Editorial by the writer, published in The News, June 6, 2007

Arbitrary & unjust


It seems that the government is readying itself for a war on the media, particularly the electronic one, in the country. This is most unfortunate and troubling given that it already has one problematic front -- the ongoing judicial crisis with the legal community up in arms against it -- to deal with. What else can one make of the several amendments announced by the government on Tuesday in the laws regulating the electronic media? Coming in the midst of the judicial crisis and increasing pressure being applied by the government on the print and electronic media on coverage of the crisis and its related rallies and protests, the changes have been made via a presidential ordinance, just a few days before the National Assembly was to meet in session. In this context, it would be fair to say that the sole aim of the changes is to bring the media in general, and the electronic one in particular, to a point of submission.

The changes themselves go against the very spirit of natural justice which demands that before the state or one of its agencies takes any punitive action against a non-state entity for violation of the law, the latter be given adequate warning about such action. Furthermore, the right to lodge an appeal against and question any such action is an intrinsic part of the due process of law. Also, another important element of natural justice, contained in the maxim ’audi alteram partem’ -- that the other side’s view must also be heard -- has been violated by the changes. How else does the government justify increasing the penalty ten-fold, authorising the state electronic media regulator, PEMRA, to confiscate equipment, seal the premises of TV channels or cancel a channel’s licence without referring the matter first to a council of complaints (as envisaged under legislation that Tuesday’s ordinance amended)?

Also, the government’s intention that pressure on the media is going to be further tightened is shown by bringing under PEMRA’s purview even video images relayed on mobile phones and the Internet. This shows panic on the part of the government in that it now wants to even control what people see on their mobile phones and the Internet. It is also an indication of how desperate it is to stamp out coverage of the rallies and protests related to the judicial crisis. In addition to this, PEMRA has been given, quite arbitrarily, sweeping authority to make rules and regulations from time to time to enforce the ordinance. This new proviso can always be used by this or any other government to further increase pressure on the electronic media.

Clearly, the signs -- especially with this new ordinance -- are ominous. There should be no doubt about the fact that the effects of this widening battle/confrontation with the media are going to be disastrous -- for the country, for civil society and for the government as well. For starters, the international image of the government, which some have cultivated thanks to Pakistan’s participation in the US-led war against terrorism, is sure to take a battering (the US State Department has already commented on it, saying that the media should be able to carry out its job of reporting the judicial crisis). Further to that, and perhaps more importantly, whatever support that the government had among domestic public opinion is sure to diminish. That the changes were made by an ordinance, when there is an elected parliament, and when many PEMRA provisions were enacted as recent as February of this year, is a deathly blow to whatever democracy there is in Pakistan at this point in time.

Surely, the way forward out of the crisis is not to open another, potentially dangerous, front with the media. Those at the helm of affairs need to understand that (a) the crisis unfolding before it has not been initiated or manipulated by the media as it seems to sadly believe, that (b) curbs of the electronic and print media, in this day and age; and with public opinion generally in synch with the view that the crisis is of the government’s own making (and worsening by every passing day because its guiding principle seems to be the proverb ’Cut your nose to spite your face’), are only going to exacerbate the situation and further lower the credibility of the government in the eyes of most Pakistanis as well as overseas observers; that (c) simply imposing stringent censorship and banning TV channels will not make the crisis disappear, for the simple reason that the media did not create it and (d) that the only way to defuse the situation is for the prime mover -- i.e., the government -- to take appropriate steps such as withdrawing the reference against the chief justice, reversing the media curbs and the president choosing either the post of army chief or presiden