Democracy versus the people’s voice

Journalists need to focus on doing their job right instead of trying to lead the country in a specific direction.

Tune into any news channel and it would appear that every Pakistani on television has a natural flair for projecting him or herself as the true representative of the people. One can expect this from political leaders, who have a direct stake in projecting themselves as the voice of the people in an election year. But why do journalists — who have a professional duty to remain neutral observers — bend over backwards to represent the voice of the people in Pakistan?

In the last general elections, the media fraternity became a ‘part of the story’ they were reporting, by openly advocating the need to restore a democratic system in Pakistan. In a classic David versus Goliath struggle between the ‘people’ and a dictatorship, the majority of Pakistani journalists chose to side with the people. Among other things, their position was self-serving: a democratic system of governance enables a free press to flourish.

Unfortunately for the media, representing the voice of the people became more complicated during Dr Tahirul Qadri’s long march last month. Only in Pakistan can a religious-cum-political leader assemble a ‘people’s parliament’ in the capital city, demanding the overthrow of an elected parliament. Suddenly, journalists were put in the awkward position of having to decide who represents the voice of the people — the ‘sea of people’ gathered in Islamabad or the ‘elected representatives of the people’ in government.

As the hours turned into days, a movement aimed at bringing down the government overreached and threatened to overturn the democratic system itself. Pakistani journalists — betraying their short memories — had an awakening and refused to serve as pawns in a greater game that would enable Dr Qadri to become the Trojan horse that dismantled a fragile democratic system.

A few days later, Dr Qadri’s choreographed exit from Islamabad was hailed as a ‘victory’ for democracy by journalists and commentators. In the same breath, Dr Qadri’s movement was celebrated as a much-needed peaceful jolt to the democratic system. This backslapping between journalists and commentators, positioned as news analysis, left much to be desired.

To cut a long story short, journalists were essentially celebrating the fact that they had behaved maturely — along with the opposition parties — to save democracy from an existential threat to the system. At the same time, they concluded that this threat to the democratic system was necessary to force the ruling coalition to spring into action and raise its game ahead of the elections.

The logical (but underexplored) conclusion of this argument is as follows: existential threats to the democratic system are good for the system as long as they don’t actually succeed! This perversely logical conclusion is no cause for celebration.

Unfortunately, the news analysis presented by Pakistani journalists is often coloured by the need to emphasise their own role as part of the larger narrative. In this case, the media’s coverage of the long march demonstrates that Pakistani journalists don’t merely report on the health of the country’s democracy; instead, they actively seek to ‘save’ democracy from perceived threats to the system.

The principles of ethical journalism stress the importance of an objective distance between journalists and the story they are reporting. For example, if there is a disagreement between two political parties, the job of a good journalist is to report on the differences between the party positions, not pick a side.

That’s not how things work in Pakistan.

To the extent that Pakistani journalists appear to believe that they have a God-given responsibility to lead the ‘illiterate/innocent masses’ out of ignorance, they suffer from the same holier than thou saviour complex that they seek to protect Pakistanis from. When revolutionary fervour is in the air, journalists need to focus on doing their job right — reporting the news of the day objectively — instead of trying to lead the country in a specific direction. In doing their jobs objectively and honestly, Pakistani journalists will automatically give a voice to the Pakistani people, without colouring national discourse with their own perspective.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 2^nd, 2013.