Daily Times

On principle I agree with what
Dr Mohammad Taqi wrote in these pages on April 4. 2013 (Daily Times, “Press in Pakistan: from persecution to perks”) that journalists should avoid direct involvement in politics. However, Dr Taqi in his column names among others two important pre-partition journalists with great reverence, Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. Mohani was not only a founding member of the Communist Party of India but also presided over the 1921 session of the All India Muslim League. Azad, on the other hand, was one of the youngest presidents of the Indian Congress and went on to become a member of the Indian cabinet after the partition.

The opening quote in Dr Taqi’s column is from the policy of The New York Times (NYT). All major US press institutions forbid their employees from openly supporting any political party or a particular candidate or working for any ‘official’ agency. It is the job of the editorial board to support of a particular candidate in its pre-election endorsement. Even after the editorial endorsement, reporters and even opinion writers are not expected to endorse any candidate.

However, almost every reader of the NYT knows whom a particular columnist supports. Krugman, Keller, Sullivan and Bruni are all reliably left of centre, and therefore, ‘instinctively’ support the Democratic Party points of view. And everybody knows except those that actually believe the nonsense about ‘fair and balanced’ reporting that FOX TV is not only pro-Republican but also provides continued sustenance to failed Republican candidates. Wikipedia in its entry about this newspaper states that ‘Daily Times is recognised as a newspaper that advocates liberal and secular ideas’. As such, most if not all of its op-ed writers swing ‘left’.

Over the last few weeks, besides Mr Najam Sethi, editor of The Friday Times who took over as the interim chief minister (CM) of the Punjab, Mr Arif Nizami, editor of Pakistan Today was inducted into the federal caretaker government. And then of course Mr Ayaz Amir, an op-ed writer for The News, faced a returning officer who denied his application to contest the national assembly election. Fortunately, a higher court allowed Amir to contest elections. If somebody with views similar to those expressed by Amir in his columns is a member of the Republican Party in the US, he will be called a RINO (Republican in Name only). And perhaps Amir’s days as a member of the centre right, pro-Islamist Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) might be coming to an end.

More importantly, Amir is not a reporter or an editor but an opinion writer and as such is neither expected to be objective nor neutral. When I write an op-ed column it is an expression of my personal opinions about current affairs or social issues. As an unreconstructed 1960s liberal my opinions are entirely consistent with that perspective.

When we speak of the press today, the printed press is becoming a progressively smaller part of the ‘news’ media. TV, the Internet, bloggers, twitter and frequently updated online versions of print papers and magazines are an important source of information for the general news audience. The ‘print’ media still remains the last redoubt of vetted and, hopefully, fact-checked news and information. In a 24/7 news cycle, there is something extremely reassuring about a morning newspaper that sums up the latest news but also makes sure that the news has been checked as far as is possible for accuracy.

However, reporters are people too! They have political biases and they might veer towards the liberal or the conservative point of view and that does ‘colour’ their reportage. And that is where the print media is superior to all other forms of ‘immediate’ news coverage. It is the responsibility of the editors to make sure that a reporter’s political bias does not alter the factual nature of the reported story. Even so, the choice of ‘facts’ being reported is in itself often based on political bias. Political neutrality of the press is essentially a chimera. But it is important if possible that attempts at ‘neutrality’ do not replace ‘objectivity’.

An interesting example of such feigned neutrality was the reporting about the performance of the PML-N government in the Punjab over the last many years. Many reporters and newspapers avoided pointing out that building expensive roads, crossovers and underpasses was taking money away from basic services like free medical care in public hospitals. Unlikely that this reporting bias was due to the desire to maintain a ‘neutral’ approach. It was I believe out of ‘fear’ of getting the Punjab government angry and thus losing the financial ‘support’ that many media outlets including newspapers receive in the form of ‘official’ advertisements. Some neutrality or objectivity!

As far as senior journalists becoming a part of the interim governments is concerned, that in my opinion is a non-issue. I am against the entire concept of an ‘impartial interim’ government that has the ‘primary’ purpose of holding free, fair and transparent election. Sounds good on paper but we have already seen the downside of this exercise. For all practical purposes, Pakistan does not have effective central or provincial governments at this time.

The load shedding crisis is getting worse; the law and order situation is deteriorating and the financial situation is reaching the point of no return. The frightening thing is that this is going to go on for at least another six or seven weeks! Yes, three weeks to the elections and then another three weeks till the assemblies meet and then who knows how long till there is a government at the centre or in the provinces.

So, after his Basant debacle, perhaps we should let Sethi Sahib have his ‘day in the sun’ and wage the vitally important ‘war against measles’. Important one that. At least, he might learn enough about measles to write important ‘editorials’ about it in the future. Indeed measles and dengue are probably more important to the people of Pakistan than the ‘great game’.

The writer has practised and taught medicine in the US. He can be reached at smhmbbs70@yahoo.com