World Press Freedom Day: Media failing to fulfill responsibility

Journalists say ethical standards have dropped in race for breaking news.

LAHORE:

“Responsibility is the most important element of freedom. Unfortunately, the media has misunderstood the meaning of the freedom,” according to writer and columnist Munno Bhai.

He was one of the several journalists to voice their concern about the ethical standards in the Pakistani press ahead of World Press Freedom Day today.

“I hardly find any constructive debate on television channels and talk shows. These shows lack healthy arguments and have become rather judgmental,” he said.

Munno Bhai said that some anchors tended to be ‘rude’ while communicating with guests.

“The culture of the mass media has become a melting-pot. Journalists think they can only become successful in the media by letting media ethics go.

This is no less than a suicidal attack on the freedom of the press.”

Dr Mehdi Hassan, educationist and media critic, pointed out that the lack of reporting deprived the people of the truth and their right to know.

“The press has been free since 1988, but the standard of investigative reporting has been very low. Most of the news material is based on speculation rather than fact,” he said.

Dr Hassan said that news channels did not verify their reports in the race to be the first to break them. He said that the media had failed in their responsibility by doing this.

Dr Hassan criticised the role of the Urdu press and said that most of the articles published in Urdu newspapers revolved around the writers themselves and lacked intellectual reasoning.  “There is no free media if it is serving the interests of pressure groups,” he said.

Writer and historian Dr Mubarik Ali said that the government had failed to provide freedom to the media, but the society played an equal role by imposing self-censorship on media.

Dr Ali said that in America, the media was more sophisticated and well-managed.

He said unlike Pakistani media, they avoided bringing such issues in the mainstream that were perceived by the establishment to be against the national interest and policy of the country.

“Noam Chomsky is never invited on BBC or CNN programmes.

The Palestine issue is always presented in a way that portrays a positive image of Israel,” he said. “However, radio sometimes might tell the complete story.”

Muhammad Amin Yousaf, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) secretary general, said that media in Pakistan was not free, pointing especially at media in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “The life of the journalists is at stake, especially those reporting in the tribal areas,” he regretted.

He said that the PFUJ had developed a code of ethics for journalists with the help of experts from international organisations.

These codes will help journalists become more responsible and reliable, he added.

Journalist Mubasher Lucman said that advertisers played a major role in curbing press freedom.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 3^rd, 2011.