On 6th May, social media sensation Nasir Khan Jan was invited as a guest on SAMAA TV’s show Naya Din to address rumours that he has refused to work with the Pakistani actress Neelam Muneer for an upcoming movie.
But what ensured was a twenty minute segment in which Nasir Khan was not questioned, but interrogated as if he was on trial.
Before Nasir Khan stepped on stage, the host Muhammad Shuaeb pretended to leave the set, expressing his undisguised disrespect for Nasir. And as Nasir Khan took his seat, Shuaeb proceeded to say, “I was so happy when I came to know he is not coming, but anyway he is here.”
Whether this episode was a result of the host’s personal bias, the director’s incentive to create controversy and drive ratings or SAMAA TV’s ignorance, it is not acceptable.
SAMAA TV prides itself on “unbiased reporting in an ethical and responsible manner” but in this case the host’s bias towards Nasir Khan was apparent from the beginning of the segment. Both the hosts briefly questioned Nasir Khan about his refusal to work with Neelam Muneer, and when he answered that he is getting more than a few offers, Shuaeb coughed rudely in disbelief. The rest of the segment focuses more on how “vulgar” Nasir Khan’s videos are, at least according to Shuaeb. “My brain will have a heart attack,” stated Shuaeb when Nasir Khan talked about how well his work is going. It was quite obvious that the hosts and the show for that matter cared very little about Nasir Khan’s career prospects but more about getting their ratings up by having a personality like Nasir Khan on their show.
M. Shueab has about 600 odd followers on Twitter and 25 thousand followers on Facebook.
Nasir Khan Jan has 286K followers.
Which is 150K more followers than the programme Naya Din itself has.
During the entire segment it seemed as though Shuaeb was more than ready to jump off the couch to make his point and belittle Nasir Khan Jan at every oppurtunity. Kiran Aftab was the only one actually asking Nasir Khan questions, but even her disdain was obvious when she asked him, “Why don’t you use your platform to spread a good message instead?” On the flip side, through out the entire segment Nasir Khan was the embodiment of calmness. Not once did he raise his voice or talk rudely to the host – who more than deserved a shut up call.
When asked what kind of videos he makes, he answered “I try to tell people about health issues and skin care.” But he doesn’t get to finish his sentence because Shuaeb rudely questioned if he is a doctor or health care specialist.
In this segment it was clear that Shuaeb was not acting as a host at all, he was acting as the judge and jury and passing judgements on Nasir Khan right and left. Shuaeb ended the segment by stating that he was just testing Nasir Khan and how well he performed under pressure, brushing his rude remarks away easily.
Shuaeb defended his actions on the show by saying he asked a few hard questions.
Unfortunately for Shuaeb such a sorry attempt at making up for what he put a guest on his own show through does not suffice. As of yet SAMAA TV has not tendered an apology for the incident.