Re: Does Pakistani journalist deserve freedom of press?
Yea, that is the problem. I think that goernment should not allow freedom of media without first making libel law strong.
If Press and people demand freedom of press than it should come with very strong libel law, just like in western countries. Libel law should be such that anyone can sue on libel charges to any other person, and if anyone accuse someone or make statements in media, they should be able to defend that in court, and if they could not, there should be heavy fine, such that they could go bankrupt easily. Law should be such that journalist or person guilty of libel could be sent to prison too under certain libel charges.
On the contrary, the government did try to make libel laws stronger, but was shot down by western freedom of expression watchdogs.
Libel laws in Western countries, where they exist, and they dont exist in all western countries by the way, dont prevent people from expressing their opinions, they save you from misstatement of fact. Intent can never be a fact, it can only be a claim. Mushie wouldnt be safe from claims about malafide intent in a western country either, simply because you cant prove the case either way. If someone had claimed Musharraf was combing his hair at 4pm on Monday and Musharraf could prove otherwise, then that could be a libel case. Even then someone could say pretty much the same thing without getting a libel case on him very easily.