Re: Fate of Free Press
Lets give a big hand of applause to Musharraf for the freedom of press/media.
I know Musharraf bashers will not admit it, chammar journalists like Ansar Abbasi are not going to admit it but history will recognize the fact that Mushaaraf gave the freedom to Media in Pakistan which was no where to be found in “democratic & political” governments. It was very easy for Musharraf to stricken up the censorship or at least continue the policies of so called democratic governments but he decided otherwise. Give the credit where its due. Musharraf bashers can come up with the same old line “its not possible to restrict media in THESE days….and crap” but I can give you the list of 10s and 10s of countries in TODAYS world where media is strained and I can bet that same will happen to Pakistani media once we have democratic people in charge.
Lot of water has passed under the bridges since Musharraf took over and BB and NS went to exile. NS and BB are not used to such free Media/Press and Judiciary. We all remember what NS and BB did to JANG and other news papers in their ear. NS used to give list to JANG’s management to “fire” the journalists he don’t like and this is just one example.
Having said all this, I really don’t approve vulgarity on private channels and it has nothing to do with freedom of media and press and should not be mixed with it. With girls showing cleavage and doing booty dance every now and then its getting hard to watch the TV with friends and family.
**The ways of censorship
In the past, even supposedly democratic governments have used various means to control the press, through tax cases, withholding newsprint (which is imported through government channels) or pulling out official tenders, notices and advertisements (which the smaller newspapers rely on for revenue). In 1998, when the country’s largest publication house, the Jang Group, tried to break Pakistan Television’s monopoly on news and current affairs by planning a satellite channel, it became clear how far the government would go to stop this. The democratically elected but dictatorially inclined Nawaz Sharif accused the Group of tax evasion, revived old tax cases, and withheld newsprint, forcing the Group to reduce the size of some of its daily papers from twenty-four to eight pages. Sharif’s henchmen personally pressurised the Group’s owner to support the government on various policy issues and fire, or at least sideline, several journalists (this writer included). He refused, but the stand-off ended only after the idea of the satellite channel was quietly dropped. It is only now being revived.
An easing of these restrictions have led to the launch… TO READ COMPLETE ARTICLE, CLICK HERE
The free media has in the last 6 months also faced censure from the free judiciary as well, and I believe that quite a few times our rather sensitive superior judges have warned some journalists. Similarly the free media is becoming more and more critical of the judges since 20 July, so I think journalists will be in for a rough time from the Supreme Court more often now.