Our ‘Wizards of Oz’

Government has to build public and legislative consensus on the red lines for print and electronic media

In today’s world, media is a lifeline of a nation. It provides not only information on what may affect the normal human being in his day-to-day functioning, but also keeps him informed of developments, national and international. In many respects, information has never been so free, presenting new challenges to society as a whole and helping people discover new facts and hidden realities, while making governments more accountable. As in any other country, our media, too, has been playing a pivotal role as a source of information on almost every aspect of our national life as also on issues of national and global importance.



All societies now do recognise that free speech or expression cannot be limitless. Like any other freedom, there are also risks of media-related freedoms being abused at times, resulting in misrepresentation, blackmail, defamation or vilification. No wonder, there is now universally a strong case for the media itself realising the limits within which it should use its new-found freedom. It has immutable legal, moral, cultural and ethical obligations towards respecting the freedom of the public as individuals or even as groups or society as a whole and concomitantly towards the state and its institutions.

With more and more corporate conglomerates buying up independent news outlets, broadcasters are becoming less and less accountable to the public and as a consequence, fewer independent voices and perspectives are to be heard. An increasingly concentrated media ownership system in our country has had a negative impact on the quality of news and information that we receive about the nation and the world. There are instances, globally as well as in our own country, of growing abuse of media power to influence the political and cultural scenes. Foreign-funded NGOs and some media houses are the convenient buccaneers in our vast open field.

Those of us who remember the classic fairy tale movie, The Wizard of Oz, might see in it some allegorical resemblances with our times today. Its main character, Dorothy Gale, is a young, helpless, good natured adopted orphan girl snatched up by a Kansas tornado and deposited in a ‘fantasy land of witches’. When she and her companions finally reach the palace of the Wizard, and in the main hall, a huge head faces them, talking, breathing fire and smoke and holding the appalled but rapt attention of those who look upon his face.

That is until a curtain is moved and we find that the Wizard is actually a little wimpy old man who just works levers from behind the scene and pushes buttons to make the huge head talk and move. “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” the Wizard yells into a microphone, hoping the huge talking head will make Dorothy and her companions ignore the reality and instead, concentrate on the illusion. As in the Wizard of Oz, our people today are also transfixed on the talking heads in our own Wizard boxes day and night, in countless talk shows and regular news bulletins.

And Pakistan’s news media, especially the electronic media, understands completely how much power they now have over the minds of the masses, even those who say ‘they just don’t trust the media’. By using graphic images, focusing on everything they want you to see and hear, shaping events by reporting only on those that they choose, they control an empire that is often projected as a ‘fourth pillar’ of the state. And, a part of this ‘empire’ has been conducting itself like a state within the state. It already meddles in politics, distorts history and culture and lays down its own double standards of freedom to determine what it will or will not print.

No doubt, the reach of the media and its impact on the general public is increasing and in an ill-governed country, domestically as unstable and unpredictable as ours where there is no rule of law, too much of freedom has its own hazards. With increasing media influence and authority over public minds, vested foreign and local interests are using money and muscle power to gain control over the media, which is fast becoming a commercial enterprise rather than being driven by public good. The recent developments in the country are an eye opener. Too much of commercialism is unhealthy and must be reined in.

If the media is to function responsibly as the ‘fourth pillar’ of the state and continue its commitment to transparent governance, informed democracy and national responsibility, there is urgent need for media houses to set up mechanisms for monitoring and accountability that discourage irresponsible reporting while taking note of public incitements to violence or hate speech. They must have a clear enforceable code of ethics with appropriate restrictions imposed by law in the interest of the country’s raison d’etre, independence, integrity, security and defence.

Surely, freedom of speech and expression is a fundamental right guaranteed by our Constitution. But Article 19 clearly lays down the limits to the exercise of this freedom which remains subject to “reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the interest of the glory of Islam or the integrity, security or defence of Pakistan or any part thereof, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, commission of or incitement to an offence.” It is time our media owned its national responsibility by adhering to the constitutional provisos.

Unfortunately, in recent years, there have been instances with some parts of the media even questioning the very raison d’être of Pakistan and also seeking to vilify the armed forces of the country in total breach of Article 19 of the Constitution as well as the Press Council of Pakistan’s Code of Ethics. Last year, a case in point was the prominent op-ed space given by an English daily claiming ‘guardianship’ of our ideology to an Indian maverick’s viewpoint questioning the very raison d’être of Pakistan and boasting that in 15-20 years, it will again be part of India. We seem to have become totally insensitive to our own existence.

It is time we rose above personal and commercial interests and valued the intrinsic strength of our national interests to safeguard our freedom and dignity. The armed forces must be kept above personal reproach. The government has a responsibility to build, on a priority basis, a public and legislative consensus on the red lines for print as well as electronic media in exercising its freedom. This will save us many a known crisis.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 26^th, 2014.

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