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- Observer.co.uk,
- Sunday April 29, 2001
The years of oppression and state censorship under Zia ul Haq have left their mark on Pakistani journalism in many ways. Journalists have come up with ingenious methods of getting across news and views, on the other hand. But continuous attacks on freedom of expression coupled with the strengthening of militant right non-state actors has led to journalists having to exercise a lot of caution in how they write.
While journalists still continually put themselves on the line, the space for dissenting opinions is continually shrinking. When you take a stand that offends the authorities or militant groups, you can feel very daunted about doing it again even if you won that round in the first place. You can never be sure that the people who supported you will be around the next time.
In a largely unlettered society, newspapers have a limited impact. Among these, the greatest readership belongs to the Urdu language press, which is correspondingly more careful not to go against establishment views. There is relatively more space for dissenting views in the non-mainstream independent press, for example in English and Sindhi. But it is risky to go against the establishment view on matters like the army, religion, foreign policy, or to oppose the government's policy on nuclear weapons. However, brave journalists do raise these issues and often get away with it.
With regard to religion, there is little in the way of open discourse because of the government's own caution in the face of militant religious groups. The 'blasphemy law', Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code provides capital punishment for any convictions. It has been enough over the last few years just to accuse people and initiate a mob reaction; a reasoned, open debate on the mass media could go a long way towards strengthening the constituency of those who believe in justice and tolerance.
I don't feel that the situation for press freedom has improved much in recent years. The continual censorship from various quarters has led to the internalisation of many of the establishment views. The journalist's sense of isolation has decreased as a result of the internet. Internet campaigning helped get Najem Sethi of the Friday Times released, and has encouraged a lot of solidarity among journalists. But the electronic media still needs to be opened up more so that it's not what we call 'His Masters Voice'.
If we don't allow open discourse, the public will feel that there is nothing they can do about their situation. They will assume that there is only one view and if they don't share it they will feel totally isolated.
Beena Sarwar has been a journalist in Pakistan since 1987 and is currently Editor of The News on Sunday. She has worked with The Star, Karachi and was Features Editor at the Frontier Post, Lahore before joining the News, where she launched the weekly The News on Friday (now Sunday). She is currently on sabbatical leave on a television documentary course.
