state of press freedom in pakistan

8/3/2019 State of Press Freedom in Pakistan

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. . . . -- nc rou.: U~ UICUHl '"Pll"l5o"~'" ... y ......."... ~w ~~ - - - - - _media developer and facilitator rather than mediacontroller and news muzzler". In the light of thisstatement please evaluate public sector media policy anddiscuss the state of press freedom in Pakistan.

Ana.From Facilitator to Controller, a Critical Analysis

Having the immense power to influence the minds of masses andll.bilily to .~ specific ideologies into them, media has been: theIuvourite tool of elite of every society that can work as the custodian oftheir particular & vested interests. Ithas been an interesting question of1 1 1 '0 field that if "Media sets the Agenda of People, who sets the Agendaof media?"~e simplest answer to this query comes as "The MediaManagers" who determine the boundaries for the working of media aswell as use to provide necessary facilities for the dissemination of theinformation.

But the answer does carry a bunch of complexities in it, as if mediamanagers adopt such policies and strategies which are more functionalin particular interests rather than mass interests. The media does playarole like the watchdog in the hands of elites. To maintain this hegemonicatmosphere, information laws~a.nd_J~gaL~d illegal pressures areimposed on media so that it can be controlled. Here, a case study (pressfreedom in Pakistan) is given to present a clear and scrupulous overviewof the "public sector media policy", regarding the press and governmentalrelations in Pakistani society.

5TA TE OF PRESS FREEDOM INP AKISTANA Historical Perspective

A look at the history of journalism in Pakistan reveals a dismalstory, littered with tragic events and glory pictures. Journalists beingflogged rotting behind bars, waning in exile, pens were being fetteredand voices being muzzled. A historical perspective on state of pressfreedom inPakistan has been divided into seven phases for convenience.1. pt Phase: 1947-19582. 2nd Phase: 1958-1971 - Ayub &Yahya Regime3. 3rd Phase: 1971-1977 - Bhutto Regime4. 4th Phase: 1977-1988 - Zia - [unejo Regime5. 5th Phase: 1988-1999 - Benazir &Nawaz Sharif


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First Phase (1947 -191;8), Three progressive magazines S ao era , N aqo osh & Adb~e~Lati f were

proscribed by Muslim League government inMah.Zamir Niazi calls it"first attack-on press freedom in Pakistan-in 19~8.'l~\lizAhmad Eaiz wasarrested on publishing a news.against goverrunentin.",daily_hnrqz. ,InMay1949, Sindh Government ordered to stop distribution of Dawn .._ " Another important instance is the closure of .~anY..0qala~ in 1949;Punjab Government stopped all advertisements' of Inqlliab (Editor AbdulMajid Salik, and GKulam Rasool Mehr). N!:ws print g!!Q.@ was cancelled.After some Lime its circulation was banned in NWFP by the provincialgovenunent. Further, newspaper agents and hawkers were pressurisednot to distribute the newspaper. At' last newspaper was dosed down inNovember 1949. '

Weekly New O riEJi was forced to close down in Karachi; firstnew spa pet of P~njab Safeena. was dosed down by the orders of Punjabgovernment in July, 1949. In/the next two years.rrnany journalists werearrested under Public Safety Act which was ena~9..49. Pre-censorship was Imposed on NaWi1+ W_aqL.on Feb 2,J.95l.. Daultana, _ . " . - -Government in Punjab cancelled the declaration of Nawfl- i -Waqt . Its pressWas sealed.' '

When they filed applicationsfor the declaration for Makltztm,Qindeel and Nida-e-Millat, Government refused to issue decl~bNicra:e-Millat. Another newspaper of, the same group Jihad was alsoforced to close down, 'After' one year of hardships In March 1952"publication ofNawa+Waqt was resumed after a heavy loss.

In Dhaka, the worst incident took plate when the editor of, aprominent English daily ~ akista n Qb se~ r, Abdus~critidsed PrimeMinister Khawaja Nazimuddin in an editorial in 1952. He was arrestedtwice in a fake case under the Public Safety Act. In 1954, he was.releasedbut his press was confiscated, 150 workers left joblessand publisherfaced a lossof Rs, three Lakhs.

Justice Munir Report revealed thatr ,In the first seven years after creation of Pakistan (19471953), 31

newspapers were banned inPunjab only. Fifteen other newspapers were


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Ayub Regime (1958 -1969)The most traumatic era of journalism was Ayub Regime. On

October 8, 1959 martial law was imposed and "journalistic criticism onGovernmerit~as declared as prohibited." Within one week of this"peaceful revolution", Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi andSyed Sibl-e-Hassan were arrested under the Public Safety Act.

