It is the season of suspensions. A month after ARY News broadcasts had gone off air at the instruction of the media regulator, a new dictate has revoked the satellite television licences granted to Bol News and Bol Entertainment. While this time, PEMRA has thrown in the technical card citing the failure to procure clearances, the baffling delay in the termination of license even though the said judgement by the Sindh High Court had concluded in 2021 does give a whiff of sinister play.
In recent times, the press in Pakistan has become a favourite sacrificial lamb, perpetually caught in political tumults. Quite expectedly, this immediate closure has prompted former prime minister Imran Khan to accuse the government of taking “media and journalists’s censorship and persecution to fascistic levels.”
That the transmission has landed on the hit list because of its editorial inclination towards Mr Khan when a blanket ban on his speeches forces many networks to toe the line is what his followers have carved into a social media trend. While the TV channel was also arm-twisting regulations by choosing to turn a deaf ear to the security clearance requirements, the timing and urgency of the order are very unpropitious, both of which are bound to land on the opposition’s whiteboard strategy.
Always heralded the fourth pillar of the state, media members are among the easiest to dished out punishments. First and foremost, the restriction on Mr Khan’s words is a downright violation of his constitutionally-ordained right to free speech. And since the watchdog has already earned enough bad name to last this innings by choosing to disrupt the live stream on YouTube, sitting on these new series of restrictions would be akin to pouring gasoline on a raging fire.
There may be many itching to remind the present victims about yet another campaign of oppression waged against both mainstream and social media not too long ago. The weapons were the same as today: harassing journalists, blocking transmissions, censoring content without prior warnings. But instead of harping to the tune of who attacked whome, it would be more useful for PEMRA to finally dispel this notion of its subservience to whoever’s sitting behind the steering wheel. In 2020, a nuanced directive to ban speeches, interviews and public addresses of proclaimed offenders was meant to take PML-N’s Nawaz Sharif off-screen. Earlier in 2015, another blackout was carried out against MQM chief Altaf Hussain. Public proclamations are just the tip of the iceberg of a vendetta that does not believe in giving space to voices of dissent.
Pakistan’s dismal ranking on the World Press Freedom Index speaks more about our appalling working conditions than the perpetually in-vogue “biases” the international community is alleged to foster against us. Just a peek within might help the authorities come up with a plan that does not involve subjugation. At the end of the day, free media holds the key to protecting any country’s democracy. *