Last year, two blasphemy cases were registered in the capital city of Pakistan. The first was against a Christian girl while in the second an aged man was the accused. What struck many observers, however, was the difference in the media coverage of the two cases.

On August 16, the 11-year-old girl was arrested by Islamabad’s Ramna police for her alleged involvement in burning pages of the holy Quran. On December 9, the aged man holding a doctorate degree was accused of blasphemy in two books which he authored.

The case of the Christian girl made headlines not only in Pakistan but also in other countries with TV channels airing it as a top story. Besides, anchors and columnists conducted special programmes and wrote lengthy articles on it. It was also observed that journalists followed all the developments in the case, including investigations by the police and court hearings. Many of them even reached the locality where the girl lived along with her family to dig out more detail. However, the interest of the media suddenly waned when the prayer leader of a mosque in the girl’s locality was also arrested on the charge of manipulating the evidence against her.

The media again followed the girl when she was declared innocent by a court and released from the jail and airlifted from there.

Strangely, however, the other blasphemy case registered with the police on December 9 did not get similar treatment either in the print or electronic media. Only a few stories were published in the press while the electronic media dumped it into small tickers. And certainly, it seemed not a big story for the western media.

Why the two cases did not get similar media coverage was that the two accused belonged to different religions. The girl was from the minority community of the country. It was a big story for the international media who considered it as the persecution of the minorities. Majority of the stories were also on the girl’s side as she was declared a minor and a Down syndrome patient.

However, the case lost heat both in the national and international media when the prayer leader was also found involved in it.

But the media attitude was seen totally changed when the second blasphemy case was registered. This time, the case could not get the attention of the media as the accused did not belong to a minority community.

It is also interesting that in both the cases the police booked the accused persons on the pressure of the public without first investigating the allegations.

When asked to comment on such media coverage, District Attorney Mehfoz Paracha said it formed public opinion either in favour or against a case.

However, he claimed that public opinion and media reporting never influenced the trial. Mr Paracha admitted, however, that such media coverage influence the ‘bosses’ who then influence the judgments.

In reply to a question, he said stories and articles were occasionally used as evidence during the trial. The courts only depend on the evidence and do not base their judgments on media stories, he observed.

A senior police officer added that stories either in favour or against an accused spoiled the investigations. “The police never enjoy a good reputation and our findings are always looked at with suspicions,” he added.

“The media always influence the mind of the bosses no matter the reports are true or wrong,” the officer said. As a result, facts collected by the police remain suspicious and the departments concerned either ignore or never take it seriously.

Adnan Rehmat, the executive director of Inter Media Pakistan, told Dawn that both foreign and local media were at the extreme level. In blasphemy cases, the foreign media considered the accused as innocent while the local media thought them guilty even before the police investigation and court ruling.

There are no guidelines to report such issues. Besides, these issues are dealt differently in the English and Urdu media.

Such a reporting makes public opinion and people start declaring the accused person either guilty or innocent before the court decisions. The media organisations and editors are responsible for such reporting as it is they who decide the placement and size of the stories.

Mr Rehmat also said such reporting also influenced the trial and the decision of the courts.

A few years back, two sessions judges in Larkana and Lahore were murdered after they declared blasphemy accused innocent, he added.

The adjudicators are frightened to hear blasphemy cases and they get threats from different groups which influence their decisions, said Mr Rehmat.