Stop press
ANY colour as long as it is black. The Fordian stance that the military regime is taking towards the media is thick with doublethink. The inherent contradiction in the government’s oft-declared love for freedom of speech and expression while clamping down on media establishments in the name of the national interest is not lost on anyone anymore.
Chairing a high-level meeting in Islamabad to address and review the dialogue with the media bodies, the President hoped that all the television channels would agree to the new Code of Conduct drafted by the PEMRA. He urged the media to uphold the national interests at any cost. This is a rather condescending attitude.
The nation’s news media can determine the national interest on its own. The government’s consistent attempts to take the credit for what it calls unprecedented press freedoms has to be accompanied by bearing the criticism that will accompany any such freedom to the press.
It is sinfully convenient for the current dispensation of power to allege that any and all criticism of any nature is against the national interest but it is not the stuff that mature leadership is made of. A vibrant press is an asset for any country. Its vigilance has powered successful democracies throughout the world. The press, therefore, is not just supposed to uphold the national interest, it is the national interest.
Source: Nation
Date:11/14/2007
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