Babar Ayaz

While the government and the establishment only tries to manipulate journalists, there are many extremist religious and ethnic groups who use intimidating tactics.

Is the Pakistani media really free? Is the Pakistani media managing its newfound freedom responsibly? Though seldom, honest journalists do indulge in introspection on these questions.

In a series of interviews conducted by me for ‘Focus on Pakistani Media’, a programme of TV Southasia, which were also broadcast by a national channel here, I posed this question to some of the senior, credible journalists. By and large, the consensus was that with the opening of electronic media for the private sector, there has been a metamorphosis of the media in Pakistan. Most senior journalists I interviewed felt that some journalists and media groups are misusing the freedom and there is little realisation among many that responsibility is an integral part of any freedom.

Comparatively speaking, the media today is far freer than it ever used to be in the history of Pakistan. But this freedom is limited. Do not go by the rash and, at times, libellous news items and views expressed by journalists against the government and conclude how free they are.

Let us look at government-media relations first. The government is still using the old tactics of controlling the media with the ‘advertisement whip’. What does that mean to a reader? It means that the newspapers or electronic media channel the government dislikes for criticising it are starved of the government and public sector companies’ advertisements. Though advertisements should be given to the media keeping in mind the fact that the message should reach the target audience, they are on the contrary dished out as a favour to the tamer lot. Even today, the practice is that the Press Information Departments (PID) of the federal and provincial governments use 25 percent of the total public sector companies’ advertising budget to either buy loyalties for the government or to grease their own palms.

If the big groups that survive on private sector advertisements continue to defy, their tax skeletons are pulled out of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) cupboards. Here you cannot blame the government for doing their job of making the big boys pay their taxes. But if the media groups behave, their tax files can be examined ‘sympathetically’.

For working journalists the government has many types of bait. A leading TV host has confessed in his newspaper column that many journalists are bought over. Since he is a well-informed journalist, I am impressed by his claim that the price of a journalist has gone as high as Rs 150 million. The middle class journalists who resist these temptations should be respected, even when one disagrees with them.

Most of the media houses may not be in control of the political governments in Pakistan, but trust me they are not out of the establishmentÂ’s reach. There are many ‘important journalists’ who are fed stories by the establishment against the political government. They are also told to raise issues that detract from the debate if the establishment comes under criticism. The usual selling point is that patriotism and Islamic ideology has to be protected. The media is most effectively manipulated by the establishment both at the owners’ and journalists’ level. So please take our independence and freedom with a pinch of salt.

That is not all. While the government and the establishment only tries to manipulate journalists, there are many extremist religious and ethnic groups who use intimidating tactics. These groups give threats to journalists through phone, SMS, e-mails and sometimes directly. Even powerful owners of the media who are gutsy when their role is judged against the government give in and offer out of proportion coverage to such fascist groups for the sake of peaceful coexistence.

Another check on the freedom of the media is that of the advertisers. This is universal and not typical to Pakistan. The trend is rising. This restricts journalists from giving programmes that have substance and can help in educating the people on political, economic and social issues, only because ratings dictate. And the ratings are achieved by the media by catering to the lowest denominator; for instance, in news by jingoism, in entertainment by promoting conservatism and reactionary social values. The whole empire of Rupert Murdoch and his miniatures in Pakistan is built on such policies.

Lastly, media freedom is just a part of the broader right, i.e. freedom of expression. In Pakistan, this right is constricted. You cannot openly preach scientific views of life, you cannot challenge the orthodox value system, you cannot write without fear of physical threat against the extremists who hate pluralism, which is the essence of freedom. The latest example is that Madeeha Gauhar’s play ‘Burqavaganza’ was banned by a person who happens to be the secretary of the ministry of culture. Is freedom not about respecting each other’s views instead of quashing them through bureaucratic edict? In the final analysis, the freedom of media in the absence of freedom of expression is limited to writing against the politicians.

Now let us take the issue whether media freedom is exercised with responsibility. In the first place, much of what the readers and viewers call irresponsibility is by design and not by chance. However, it has to be admitted that our young electronic media is going through an exciting and learning phase. With time it would get mature. Do not let the establishment or the government use this ploy that media is irresponsible to put the curbs back. Remember, mankind and its values have evolved. The status quo forces can delay the process of evolution, but cannot stop it. Society marches on even if it is slow.

(Note: World Press Freedom Day was celebrated on May 3.) The writer can be reached at [email protected]
Source: Daily Times
Date:5/11/2010