The flagship of the British gutterpress, the News of the World, is set to close shop after a full 168 years of peddling naughty fare to the eager readers of smutty journalism in Britain and beyond. Though close to 200 people will lose their jobs, the news of the closure is bound to be cheered by many. Even Pakistani cricket fans are going to rejoice after seeing the end of the publication that finished the career of one Muhammad Amir.
Though the phone hacking conspiracy had started since some time now, even yielding many casualties in the form of present and former editorial staff, it was only after the revelation that some of data was deleted that could have been used as evidence in a murder case, that the proverbial hit the fan for the much hated (and much read) rag.
Britons might be hailing the development as triumph for decency but the fact of the matter is that media mogul Rupert Murdoch only closed the tabloid down because of the controversy over the phone tapping and the potential legalities.
Are there lessons to be learnt here for the Pakistani press as well? The recent freeing up of the airwaves and the loosening of the pressures around the print medium as well has resulted in a new crop of journalists more ready than ever to sell sensationalism over hard news about the issues that matter. Sting journalism, once the province of a sleazy section of the Lahori press, is set to make a comeback, centred around petty, middle-class moral issues rather than gritty exposés a la the Tehelka stings.
No democracy could have been more permissive of the press than the UK. And even they have a Press Complaints Commission, one that is set to become more powerful after being decried for long for being toothless. But in Pakistan, the mere mention of a regulatory body and mechanism that monitors content is a red rag for media owners and journalists’ bodies alike. Scandalously ineffective in protecting the lives of beat journalists, the press clubs and owner’s associations liken regulation, even of the most tempered variety, to an attack on journalism itself. The figurative matters more than the literal for our media.
In another local newspaper that lesson should be learnt from this. Such lessons can only be learnt once our press and publication industry is given that level of freedom. Press freedom lags behind UK, Europe and USA. The right to publish anything one likes without repercussions the height Pakistan has to reach. How can one know excellent journalism, when the bad one is not allowed? People migrate to UK, USA and Europe because they know there is absolute freedom. They will curse what is published but will not come out rampaging in the streets about it. They can leave well enough alone. Live and let live is something is a very hard lesson to learn
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