[sacw] Press statement from Lahore (24 May 1999)

[Harsh Kapoor]

FYI
(South Asia Citizens Web)
==============================
Mon, 24 May 1999, Lahore.

PRESS STATEMENT!

[ Following second day of dialogue on MEDIA, PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT arranged
by Journalists Resource Centre (JRC), in collaboration with Lahore Press
Club (LPC) and Punjab Union of Journalists ]

Today's state is more vulnerable than that of 1947, the state at that time
had a consensus and the problems facing it were evident, but presently,
neither the state has a consensus nor its problems can be termed as
objective ones.This was said by former Chairman Human Rights Commission of
Pakistan Mr I A Rehman, speaking on the second day of dialogue on Media,
Peace and Development arranged by Journalists Resource Centre (JRC), in
collaboration with Lahore Press Club (LPC) and Punjab Union of Journalists
at Nisar Osmani Auditorium, Sunday.

Discussing at length the topic for the first session, State and Media
relations, Mr I A Rehman said media strengthens a democratic state and free
media can only be ensured by a stable state. He said our state has always
remained vulnerable since independence. He said the state systems have been
inherited from a colonial administration which do not support freedom of
press. He said that freedom of press was in fact a reflection of people's
desire for freedom.Explaining the history of mass media he said that the
preliminary forms of media were either the government gazettes which
described the achievements of the government or those established by
freedom aspirants. Since the inception of mass media, he said, each and
every government tried to harness the press. Mr Rehman was of the opinion
that a democratic debate is not considered in favour of the state and the
role of the press media is more like an enemy of the government. He said
the phenomenon of governmental oppression on the freedom of press is not
new, rather newspapers came under fire a few weeks after independence. He
said that there are innumerable precedents in which rulers brought out
their own papers and news agencies, bought out the exiting newspapers or
sealed them down.

During the martial law regimes many papers were banned in East Pakistan, he
maintained.He said late dictator General Ziaul Haq created differences
among journalist organisations who were opposing his dictatorial regime and
awarded his own men. He said that there are no more parallel organisations
to cause problems, the differences are created from among the
organisation.He said the worsening of the state-media relations would be
evident when we compare the number of strikes called by journalists from
1963 to 1976 and those called afterwards. Calling the present situation as
a ridiculous one, he said that the government changes but the manual
remains the same. He said the successive government made ordinances making
the press freedom status from bad to worse. Mentioning the 1963's Press and
Publications Ordinance, he said that the only change was the replacement of
PPO with Registration of Press and Publications Ordinance in 1988 in which
declaration was granted impromptu three months after submitting declaration
before the DC office. He said the purpose of declaration, even in the
colonial administration, was not a license, but only to inform the
administration about the address and name of the publication. Talking about
the Freedom Information Act, he said the freedom of expression includes all
sorts of freedom for citizens. In the presence of freedom of expression
there is no need to talk separately about the information Acts or press
freedom. He quoted the example of Indian Constitution in which there is no
separate clause about the freedom of press. He said that to recompense the
early injustice with the press the 1973 constitution clearly laid down the
freedom of expression and freedom of press separately. He said country's
renowned constitutional expert Fakharuddin G Ibrahim gave a proposal
regarding the freedom of information act but that was later on
misinterpreted by the elected government.He said the code of ethics
propounded by the government is the same as that given by General Ayub
Khan. 

He said the Press Council suggested by the government has seven members out
of which none is a professional journalist. He said this attitude of the
government only reflects contempt towards public opinion. He said press
freedom is not an absolute end, it is a mean instead for a better
democratic culture. He said if we compare the present times with that of
1947, the facts reveal that we had less resources in 1947 but we are poorer
now due to misallocation of resources. He said the journalists should
struggle after mustering support from the people to ensure their freedom.
He said it should also be looked into whether the freedom of press has
caused more damage to the country or absence of such freedom.

Responding to questions about the non-payment of salaries, government
regulations, code of ethics, he said that these issues are prevailing due
to the weaknesses of the journalist community.Mr Khawar Mehdi, a
journalist from Islamabad, argued that the state did not damage the press
as much as did the press men. He quoted the examples of journalists who had
joined hands with state and despite the damage they have caused to the
press freedom movement, they are still recognised as journalists.Many
other journalists participating in the dialogue questioned the active
participation of journalists when big shots of journalism enter into a
conflict with the government, while the journalists working in regional
papers find no support from journalists.Afterwards, President Lahore Press
Club, Mr Saqlain Imam said that the danger to the state lies not in press
freedom but from the corrupt classes and multi-national companies. He said
that press freedom could not be isolated from the other civil liberties. He
said our administration system as the same as we inherited from the British
rule. He said as many as 30 colonial acts were still prevailing even after
fifty years of independence. He said only 15 per cent journalists are
getting their salaries in accordance with the wage award while others get
less or no salary at all.

Professor Mehdi Hasan, an academician and expert on mass communications,
addressing the second session on social role of media, said that
declaration for a newspaper or journal was not a permission as it was
supposed to be. He said creating awareness about the rights of the people
has never been considered favourable by the government. He said the
constitutional protection is not for the majority but to provide relief to
the social and political minorities. He said the press freedom is
conditional with freedom of the people.

Discussing the problems in profession he mentioned one of his researches in
which it was found out that 97.6 per cent of the news published in
newspapers is based on statements. He said the columns published in
newspapers are not for people's education. He said it was the
responsibility of the unions to build the professional capacity of the
journalists and if the journalists are less skilled, the state and
newspapers owners could not be blamed for that. He said that without
complete freedom of press the freedom of people could not be ensured.
Referring to the role of state-owned electronic media, he said that
according to another research it was found out that the news mentioned the
name and the designation of the Prime Minister 53 times per day on average.
He said the social responsibility of the press was to be determined by the
press itself. 

He said that Britain has complete freedom of press and in America there is
no censor board even for the commercial films. He mentioned the incident
when some private photographs of Sarah Ferguson were published in Daily Sun
and the paper proudly wrote that these photographs cost them five years and
1.5 million pounds. Times London while commenting on it in one of its
editorial maintained that they would not have published those photographs
even if they had found them free of cost. He said that there is a universal
code of ethics which every journalist has to follow. The matter which
should not be published includes photographs of mutilated dead bodies, rape
details and private beliefs, he added. 

He said that the journalists need proper training to develop their skills
so that the newspaper owners may treat them as a professional and may pay
him more salary. He said the people sitting in Islamabad could not solve
problems facing the people in Karachi. Invoking Quaid-e-Azam he added that
the founder of Pakistan never labelled his political opponents as traitors.
While successive governments have been abusing the terms of 'national
interests'. 

Aziz Mazhar, Editor Reporting Pakistan, speaking on neglected issues in
media, said that one should not confuse media-government relations with
media-state relations. He pointed out some of the areas to which the
journalists were completely oblivious. These included issues of the rural
areas, women, child rights, health and the problems in neglected regions of
Pakistan.

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