Daily Times

With journalism now having reached the epitome of influence through out the masses , global news media can now finally enlighten the world and raise awareness for the SDGs – sustainable development goals. These SDGs actually form the quintessential nucleus or brainchild behind any ‘standard’ journalism. These 17 development goals encompass all walks of life and professions including journalism and aim for a better and far more sustainable future for everyone. Each of these goals have a separate list of targets which are gauged with the help of indicators and its success has been made a priority for all countries. However, sadly, it is rather appalling to see that a majority of journalists and media houses avoid reporting on SDGs and rather focus on petty issues that involve huge sums of money.

In September 2018, the United Nations organised the SDG Media Compact, currently consisting of 85 major news media companies around the world, to propel the media toward more active SDGs-related coverage. This just comes to show how epoch-making reporting on SDGs is, especially in a developing country like Pakistan. What’s intriguing is the way the organization is structured: 20 outlets from Europe, 14 from the Americas, 15 from Africa, nine from the Middle East and 27 from Asia, with 12 coming only from Japan. Such is the involvement of Japan in reporting on SDGs and as of now Japanese media is at the forefront of working for making the SDGs a dream come true. Japan has in essence, realised the importance of completing these developmental goals and the benefits these goals can provide. Pakistani media also needs to learn from the example of Japan and try to involve itself with this great cause as reporting on these SDGs has a plethora of advantages.

Firstly, reporting on these SDGs will help many businesses and multi national companies working within or with Pakistan to gain awareness and help to make policies that will be beneficiary not only for them but for helping to create a sustainable future where the potential of anything essential is not undermined. Measuring and disclosing their impact on the SDGs through the help of media will help businesses better engage stakeholders, enhance sustainable decision-making processes and strengthen their accountability. This can only be done if the media helps in providing the anchor for getting these businesses be docked at the harbor of sustainable success. Several efforts are underway that recognise the importance of the private sector to achieving the SDGs. The Global Reporting Initiative, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, and United Nations Global Compact are currently working on the development of a guide that will “support businesses in assessing their impacts, aligning their strategies with the SDGs and setting company goals.” With such international organisations partnering, the businesses in Pakistan will be thoroughly able to incorporate SDG reporting into their existing processes, consequently aiding them to act and help create SDGs a dream come true. The Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) initiative is also a partner of the platform, helping to increase the value of corporate sustainability disclosures for the financial community.

Another reason for reporting on SDGs is to help out the younger generation to break free from the shackles of mistrust and hopelessness. With the increase in the demand in education, awareness among younger generations has also skyrocketed. This younger generation now tries to seek transparency when accepting jobs, buying products, and making investments. Corporate impact is much more important to this generation than previous generations. They are asking hard questions beyond surface-level statistics and reporting. “How are you creating an impact?” “What are the externalities?” “Who are stakeholders and beneficiaries?” Media houses aligning with the SDGs in an authentic way will help our youth understands the context of its desired impact and its role in the larger global effort for its specific impact area. So reporting on SDGs has become an inevitable thing in a rapidly growing country like Pakistan.

On the contrary, reporting on SDGs is often neglected in Pakistan. Our media does not prioritise reporting on SDGs while blatantly following a wild goose chase in the hopes of getting more views and mere ‘TRP’. They could care less about reporting on some developmental goal that could take years to achieve over which celebrity trash talked about whom on a live show. Media houses nowadays thrive on drama, rather than reporting on actual cases that require a voice to be raised for. They can analyze and review on celebrity feuds over live television and can give their opinions on what should have been done to avoid the feud but rarely would they help in discussing how a sustainable development goal could be achieved in a third world country like Pakistan. When the media prioritizes money over actual awareness, then these SDGs can never be completely fulfilled in a country like Pakistan.

Another reason for this rather dismal neglect on reporting SDGs in Pakistan is the prevalent mindset of our citizens due to poverty and corruption. In a country where you are bombarded with proliferated prices on consumer goods and atrocious acts of corruption in almost all public and private sectors, then the people of the country never concentrate on some developmental goals but rather on fulfilling their own daily goals. Citizens burdened by inflation eventually have their vision for the future blurred and become stagnant within their present like a husk with no soul. Therefore it advised that the government should come up with policies to help and aid media houses to report frequently on SDGs.

The writer is a journalist and social media influencer based in Islamabad