Free radio and TV, it's democracy

Hafizur Rahman, The Dawn, Asia News Network, Karachi, Pakistan

Can Pakistan's electronic media, radio and television, or more precisely, Radio Pakistan and the Pakistan Television Corporation, ever be completely free? Can they do without any government control and without any official interference in the tone and content of their programs, particularly in the presentation of social, economic and political news and views?

Obviously, freedom of these media referes to the freedom that we generally associate with the BBC and CNN, to name just two of the democratic world's broadcasting agencies. Though there is a snag in this too because, after Sept. 11 and the war in Afghanistan, CNN has shown itself to be amenable to government "advice" on the plea of national interest. However, the BBC, on the whole, keeps the flag flying.

But apart from freedom from official interference in news reporting, has anyone given a thought to the ever-present precensorship by powerful social and religious elements -- a far greater inhibition to unbiased reporting and speaking the truth, and to a free and frank discussion of some of the vital issues facing the nation?

I shall not even attempt to answer that embarrassing query. You and I know that because of that fear of society hanging over all of us there can be no real freedom for anyone in the mass media, or even in one's personal life.

But what we can do is to try and get rid of the stifling and sycophantic atmosphere which made the reporting of even non- political day-to-day news a crushing bore under the past elected governments and military regimes. What a reflection on our intellectual self-reliance that we had to depend on the BBC to tell us what was happening in our own country.

But things are changing. It is a paradox of the greatest surprise that the two electronic media should have the strangulating control over them relaxed by the latest military regime. This process started some two years ago, and already we see politicians on PTV in live discussion of public problems.

The way things are going we may see our radio and television acting and behaving like newspapers which are having a field day so far as absence of restrictions are concerned. Moreover, for the setting up of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) may well become as big a step as the first step on the moon.

Pemra will make its presence felt when private news and views channels on radio and television become a routine happening. In the meantime the very manner of the presentation of news and, more importantly, discussion of national issues over the electronic media is becoming unrecognizable from what we have been accustomed.

News bulletins used to be so strictly confined to the utterances and activities of government leaders that momentous happenings that affected the common man -- accidents, deaths, political upheavals, riots, disturbances and the like -- found no place in them. Of course reporting political activity of the opposition variety could not even be imagined.

Nowadays I prefer to read my news rather than switch on the radio or TV for it. But I did watch the reporting of Basant in Lahore a few months ago. The extensive coverage given by PTV to the popular festival in Lahore was most heartening.

This means that PTV has learned to share the happiness and problems of the masses. For the first time, Radio Pakistan and PTV have boards of directors whose members are not the controlling bosses of the two organizations but people from outside. Radio and TV staff had become so conditioned to dictation that they are sure to have lost whatever initiative they possessed and wouldn't know what to do if they were to handle a controversial news.

Entrepreneurs had been knocking at the doors of the Pakistan government for a long time seeking licenses to establish private radio and TV stations, but none of the elected regimes listened to them. What a tribute to democracy that a military regime should take steps to ensure as much freedom as possible to the electronic media!