MEDIA-PAKISTAN: TV Talk Shows Take to the Streets - Literally - Zofeen Ebrahim

Credit:Himran Alexander Hamid Mir conducting his banned political TV talk show in the streets

KARACHI, Nov 28 (IPS) - The question on the TV talk show was simple. Celebrity anchor Hamid Mir asks guests from various political parties if they are prepared to participate in a general election under emergency rule. As the cameras roll, the guests squirm uncomfortably in their seats and make non-committal noises.

But it was a show that is never going to be aired. For Mir’s popular ‘Capital Talk’ has been banned along with Geo TV, the private channel that showed it on weekdays until President Pervez Musharraf clamped emergency rule on the country on Nov. 3.

Never one to give up, Mir has persisted with 'Capital Talk' through what he calls his ‘road show’, simulating on the streets a studio and conducting a talk show with all the trappings of live broadcast minus the commercial breaks. Mir has seen worse during the days when he did street theatre during the military dictator Zia-ul-Haq’s 11-year regime (1977-1988).

Mir says he finds the experience exhilarating, especially the large live audiences, even if they are unruly and brimming with emotion that often burst into paroxysms of slogan-shouting against Musharraf. [for more click on the heading]