Sunday, March 15, 2009

Pakistan to reinstate top judge, defusing crisis (yet what's missing and why?)

This is an excerpt paraphrased from an international source:

Chief Justice Chaudhry has been just reinstated - yet - as usual - the mainstream Western media, has already been distorting a crucial section of the story.

For example: the release by the Associated Press (AP) highlighted on the main page of Yahoo! states:

"Former President Pervez Musharraf fired Chaudhry, 60, in 2007 after he took up cases challenging the leader's rule, sparking a wave of protests that helped force Musharraf from power in 2008."

The leading press agency fails to inform the Western audience that the cases which CJ Chaudhry took up which led to his dismissal by Musharraf concerned the "missing persons" illegally handed over to the American authorities.

There's more to say regarding the Pakistani masses and whether or not the triumph of the Lawyers' Movement is also a moral victory over the unlawful interference of foreign powers in their country. Yet, perhaps the AP has successfully failed to prepare its Western audience for understanding the connections here. Also, perhaps we who seek to understand the context of these politico-social changes need to also ask when such weighty items are missing - Is this sheer arrogance or plain mediocrity of the Western media or is this something else?

Here's the AP item on Yahoo By CHRIS BRUMMITT, Associated Press Writers -Just In- Very Early March 16, 2009 AM EST

here

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