Pakistan: Danger to media

THERE is much to criticise in the conduct of vast sections of the media and especially the level of editorial influence many owners of media houses exercise. But let it also be clear that the prosecution of the Jang group ownership and senior employees on charges of hurting religious sentiment smacks of persecution.

Consider that the controversial content that Geo Entertainment aired earlier this year had already been dealt with by the regulators, the channel was fined and even taken off air, and the Jang/Geo group had profusely apologised for any hurt caused.

The matter should have ended there. Instead, it morphed into a witch hunt, with FIRs filed, criminal investigations launched and, finally, a conviction by an anti-terrorism court, a verdict now suspended on appeal in another jurisdiction.

There is nothing in the original mistake by Geo or its subsequent actions that justifies the kind of criminal proceedings it has been subjected to. Indeed, what the media group is being made to suffer so viciously appears to be payback for perceived Jang/Geo transgressions elsewhere. To put it more bluntly, media freedom is being curtailed and the media group is being made to pay for its belligerent views on the perennial civil-military divide.

The great rupture for the media was ostensibly triggered by the Hamid Mir assassination attempt in April, but its roots are much deeper. In the story of the national media’s shift from relatively impartial observers to hyper-partisan players in the political process in recent years, Geo is far from blameless.

The group is seen as having sacrificed the editorial independence of its professional journalists and to be thriving on the notion of its kingmaker status on the national stage. Ultimately though, there are two different sets of transgressions: the one almost invented and championed by Geo and mimicked by other media groups; and what has been done to Geo since that fateful day in April.

Even an unsympathetic view of all that the group has attempted in the name of journalism cannot come close to cancelling out the alarm at what the treatment of Geo means for journalistic independence and media freedom in the country. Once state-backed repression of sections of the media in the name of the national interest or to protect the so-called sanctity of certain national institutions begins, the road to perdition for all media has begun. The media in this country must realise this danger and put up a united front against any attempt to silence it.