// September 23rd, 2008 // 7 Comments » // Pakistan
All those who were glued to their TV screens on 9/20 [I prefer day first, though] and watched AAJ, Dawn or PTV waiting for the Presidential address after the blast may have seen a very casual speech of President being televised live before the original. It was indeed a rehearsal and ‘mistakenly’ broadcasted live by the state-run PTV, headed by Dr. Shahid Masood. The Doctor Sahib is in hot waters now following his second faux-pas and has been left out of the squad for the American tour pending an inquiry.
Some newspapers have quoted the news as follows:
Pak president’s ‘recorded’ speech shown live by PTV
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on Sunday ordered an inquiry into the mess created by state-run Pakistan Television (PTV) during his address to the nation after the suicide attack outside Marriott Hotel in Islamabad that claimed 53 lives and injured over 250 people on Sept 20, Pakistan daily Dawn reported. ( Watch )
Pakistan’s Minister of Information has been told to initiate an inquiry into the incident by the Pakistan president, who is leaving for the US to attend the UN General Assembly session, the Pakistan daily has learnt. Following the orders of the president, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has constituted a team to investigate the matter.
PTV Chairman & MD, Dr Shahid Masood, who was to accompany Zardari on his US visit was ordered to stay back in Pakistan till the inquiry into the incident was completed, according to the Dawn .
When contacted by Dawn reporters, Acting Secretary of Information Ministry, A S Abbasi, confirmed that a high-level committee has been constituted to investigate the matter. “The committee would be submitting its report to the authorities when the president returns from New York later this week,” Abbasi said.
According to the newspaper’s sources, soon after the Pakistan president decided to address the nation after the attack on the Marriott hotel, the Information Ministry directed the PTV authorities to make arrangements for the speech.
After the PTV team reached the Pakistan president’s residence, it was decided that the speech would be recorded rather than broadcast live and clear instructions were provided to the PTV chief to organize recording equipment accordingly, Dawn’s sources added.
After approving the draft of the address, the President, as a part of the routine exercise, took a few minutes to rehearse the speech. The PTV cameras and recording systems were activated to monitor the rehearsal.
However, what was conveyed to Zardari as a ‘recording’ of the rehearsal was actually the live broadcast of the rehearsal. The Pakistan president’s rehearsal was telecast live by PTV and this live feed was picked by two other private networks. Dr Shahid Masood was present on the scene throughout the episode, Dawn’s
“The PTV Chairman was clearly directed that the speech would be recorded and the President does not wish a live broadcast but the PTV chairman organised live telecast and the state media even provided clean feed to two other channels demonstrates the length to which Dr Masood can go to damage the government,” a source at president Zardari’s residence told the Pakistan daily. sources confirmed.
[Source: The Times of India]
And another…
PTV Messed Up President’s Address; Inquiry Ordered
The information minister has ordered probe into another major faux pas by the state-run Pakistan Television when it ran live an unedited brief speech of President Asif Zardari late after midnight on the September 20 deadly blast outside Marriott Hotel while it was being recorded.
The president fumbled with words during the recording but realised soon that he was already on the air and being heard across the country. Originally it was planned to be a live telecast but aides decided to record it after due editing to send an effective message to the nation in that moment of grief. Two months ago, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani’s address was also messed up by the PTV when his live address, first communication with the nation, was interrupted owing to malfunctioning of a tele-prompter. The poor show was put up again by the state TV on Saturday night when the rehearsal of the president’s speech was telecast live at around 2:10am.
[Source: Khaleej Times]
