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Along with schools, hospitals, courts, banks and government offices and private homes, media has also been a major casualty of the devastating October 205 earthquake in Pakistan . Dozens of journalists were killed or affected and newspaper offices, broadcast houses and press clubs destroyed. Some of the severer hits taken by the media are in Azad Kashmir and North West Frontier Province . The outcome of this is significant reduction in capacity of local media, adversely affecting information access and processing systems in these regions.
As part of the post-disaster rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts, Internews Pakistan undertook a snapshot survey on the state of information access in the affected regions besides a media needs assessment and radio signal mapping. The survey was conducted between October 20-24, 2005 by Country Director Adnan Rehmat and Media Law Policy Advisor Matiullah Jan. Preliminary summary findings are presented here along with photographs. Details on the survey, media needs assessment and radio signal access are available on www.internews.org.pk
Geographic range of survey
- Batagram, Balakot, Mansehra (all in North West Frontier Province ) and
- Muzafarabad, Bagh and Rawalakot (Pakistan-administered Kashmir)
Population sample
- A total of 82 persons in these quake-affected areas were interviewed including 58 males and 24 females
Education levels of surveyed sample
- 34 persons interviewed were illiterate including 15 males and 19 females
- 24 had primary level education
- 10 had high school level education
- 6 had intermediate level education
- 6 had graduation level or above education
Radio listenership pre-earthquake
- 66 persons said they had radio sets at homes before the earthquake
- 60 persons actually listened to one or more stations
Pre-quake choice of radio station
- State-owned Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation, PBC, (Radio Pakistan Islamabad and Muzaffarabad stations) got mentioned 46 times as one of the multiple choices
- BBC got mentioned 20 times
- Power FM-99 got mentioned two times
- Voice of America got mentioned one time
- FM-101 (state-owned) got mentioned one time
Radio listenership post-earthquake
- 62 persons said their radio sets had been destroyed
- 16 persons said they still had their radio sets and listened to multiple sources of information
Post-quake choice of radio station
- 9 persons said PBC is among their multiple choices of stations they tune in to, or would like to
- 10 persons said they listen to BBC or would tune in to
- 1 person tunes in to FM-101
- 1 person said he listens to Voice of America
TV viewership pre-earthquake
- 43 persons had TV sets in their homes before the earthquake
- 38 persons actually watched TV before the earthquake
- 39 persons never had a TV set
Pre-quake choice of TV channels
- State broadcasters Pakistan Television ( PTV ), PTV World and AJK [Azad Jammu and Kashmir ] TV got mentioned 50 times as one of the multiple choices of TV channels before the earthquake
- Geo TV was among the multiple choices of two persons
- Khyber TV was among the multiple choices of two persons
- CNN was among the multiple choices of one person
- BBC was among the multiple choices of one person
- Doordarshan was among the multiple choices of one person
- Star Plus was among the multiple choices of one person
- Star Sports was among the multiple choices of one person
TV viewership post-earthquake
- Only two persons surveyed who had a TV set before the quake are left with their TV sets intact
Post-quake choice of TV channels
- Only 1 person says he still watches television – PTV
Source of information about emergency relief
The range of multiple choices given to the survey sample included Friends, Radio, Newspapers, TV, Police/Military, Government, Civil Administration, Mosques, “Not at all”
- 54 persons identified “Friends” (word of mouth) as one of their main sources of information
- 23 persons (three of them female) referred to radio as one of their main sources of information
- 17 persons (three of them female) identified newspapers as one of their main sources of information
- 12 persons (five of them female) identified TV as one of their main sources of information
- 9 persons identified Police/Military, Government or Civil Administration as their information source
- 7 people (three of them female) said they never got information from any of sources
Access to post-quake relief services
- 68 persons said they are receiving healthcare including medicines. 14 said they were not getting it
- 73 persons said clean drinking water was available to them. 9 said it was not
- 55 persons said adequate food was available to them. 27 said it was not
- 23 persons said sanitary facilities were available to them. 59 said they were not
- 42 persons said electricity was available to them. 40 said it was not
- 31 persons said they had warm clothing. 51 said they did not
- 38 persons said tent/shelter was available to them. 44 said they did not
Note: Survey conducted by Country Director Adnan Rehmat and Media Law Policy Advisor Matiullah Jan of Internews Pakistan
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