How not to Cover Grave Desecration and Vandalism

Editor’s note (2026): Part of this site’s Express Tribune media-watch series: how not to report grave desecration. Kept as a case study in holding media to account line by line — work that is necessary but, done post by post, never ends. The durable version is institutional media literacy. See About the QeRN Archive and Knowledge That Benefits.

For the full series on Express Tribune: Express Tribune Watch

Express Tribune Journalism

Grave desecration and vandalism is a particularly repulsive crime and due to the sensitivity around it, it should be handled with care and with due regard to the affected parties.

How the Express Tribune screeches about grave desecration and vandalism is very strange and not in line with journalism. With emotional words, the purpose appears to be the elicitation of comments critical of Pakistan. The clear thrust of the article is that the authorities are not doing anything about it. For many cases of vandalism, the police usually cannot do much right away, as the story from Chicago below shows.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/302105/29-graves-of-ahmadi-community-desecrated/

For minorities in Pakistan, persecution never ends

DUNYAPUR: Even in death, the Ahmadiyya community faces persecution.

Chicago Tribune Journalism

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-muslim-cemetery-vandalism-0819-20120819,0,3897536.story

Muslim’s grave vandalized a 6th time

Hassan Mustafa Hassan Abdallah is one of hundreds of Muslims buried alongside people of other faiths in Evergreen Cemetery.

*But the Jordanian diplomat’s grave is the only one that has been repeatedly targeted by vandals, and neither police nor his family knows why.*
*Abdallah’s grave was vandalized for the sixth time in the last 17 months last week, even though he died more than a decade ago, Evergreen Park police said.*