Daily Times

Governments and organizations, world over, spend billions of dollars every year promoting their ‘products’ whether it be individuals, political parties, corporate entities, programs, etc. While history records many propaganda campaigns the most successful in recorded history is Germany’s Minister for Propaganda Joseph Goebbels propagating of Hitler and Nazi-ism in the 1930s till 1945. Massive development and technological advancements during the last two decades have turned advertising into a pervasive and powerful tool in its impact and affect, advertising and budgets thereof expenditures force-multiplying the power and influence wielded by advertisers. In the present era the marketing and advertising budgets of sponsors in the corporate as well as the government sector runs into billions.

Much is made among the media practitioners about the freedom of expression however despite the known integrity and independence of the publications that I write for or have written for, the blackmail power of advertisers makes them susceptible to coercion, fear, etc. The exceptions are not so honourable. In Pakistan the corrupt use their illegally made billions to suppress the truth from coming out. According to Brendan Ryan, vice chairman of Draft FCB Worldwide, a global advertising agency network, “To a large extent the media enjoys freedom of expression in spite of political pressure and direct bans sometimes administered by political stakeholders. Political pressure on media is mostly done indirectly. One tool widely used by the government as well as the private sector is to cut off ‘unfriendly’ media from their advertising.” Unquote.

Not surprisingly, this is the case in Pakistan where advertisers and advertising more or less control some aspects of the media, both electronic and print, this is a polite way of saying that this is blackmail. When the title of my article, “Making Hundi Electronic” was changed I did not think anything was amiss but when I read my article in print the entire operative paragraph was taken out, it should graphically illustrate the naked power of the advertiser.

To quote, In Pakistan the problem of “Hundi” has been exacerbated by not only by some unscrupulous foreign exchange dealers having undue influence over the regulations but now even TELCOS have got into the act facilitating this illegal business exploiting the grey space between the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) regulations and that of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA). Instead of being limited to one SIM and Rs 25,000 max as per SBP rules, five SIMs are used by every individual to send Rs 125000 daily.

The “manual hundi” has been replaced by a far more efficient “electronic hundi”, can TELCOS confirm not been indicted for facilitating money-laundering in any country? The World Bank wants “financial inclusion” through the Asaan (Easy) Mobile Account (AMA), to get the 85 percent population “financially excluded” into the banking system. For more than 100 million “unbanked” Pakistanis this is economic life and death, for the TELCOS AMA it is a Pandora’s Box; they oppose regulatory processes/mechanism and outside monitoring. Having no qualms or patriotism in avoiding taxation, our modern “East India” Companies will fight forensic oversight of their transactions through their local heavily paid “babus”. Unquote.

The aforesaid reflects nothing but the factual truth that the public in Pakistan must be made aware of. The publication that I write for regularly is not only prestigious but considered to be extremely bold in its editorial policy. The publishers are people whom I greatly respect. Unfortunately it seems advertisers with big budgets can influence their integrity for presenting the truth. One particular scoundrel who was Asif Zardari’s main advisor on how to manipulate bureaucracy for personal motivation during Zardari’s period of looting Pakistan got away with his name not being mentioned for “various reasons” of family ties, etc. For the publications is a matter of survival and I don’t blame them However not all media houses survive on advertising and this article being published in this newspaper is proof of that. Unfortunately survival of the ‘malleable’ is usually ‘bankrolled’ by governments and some of the other big advertisers.

Much a do is made among the media practitioners about the freedom of expression however despite the known integrity and independence of the publications that I write for or have written for, the blackmail power of advertisers makes them susceptible to coercion, fear, etc

Advertisements in the media is considered extremely lucrative business. The Federal Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry informed the Senate in Aug 2018 that “his Ministry and attached departments had given advertisements worth more than Rs 6 billion to print and electronic media in the last four years”. According to one source, Pakistan’s total advertisement expenditure now exceeds Rs 65 billion. During the past few years, the ad spending has seen an increase of 10 to 12%. 45 billion of that amount is spent on television advertisements while 17 billion is used in print media advertisements.

Commenting on the limits of advertising, Javed Jabbar, former Senator and Information Minister had this to say in a Nov 2017 interview, “One aspect that continues to disturb me is corruption. There is no accountability or transparency because media controls where the advertisements are placed, and at what rates. No one knows what the actual circulation of a newspaper is, despite the ABC figures. In 2013, the Supreme Court appointed me to a media commission and we prepared a comprehensive report that included 36 reform recommendations. One set directly dealt with regulating advertising and the conduct of media and advertisers. The tragedy is that ratings determine where advertising revenues go and therefore advertising is now determining media content and programming. The integrity and autonomy of media content has been breached by a complete surrender to the forces of commercialization” Unquote.

Meezan Bank should have been given the All Round “Bank of the Year” last year, they had to wait this year to get what they deserved. What was the criteria that led to the award last year remained mysterious because every banking professional in Pakistan knew that the particular bank who undeservedly got the award had a very high cost-income ratio (63 percent), was far more in fact than all the other banks vying for the award. The members of the Committee overseeing the award were all knowledgeable and honourable persons, so why this anomaly? When I spoke to them, they hemmed and hawed, not one had a credible reason. The media department of the bank ensured that the CEO’s views, comments and interviews appeared in all the newspapers almost on a daily basis in which they gave advertisements. A year or so after this gentlemen had to leave the bank, his name has appeared only occasionally since and mostly for the wrong reasons, having renounced his Pakistan citizenship. For years this scoundrel faked his “Pakistani” presence to get access to Boards of sensitive public sector entities. Who is his sponsor for the NBP President’s short list?

One will see literally dozens of fake publications e.g. journals, magazines, newspapers, etc in many languages in Pakistan. No one has done anything about this malpractice that goes on under the noses of the authorities. Who are the people who publish such fake publications with the sole intent of taking money from the government? It is a matter of some satisfaction that now the govt has become aware of the situation, credit must particularly be given to Mr Jamil Yusuf, the last Caretaker Minister of Information in Sindh govt who did some commendable work on this particular topic in the short time that he had. It will be in the interest of fairplay and in the national interest if this report containing the findings is published. Why not get Jamil Yousuf to continue his good work. Even as a private citizen? I am sure he will work “pro bonopublico” as he has always done.

There is no doubt that advertisers interfere in the media industry by using their clout. Since a sizeable portion of revenues earned by commercial media rely on advertising, corporations and advertising agencies use their economic power to censor and control the content deemed unfavourable to their interests. Which are the publications that regularly defame the Armed Forces and the judiciary? In this case advertising revenues combines with money paid by enemy interests become a facet of hybrid warfare. Make no mistake, this is a national security issue.

The writer is a defence and security analyst

Published in Daily Times, November 13^th 2018.