Pre-censorship was imposed. Later it took form of an advisorysystem.

APP (Associated Press of Pakistan) was taken over by .thegovernment

PPL: On A.E_ri118,195? Government took over Progressive PapersLimited on the charges of containing news likely to endanger the.security of Pakistan.NPT

Zarnir Niazi wrote about NPT in "Press in Chains", "Trustassumed the role of official spokesman and toed the official line withoutany qualm ....... the watchdog of yesterday turned into lapdogs of theestablishment."

NPT acquired 12 newspapers in English, Urdu and Bengali. Therewards for them were: .1. Income of NPT was tax free2. Better working conditions and facilities3. Got the lion's share of government advertisementsPress LawsIn 1959, Press Commission repo~.J1.laws affecting the pressfully ~rtially. In All gust, federal cabinet approved therecommendations of the Press Commission. It decided to enact acollective law. So, tress and PublicaUon Ordinance was implemented.on ~i1261 1960. The then lawmnuster expressed is opinion about theordinance that the working of newspapers and publishing houses can be-controlled by the new ordinance.

Other major brutal acts against newspapers and journalists


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eS_illblisbedin 1966, New Nation Press was sealed. Editor of Ittefaq wasarrested on the charge of publishing six points of Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rehman.

All the newspapers, Trust papers and independent papers, weredirected to publish special edition to project "Decade of DeveloF!J}g.ntCelebration (1958-68)." But this propaganda got.a reverse swing and ledthe country to a great chaos. A massive movement against governmenttook its way ahead. This countrywide agitation forced Ayub to leave andtransfer the power.Yahya Regime

Power was transferred to Ayub's Commander-in-Chief YahyaKhan. He suspendedthe 1902 Constitution; strikes and protests wereannounced as prohibited. Dawn reports on March 26, 1969 that11~'lewspapersw~re directed not to criticise the new government".

But he was appreciated due to the various steps he took, e.g.ilectlons within 120 days. He lifted restrictions on the press within sixweeks. Policies were revised and flexibility with regard to get ade laration for a newspaper was given. District Magistrates wereP rrmitted to decide all the petitions for declaration without prior advicefrom central information ministry. Press was free during the electioncampaign.

But on March 22, 1971, after elections, Yahya Khan imposedcomplete press censorship and later issued Martial Law Regulation 1977:"No news, poster or pamphlet could be published in the press withoutprior censor and nothing could be broadcast on Radio or TV withoutcensor". But overall analysis shows that press was freer than the earlierregime and-the next regime of Bhutto,Bhutto Regime (197177)

Another dark phase for freedom of press in Pakistan started in1971. In the beginning, Bhutto chanted the slogans of free press butpractically, brutal actions were taken against journalists and newspapersjust like an authoritarian regime.

In this regime, declarations of eight newspapers, weeklies andmonthlies were- cancelled, 43 editors, reporters and publishers werearrested and 10 newspapers and magazines were banned. ChairmanNPT Ltd. General Habibullah and Managing Director PPL Dr. Rafiq


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17On the charge of violation of pre-censorship rules, the declaration

of Daily Sun Karachi was cancelled, Punjab Pun ch also became a victimwhich resulted in cancellation of declaration. Government also bannednewsprint quota of daily~tta, and weekly Frontier} Gua~nr'Peshawar. ..~---:--.. In Punjab, arrest of journalists and newspaper workers also madea record in the history of Pakistan, during May, June 1974, in the chief-ministership of Hanif Ramey.Zia Regime (1977-88)

Zamir Niazi termed this era as "Black tunnel". This was one of thebleak phases of oppression in the history of Press ffeedom in Pakistan.From July 1977 to August 1988, General Zia introduced new weapons inthe authorities' armoury against the press, to bridle' the unbridlednewspapers, Just like Bhutto, Zia-ul-Haq made every statement todeclare press free in the beginning. He took a few steps within 48 hoursI I I provide support to his slogan of free press. Declaration of twolU'wtipapers Anjaam and Yaadgar were restored. Government decidedIh~lt newsprint quota will be free from its control and governmentulv irtisements will be given without favouritism. Foreign reporters willbl' free for reporting without censor. But this illusion soon shatteredI hldl'f Martial Law Regulation 13, Altaf Hassan Qureshi and Nazeer

