered the emergency department without permission and started live coverage causing hindrances in smooth operations of casualty department. They were asked to leave but they refused, which resulted in anger scuffle and doctors and media reporters fought and physically assaulted in each other. As a result, one doctor got grievous injuries and an FIR in police station has been registered against the reporters. In Pakistan the media has no ethics and they consider their right to poke their nose in every affair, be it highly technical matter of patient treatments. They have become a mafia to earn some quick bucks through using their media.
Hospital is the place of treatment not the place of Right of information. The newspaper are not not the students of journalism in majority casses the are dagree holder of private colleges and they are receiving money through 3rd class reporting. Majority of them are not belong to good families. They don't knows the ethics of journalism even not aware from the principals of civilize society.
I am a Pakistani and know the ways of Pakistani media.While the press there is doing good work to uncover hidden things,the local TV performance is nearly all drama,competing for breaking news.They have the least common sense that hospital emergencies are not the places to interfere with or conduct interviews.We do know that politicians also visit hospitals and disturb patients,but politicians can be excused from blame because they are the most illeterate lot and can be expected to do only such foolish things.The media people,with education in Journalism should see that such incidents are not repeated.Our province already has suffered much,for God sake reduce this confusion and chaos and do not incease it.
Why should media go inside the ward. This is not right to information. This is breach if patient confidentiality
"Our reporter was covering the injured police constable but the doctors tried to stop us and started insulting us claiming taking photographs were not allowed." In the US all those reporters or photographers will be prosecuted by legal authorities for entering the hospital and interfering in the emergency work of the doctors, but it does not happen in this civilize country, they have some decency and respect for the victims. It seems Pakistani mass media has no qualms to publish the injured or dying people's faces and cause great agony to their love ones. It is also customary in Pakistan to publish the names of the deceased victims before the families are informed by the concerned authorities, the media has no respect for the grieving families. What the doctors should have done is call the hospital security and arrest these people who were interfering. I have read and seen the pictures of lawyers and journalist who are out of control in the court house and on the streets, It just reminds me of an organized mafia who can not tolerated dissent, it is their way or the highway.
"Our reporter was covering the injured police constable but the doctors tried to stop us and started insulting us claiming taking photographs were not allowed. They called in other doctors and assaulted us, said Nasir Dawar another reporter from the channel."
So media were busy taking photos of injured person who later died? Wow we seriously need media reforms .. This madness of breaking news and dead bodies must stop