surreal_ravi

Free radio & television!


By Hafizur Rahman


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
programmes, particularly in the presentation of social, economic and
political news and views?

Obviously, by freedom of these media I mean 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 September 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.

Before I begin to say anything about freedom in the context of news
presentation and the airing of independent views and analyses, I can
be asked a ticklish counter question. "We always talk of freedom from
official interference in news reporting by the print and electronic
media. But has anyone given a thought to the ever-present
pre-censorship by powerful social and religious elements of our
society which is 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. That cross has to be carried. But what we can do is to
try and get rid of the stifling and, at the same time, 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 citizens of
Pakistan 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
unrecognisable from what we have been accustomed to since youth or
childhood or birth, depending on our age.

Let me remind you of what constituted news for radio and TV before the
new wave invaded their studios. The news bulletins were 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.

Calamities like floods were reported only in the context of what the
government was doing about them, and the most terrible accident that
killed a hundred could only find place in radio and TV news if a
federal minister was there to preside over relief work. 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, the happy kite-flying multitude on the roads and
on housetops, and how all the hotels, from the humblest to the
five-star type, were packed with visitors from outside, including
fun-loving foreigners, was most heartening.

This means that PTV has learned to share the happiness and problems of
the masses. It is another matter that kite-flying has just been banned
in Lahore because of the steel wire for string which has killed many,
but I am told that Basant next year will be organised within the
confines of this ban.

For the first time, Radio Pakistan and PTV have boards of directors
whose members are not the controlling bosses of the two organisations
but people from outside - senior officers from the ministries of
finance, foreign affairs and defence as well as a couple of
non-officials. I am told the top guns of both the media put up a stiff
resistance to this, but they were over-ruled because it was felt that
no worthwhile change could come about unless fresh blood was inducted
into the body.

themselves on the lines of foreign electronic media. I had said that
the staff of radio from August 1947 and of TV from August 1964 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.

I quoted that popular verse about the bird in prolonged captivity
preferring death to liberty: Itne maanoos sayyad se ho gaye ke rihai
mili bhi to mar jaaenge. I hope this doesn't happen to our radio and
TV people.

Coming back to PEMRA, this authority is responsible for regulating the
establishment and operation of all private radio and TV stations,
including cable, to be set up for the purpose of international,
national, provincial, district, local or special target audiences.

The chairman is a well-known professional of acknowledged competence.
Five of the nine members are eminent citizens from the provinces, two
of them women. The remaining three are federal secretaries of
information and interior, and the chairman of the Pakistan
Telecommunication Authority. To ensure that the public can voice its
views about radio and TV programmes, there is a Council for Complaints
consisting of a chairman and five members from the public, two of whom
are women.

Entrepreneurs had been knocking at the doors of the Pakistan
government for a long time seeking licences 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!