Government proposes to allow 10 to 15 new TV channels: minister
ISLAMABAD- Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad said the government had proposed to allow 10 to 15 new TV channels for free flow of information, and PTV should get ready to compete with them.
He stated this while addressing the inaugural session of one-day seminar on “New World Information Order-challenges and opportunities for Pakistan”, organised by the Information Services Academy here on April 7, 2003.
The minister said the Academy should improve its training facilities and capacity so that 50 to 100 young and talented people acquire skills needed in the competitive environment of free flow of information and freedom the access to information.
He said a special package for the service was in the offing, and likely to be announced within two or three months. The special package is in the works and I mean to have it, the minister told the audience, largely attended by officials of the information ministry, PID and journalists.
Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, in his written speech, said there is a paradigm shift in information in the world, and there is no room for the mediocre, now only the best can survive.
Therefore, the government is planning on better training facilities, capacity-building and strengthening of the Information Services Academy, he added.
Access to information is now treated as a fundamental human right, he said, adding the government is taking steps to conform to Unesco standards. That’s why the government allowed complete freedom and opened it to private investment, he maintained.
Sheikh Rashid Ahmed urged the official media to come out of its mental censors and compete with the private sector.
Speaking about Unesco recommendations, the minister said that media clearing houses and think-tanks have to be established. Some countries like India have invested in the training of their journalists to enhance their capacity to get jobs in the world media. We in Pakistan are also planning to establish media training institute.
Continuing, he added that the world around has taken a paradigm shift It has no place for the mediocre. Only the best can survive, those who have the relevant skills and training.
Earlier, former information minister Senator Nisar Memon said that access to information is now regarded a fundamental human right, adding the government had proposed an ordinance for access to information.
He said the world has seen several revolutions, the latest being IT revolution which has led to electronic revolution, adding in the current world order, the US, with a huge array of new technologies, acquired a monopolistic role as is evident from the projections in Iraq war.
In the new world information order Pakistan is faced with several challenges. Amera Saeed of Institute of Regional Policy, in her address, found a number of deficiencies in the present system in the country while other countries have designed specific measures for research-based governance.
She was shocked to find that the web sites maintained by the government in the name of open government remained largely unutilised. Quoting from the number of hits at websites of different government departments, she wondered if these were of much utility to the people.
Islamauddin of the Information Academy presented historical background of the new information world order, and how it is being implemented in Pakistan, saying that time for controlled media is now history.
Subsidy to the official media cannot be sustained for long. Only that media can survive which is able to cater to the consumer needs in terms of information contents and presentation, he added.
He said under the emerging new world information order, the access to information has been recognised as a fundamental human right and states have been mandated to enact freedom of information laws to ensure citizens’ access to information.
He said once these imperatives are taken care of, the rest would follow, adding the proposal for Third World media collaboration to compete with the western media, which has now been revived by Saudi Arabia, cannot serve any useful purpose, unless there is credibility in contents of information and the technology to transmit it.
Such an information should be need-based, properly researched and capable of establishing common bond with the recipient, otherwise it would be perceived as indoctrination, and may even invoke hostility in the target audience, he added.
Source: Business Recorder
Date:4/8/2003
” 
” 
” 
” 
