ENVIRONMENTEL PROBLEMS OF LAHORE AND THEIR REPORTING By Sara Ali Thesis submitted to the Lahore School of Economics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of M.Phil Environmental Sciences 2010-2012 [20,863 Words] Supervised by: [Prof. Dr. Mohammad Nawaz Ch.] i ABSTRACT Today Pakistan faces serious environmental problems despite the laws seeking to protect the environment. The issues are multidimensional involving various actors and institutions that need to act today in order to tackle the looming crisis. In this scenario print media has a vital role in building consensus among different stakeholders including policy makers, NGO's, and the public at large. One cannot deny the integral role played by the news media as it is still the main source of information and opinion for millions of readers and viewers and voters through newspapers, magazines etc. There are hundreds of Pakistani newspapers from the large national Urdu newspapers to the small local vernacular papers. Besides the Urdu-English and Rural-Urban divide, Pakistan media is also divided linguistically with a series of media in vernacular languages, such as Punjabi, Pashto and Sindhi. In this study Content analysis of environmental reporting is done. Daily Dawn and Daily Jang were selected and a comparison was drawn about the quality and quantity of environmental news stories appearing in these newspapers. These newspapers were chosen because they are dissimilar basically because both of these newspapers are prominent print media and contribute greatly towards understanding the trend of environmental reporting in the country. Plus since are in two different languages therefore it provides opportunity for comparison. Eight categories of environmental problems were studies pertaining to Lahore based on their importance and appearance in the newspapers. These categories were Air Pollution, Noise Pollution, Water Quality, Sanitation, Solid Waste Management, Legislative Compliance, ii Industrial Effluents and Global Warming/ Climate Change. Their frequency (appearance), length, placement and framing were studied. Interviews with environmental reporters and environmental researchers were also conducted. The study has explored that to whether and what extent print media has managed to report on environmental issues with research and follow up. The focus is to evaluate and study the scientific aspects of the reporting in the newspapers. iii Dedicated to…. My loving parents whose continuous efforts and encouragement made it possible for me to do this work… iv Acknowledgements First of all definitely there is no one but ALLAH, whose blessings I always found with me. I am really thankful to my beloved parents Liaqat Ali, Farah Deeba and brothers Sarmad Ali, Salman Ali for encouraging and supporting me to continue higher studies. I want to acknowledge my all teachers who taught me throughout my study career, I would be really pleased to name my supervisor Professor Dr. Muhammad Nawaz Ch. who really guided and directed me to make my research a valuable contribution in the field of environment. I would also thank Lahore School of Economics (LSE) Research Committee for their precious comments and suggestions at all stages of my research. I am grateful for the technical support from Mr. Amir Butt from Punjab Urban Resource Centre (PURC). Among my friends and colleagues I will name Abid Ali Chohan, Sidrah Inayat Khan, who really helped me during my research work at all stages. At last but not least I will particularly thank to my loving husband Muhammad Saqib Nawaz who really helped me for the thesis write up and always encouraged me. Sara Ali v Table of Contents Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... v Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... vi List of Tables ............................................................................................................................... viii List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ ix List of symbols ................................................................................................................................ x 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1. Lahore and its Environmental Situation ........................................................................... 1 1.2. Importance of Media ........................................................................................................ 2 1.3. Framing ................................................................................................................................ 4 1.4. Entry of Environmental News in Newspapers ..................................................................... 4 1.5. Print Media’s Environmental Reporting .............................................................................. 5 1.6. Newspapers of the Study .................................................................................................... 6 1.6.1. Study Area .................................................................................................................... 6 1.6.2. Selected Newspapers .................................................................................................... 6 1.6.3. Daily Dawn ................................................................................................................... 7 1.6.4. Daily Jang ..................................................................................................................... 7 1.7. About the Issues of the Study .............................................................................................. 7 1.7.1. Air pollution ................................................................................................................. 7 1.7.2. Urban Air Pollution ...................................................................................................... 9 1.7.3. Air Quality Standards ................................................................................................... 9 1.7.4. Control of Air Pollution ................................................................................................ 9 1.8. Noise Pollution................................................................................................................... 12 1.8.1. Noise Pollution effects................................................................................................ 13 1.8.2. Solutions to Noise Pollution ....................................................................................... 14 1.9. Water Quality ..................................................................................................................... 16 1.9.1. Water Treatment ......................................................................................................... 18 1.10. Sanitation ........................................................................................................................ 21 1.11. Solid Waste Management............................................................................................... 24 1.12. Industrial Effluents ......................................................................................................... 27 1.13. Legislative Compliance .................................................................................................. 29 1.14. Global Warming/ Climate Change ................................................................................. 31 1.15. Objectives of the Study .................................................................................................. 31 1.16. Research Questions ........................................................................................................ 32 2. Literature Review.................................................................................................................. 33 2.1. Challenges to Environmental Journalists ........................................................................... 36 3. Methodology ......................................................................................................................... 41 3.1. Research Problem ........................................................................................................... 41 3.2. Research Design ............................................................................................................. 41 3.3. Content Analysis ............................................................................................................ 42 3.4. Variables of the Content Analysis ..................................................................................... 43 3.4.1. Length ......................................................................................................................... 43 3.4.2. Frequency ................................................................................................................... 43 3.4.3. Placement.................................................................................................................... 43 3.4.4. Frame .........................................................................................................................