. - - - - - - -~ . 1 1 Wl!rc arrested. ."uuiMhment of Lashes

The darkest day in the history of Pakistani journalism is May 13,1') ' l i l , when four journalists were given a punishment of variousdill Illlllltl, fine and "lashes",-M_asoodullah Khan, I 9 . . a l Ahmad [afferi,III iwnr Naeem Hashmi ana Nasir Zaidi were' sentencec ~o rigorous111111 Ihll1J1\Cntand lashes for organismg meetings at }2lJhlic_:places,IIii" II~ Illogans, dis12layJng banners and starting a hunger strike, TI1isI,ll,illon WOB luunched due to the fact that 11 newspapers were bannedI11I1 ,\ Iwwspapers were fined byJhe gozemment.,U tn 'Hll lp

("'JIWrAhip is another issue that pervades journalism history in. ,I 1 1 l 1 i " .rtulnly, the blackest censorship period .::ame during General" 1IIIIIIary regime. Almost all journalists mention the press advice1 ' 1 1 1 110111: (If the most insidious means of censorship. It specified that

,III( I', "ronlravenes any provision of this regulation shall be punishedH I 11" ,11101111 Imprisonment which may extend to ~~nyears, and shall be


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was pretty much their own out it had to go. Newspapers as a result, andthere weren't very many, could be very dull.[unejo Regime ~March 23, 19B5-May 29,1988)

During junejo regime press enjoyed reasonable freedom afterfacing 27Jl leak years. To get a declaration was made easier than before.But it enhanced mushroom growth of newspapers and brought the blacksheep of professionalism in the field. ...\Benazir Bhutto, First Tenure (Dec. 2, 198B-Aug. 6, 1990)

Benazir Government used various tools to restrain press freedomtime to time. Government banned six dissenting newspapers on thesame day. Hamid Mir was kidnapped. Two other journalists werereported to be killed in Sindh. Zahid Malik was arrested, These instancesindicate that the press was not completely free.Nawaz Sharif, First Tenure (Nov. 6, 1990-Apri118, 1993)

In the first tenure of Mian Nawaz Shrif, 300 workers of daily Imrozwere sacked. Black Day was observed in this connection on September17,1991.

According to press reports, Prime Minister Naw~z Sharif in thebitter address in a seminar on "Mass media's role in a democraticPakistan" at Islamabad on April 2, 1991, threatened in a subtle way, tostop all official advertisements in the press and instead, start using TVfor the purpose.Benazir Bhutto, Second Tenure (Oct. 19, 1993-Nov. 5, 1996)

Government proscribed advertisements of daily Iang and dailyNawa-i-Waqt on the charge that both newspapers published news itemsand reports about the corruption and malpractices of prime minister andher husband AsH Ali Zardari. Government also increased the duty onnewsprint.Nawaz Sharif, Second Tenure (Feb. 17, 1997-0d. 2, 1999)

The worst example was the conflict between the government andDaily [ang, Government proscribed all official advertisements, frozetheir bank accounts, reopened their tax cases and demanded 2.6 billionincome tax. FIA raids on its offices, workers were threatened and


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Musharraf Regime (1999-2008)General Pervez Musharraf says the press in Pakistan is free.

Journalists' experience and reports by independent sources on this-issuesuggests there is not much truth in this claim. Green Press' report "State


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20Rauf Klasra because their reporting had angered officials. Sehbai said hewould rather quit than dismiss the reporters.Emergency Imposed in November, 2007

When the army chief staged another coup on November 3,2007,the standard operating procedure was employed for the putsch. 'What distinguished this coup from others was that it was staged

in the'presence of a vibrant private broadcast media: dozens of televisionchannels and PM radio stations providing Pakistanis news in real time.

"~!orification of violence by the media", said Musharraf, was amajor facto;. inh~ d~ose the emergenc_~_ =:::

.Even Eerorethe emergency was officially announced, curbs wereimposed on the media. The measures to control and restrain the mediaincluded suspension of broadcasts of all national and international newschannels, except the dour PTV, until further notice. Non-governmentsatellite TV channels were prevented from up linking to satellites andbanned from carriage on domestic cable networks - the source throughwhich most Pakistanis have access to independent TV news. At least 34Pakistani channels were taken off air, including a dozen popular 24/7current affairs channels such as Geo, ARY, Aaj, Dawn News, KTN, andKhyber TV, as well as international news channels such as CNN andBBC.

~Hours later, the government notified the media of ~urbs imposedon them through two decrees amending the PEMRA Ordinance and the~s, Newspapers, ~ews Age~s and Books Re_gistration Ord~nce,prohibiting printing or broadcasting of :'anything which defames orbrb,gs into ndIcule the head o! state, or members of the armedlOrces~ orexecutIve, Ie islative or Jtrdieiah5ffans of the srare:'Non-complianceWIt e new restrictions could be punishable by the suspension of anewspaper publication for up to 30 days, and, :n the case of televisionstations, by imprisonment of up to three years, a fine of Rs.I0 million, orboth."

