GEO began with the help of an ex US Naval Petty Officer David Hazinski who has very deep ties within the US State Department and is a member of the American Jewish Committee (AJC). He also had a close relationship with with Casper Weinberger, Ronald Reagen's pardoned Defense Secretary. According to (http://www.intelligentmc.com/people.html) “Most recently, he re-designed the central International Broadcast Center for the Voice of America in Washington and is consulting on new network launches for the VOA”. Mr. Hazinski is the CEO of IntelligentMC (http://www.intelligentmc.com/Welcome.html). The other principal of IntelligentMC is Todd Frantz. “Todd comes to IMC from 10 years at CNN in Atlanta. He has links to “Cox Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research at The University of Georgia”. David Hazinski, now an Associate Professor at the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, is the principle architect of GEO and managed the station’s launch. Hazinski was contacted by the Jang Group after he shepherded the successful launch of a similar station in India in January 2001. Aaj Tak, the first all-news Hindi-language channel in India, now has a 60% share of the news audience in India. As one of the owners of Intelligent Media Consultants, an Atlanta-based company that helps its clients design efficient and profitable network operations through the creative application of broadcast technology, Hazinski has worked all over the world launching news operations in markets starved for "unbiased reporting". “This is really the cutting edge of technology and journalism,” says Hazinski, a former NBC news correspondent who says he and his partners have helped launch at least a dozen news operations in the last 10 years. “These are new markets. They haven’t been exposed to lots of TV.” Because most of Intelligent Media’s clients are unfamiliar with broadcast news techniques, Hazinski says he is able to tailor unique approaches that maximize their limited budgets. “These people are willing to try new things because they don’t want to pay the outrageous costs associated with news production in the United States,” he says. “Right now, based on what we learned in Pakistan, we’re convinced we can launch a network today for half of what it would have cost three years ago. And no one would see any quality difference on the air - even if we aired it in the U.S.” At GEO's main broadcast center in Karachi, Hazinski built a newsroom around 24 Mac G4s running Final Cut Pro. News footage is captured with 40 Sony PD150s and 15 PD100s. NewTek Video Toaster 2 systems are used at bureaus in Islamabad and Lahore to switch between the main broadcast center. In addition to designing a systems approach for GEO-TV, Hazinski helped teach the station’s staff how to use the equipment and how to produce television news. Greg Pope, a freelance editor and producer formerly with CNN, spent one month in Karachi this summer training GEO-TV’s news staff, which primarily consists of newspaper journalists. “We basically had to convert people from print journalists to TV journalists,” says Pope, adding that he had never taught production techniques in a classroom setting to non-English speaking students. “These print people were basically issued cameras and editing equipment and within months were transformed from pen and paper to this new electronic media. Some of them didn’t even know how to use a keyboard when we started". | |
Just because it's in Urdu doesn’t make it true! Just because it's a Pakistani channel doesn’t make it right! Just because it shows a Pakistani flag, doesn’t mean it's loyal! GEO TV has been the subject of several controversies. Many critics, observers as well as a large proportion of the public accuse the channel of political bias, anti Pakistan views and sensationalism. Many have dubbed the channel as the "Fox News of Pakistan". BAN GEO TV! | |
If you're sick and tired of watching lies and propaganda being broadcast, then let the people at GEO and PEMRA know about it! The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority Green Trust Tower, 6th Floor Jinnah Avenue Islamabad PAKISTAN. 44000 TEL: (051) 922 2320 (051) 922 2340 (051) 922 2350 FAX: (051) 922 0281 (051) 922 2343 EMAIL: chairman@pemra.gov.pk exec_member@pemra.gov.pk |
