‘Right to decide’ for media
THE Reporters without Borders Press Freedom Index rankings for 2009 rated Pakistan as 159th out of a total of 175 countries. This shows the reality of freedom for media in our country.
Agreed that we do see our media exposing all sorts of scandals and digging deep into the agendas of the forces which exist in this country but I still somehow feel that this nation has yet to experience what a free media is, for e.g., when the president of the most powerful country was made to appear in court and apologise publicly. The report which led to this was initially broken by a mid-level journalist. This is the power a free media holds.
May be this is the reason that in our country, the ‘right to decide’ is not entirely given to the media. The government’s influence or for that matter any influence on the media must end if we are to reach a respectable position in journalism in our country.
Our media consists of some world-class journalists and I am sure they can design a code of conduct for themselves as per the international standards.
The ‘right to decide’ must be given to the media and the same applies to other institutions as well, if we are to mature democratically. The media must use it responsibly.
ZEESHAN KHAN
Islamabad
Source: Dawn
Date:7/8/2010
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