The amendments also prohibited the media from publishing or. broadcasting "any material that is likely to jeopardise or be prejudicial tothe ideology of Pakistan or the sovereignty, integrity or security ojPakistan, or any material that is likely to incite violence or hatred OJ'create inter-faith disorder or be prejudicial to maintenance of law andorder."

It did not take long for media organisations, including the AIIPakistan Newspaper Society (APNS), the Council of Paklst.m


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Journalists, described the government's actions as "the worst kind ofrepression against the media in Pakistan in 30 years."

In several cases, the protests elicited a violent response from thesecurity agencies. In one instance, on November 20, a record 190journalists were arrested in a single evening, several of them badlybeaten up by the police, in Karachi, as they protested the arrest of 12 of.their colleagues earlier in the day. At least 20 of the detained journalistswere women. In the three weeks following the state of emergency, morethan 340 journalists were arrested, surely another record.

On November 15, Mir Shakilur Rehman, the owner of Geo,"mailed his senior staff informing them that he had received a"threatening telephone call last night" from the Inter-Services Intelligence19cncy (lSI), adding that he had been taken to an lSI safe house inlslarnabad where he was given a warning by an lSI operative who toldhim, "I would like to advise you to please follow the laws, especially thenewly promulgated law." -1'1'PGovernment

Throughout the sixty one years troubled history of Pakistan, thenllu Ilion of media freedom in Pakistan has never been beyond criticism1l1L! particularly, under military regimes, media ~as faced a harsh!l1'.lling from its dissidents.

Of late, the situation of press freedom has undergone colossal.I t lerloration. As per recent global survey about political rights and civilIhl'l'lh.l8, Pakistan was ranked as 'Partly Free' and 'Not Free' in the 2009,' tlon of Freedom of the Press. '

The latest inroads on media in the country have certainlyV I I I ll'f\cd circumstances for local press to play its role freely and1 1 I 1 1 1 i I L I I l y . The world media watchdog "Reporters without Borders" in" IHI' It fact finding report has said that ina wake of ongoing political11.1'Ill lnl mess-up inPakistan, the north-western region of the countryII II 111'('ol11C one of the most precarious zones for working journalists.S.ld lYf apart from recent boom of electronic media, the working

I Ildlllollli of Pakistani :,ress do not portray a good picture. Despite theIi' II 1111 and intimidation from intelligence agencies, government

1 1 1 1 II II und non-state actors like the Taliban, political and ethnic groups,1 1 1 1 1IIIjnr tyof journalists are working in deplorable circumstances.II I U III tH Killed in 2008-2009


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22Daily Balochistan Express. He was also the President of local newspaperhawkers Association.

26 March 2009: Raja Asad Hameed, senior reporter for Waqt TVand The Nation daily newspaper was shot four times by attackersoutside his home in Rawalpindi. He died in hospital.18 February 2009: Musa Khan Khel, reporter for The NewsInternational and GEO TV went missing on February 18, while reportingon a series of public events addressed by senior cleric Maulana SufiMohammad. His bullet-ridden body was discovered hours later in thesame area.

24 January 2009: Aamar Wakil, reporter for Awami Inqilab wasshot in the back next to his home. He worked for "The People'sRevolution", a regional daily based in Kohat, south of Peshawar.

S Nov 2008: Shoaib, a correspondent for PPJ news agency andlocal paper Azadi was killed by security forces inMengora, Swat.

21 May 2008: Ibrahim, 45 has been sending reports for Express TV,and was coming after a high profile interview of Maulvi Umar, chief ofTehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, when unidentified gunmen killed him fromclose ranger.

14 April 2008: Sheikh was on his way to the office from his housewhen unidentified gunmen shot him from close range. He died on thespot. Sheikh was the bureau chief of Urdu daily, Khabrain and also astinger of Sindh TV, inHub.

29 February 2008: a local journalist Sirajuddin was killed when asuicide bomber blown himself at a funeral killing 42 people,

10 February 2008: Renowned journalist Dr. Abdus Samad alias Dr.Chishti Mujahid, a senior columnist and photojournalist of Akhbar-i-[ehan was killed by a gunman in Satellite Town area, Quetta.

31 December 2007: TV journalist Kamil Mashhadi was shot deadin Karachi. He received two bullets wounds, and died on way to theHospital.

Ehsan Ali Daily Khabrain correspondent alias CommandoMazaari, died' in the Karachi blast. Deceased was correspondent of thedaily Khabrain at Mureed Shakh, Obarro.

state of press freedom in pakistan

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