Pakistan: Pressure on the Press

sad, but not surprising.

keep up the fight and let us know what we can do to support you.

regards

Keep fighting Beena!

I remember Cowasjee`s column which predicted all this. And that was way before when Nawaz was starting out on his power grab venture. The problem of rulers curbing the freedom of the press is not new as Temporal pointed out. And its not just the rulers. The local feudals walk on the skulls of the local journalists all the time. A short while ago, Sindhi journalists marched in protest, I think, against the kidnapping and abuse of a journalist or his family for writing an adverse story.

How do we fight it? Only media owners can determine that. Here`s why: only they can come together and refuse to bow to the pressures and work in unison in publishing the truth. A poor journalist alone cannot go far in fighting the establishment. There`s a good chance that they or their family might suffer unbearable consequences for writing the truth. But the owners, when together, if they are not greedy, as they often are when they worship the rising sun as in the case of the Jung group, they can ensure the survival of the free press in Pakistan.

Rehan.

Beena

Is there any way in which these strong arm tactics can be countered? Everyone passively going ``tch, tch, tch`` achieves jack! Should we get directly involved in lobbying grassroots support against this victimisation in Pakistan? Are there any journalist organizations in or outside Pak which can be contacted? Would you recommend demonstrations/picketing? If so, which agency of the govt? What are the consequences of taking on the FIA?

How long do we take the ``danda`` before we say enough!

Keep fighting!

The article nicely highlights how the advances in the press freedom in Pakistan can be considered tenuous at best. It`s a fragile state of affairs when the prime minister continues to consolidate more and more power into his pocket. If he can order governor`s rule into a province and suspend one aspect of governance after another, it doesn`t seem too hard for him to shut down the press does it?

Re: Beena

Thanks for bringing up the problems confronting the Pakistani press.

In my opinion, the press in Pakistan is and has the potential to become the Fourth Estate, an insitution of Pakistani political life. Recently, I have been reading commentaries in TFT, The News etc. that are highly critical of the government and have offered insights that the government should seriously follow.

Hence, when I read the story of government investigating the Jung group for income tax withholdings, I was dismayed, but not suprised.

Nawaz Sharif has an innate hatred towards political insitutions that seek to curb his power and after the judicary, the supreme court and the army, it was only natural for him to attack the press.

The Nawazocracy in Pakistan needs to be resisted and an open and free press is our best and last line of defence in the battle for our rights.

As Lee Bradley, the edidor of the Washington Post told Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein during Watergate, when encouraging them to investigate the story and not be intimidated by the pressures from the White House, (paraphrasing) ``nothing is riding on it, but...the right of the people to know the truth.``

Keep up the fight !

Its very courageous of you and your fellow journalists to write about these issues even though the popular view is that nothing makes a dent in official govt thinking. I feel you do make a difference, and if enough people in the media cover these issues, then the groundswell of support will build up on the govt.

As it is, the supposed `landslide` victory for NS was achieved with only 20% of the electorate casting. He is now the strongest `elected` PM we have ever had, having neutralized army, judiciary, presidency, and to an extent the bureaucrats. To prevent him from becoming another tyrant we need the press to constantly maintain its vigil over the govts` actions. Or inaction! Inaction is equally damning as in the case of the glaring lack of a plan for handling Pakistan`s deficit and reserves problems, inaction on defaulters, inaction on proposing transparent and credible policies for a country on the brink of default! We need leaders who take steps with foresight and vision, not those who clamp down on all internal dissent with a view to creating a veneer of fake calm. I fear the govt is going to do nothing and let the country literally default by default and claim they weren`t responsible. Inaction is not a substitute for responsibility. Make the tough decisions and have the balls to stand behind them you bozos.

Suppression of the press would, I think, would at best be only very partially successful nowadays given the global flows of information that are simply too voluminous and too diverse to be stopped by the means available to governments for this purpose (ask the former Kremlin folks, who found their military might, KGB and Gulags useless in the face of the mighty fax machine). To the extent these attempts at suppressing the local press are successful, however, the consequences would be tragic in terms of taking Pakistan further behind than it already is (thanks to the short-sighted Pakistani leaders of the past few decades) compared to the rest of the world. Let us pray for good sense all around.

Suppression of the press would, I think, would at best be only very partially successful nowadays given the global flows of information that are simply too voluminous and too diverse to be stopped by the means available to governments for this purpose (ask the former Kremlin folks, who found their military might, KGB and Gulags useless in the face of the mighty fax machine). To the extent these attempts at suppressing the local press are successful, however, the consequences would be tragic in terms of taking Pakistan further behind than it already is (thanks to the short-sighted Pakistani leaders of the past few decades) compared to the rest of the world. Let us pray for good sense all around.

Beena,

Thanks for writing about this on Chowk. Hopefully, the hue and cry will make the idiots realize that they cannot suppress the truth from coming out.

Anita

As a part of the difficulty described here for the Press in Pakistan, does anyone know why the Editor of Herald, Sherry Rehman suddenly left her job earlier this year?
Did Herald`s exposure of the FCA account freeze
rub someone in the establishment the wrong way?
Or was it her close association with BB?
Anyway I`d like some info. because Sherry Rehman
added a great deal to Herald.
(It is also possible that I`m completely wrong
and she just wanted to move on, but doubts do
exist in that regard).

Ras

Beena:

Where have I read something like this before?

Oh yes, some grand names are emerging out of the foggy past--------self appointed Field Marshall Mohammed Ayub Khan, N.PK, H.J., Altaf Gauhar, National Press Trust, the Rehmans. the Haroons...........

Some things don`t change, do they?

Some people never learn, do they?

skeptically,

The pressure has a direct link with our nuclear tests. A decision of such magnitude and negative impact on the nations future can only be justified by silencing other people who have a different opinion in any context. Remember Junoon the music band who went through quite a bit of pressure because they thought all humanity was one and said something to that effect in India.