How the mighty fall! Rupert Murdoch, the head of the largest newspaper empire of the world, has a lot of egg, or more precisely a lot of foam on his face thrown at him by a protester while he was testifying in the British parliament the other day.
His stable owns prestigious papers like The Times and the Sunday Times of London and The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post and The Australian to name a few. The family controlled News Corp also owns the most reactionary (but also the most profitable) cable news network, the Fox News, and the film distribution company Twentieth Century Fox.
Murdoch, the toast and role model of every newspaper owner around the globe, is now on the run since the proverbial hit the fan in the wake of the festering phone hacking scandal a few weeks ago. Since then, his Sunday rag News of the World was closed down by him, his top executives including his favourite News International head Rebekah Brooks had to resign and was subsequently arrested.
While the scandal is still unfolding, the News Corp has lost almost $10 billion as a result of its tumbling share value. Meanwhile, the nexus between the government and the Murdoch papers and allegations of bribing the staid British police are flying about. Across the Atlantic, even the FBI has gotten into the act and is investigating the Murdoch way of doing the news business.
No matter how the chips fall in the Murdoch scandal, his reputation is in tatters. Sooner or later, he will have to succumb to the pressures of bringing in professional management by the shareholders to run what is left of his stable.
The Murdoch episode has brought into sharp relief the question of ethics and morality governing the media. The print media is in a financial crisis globally due to the stiff competition from cable TV and more recently from the new media that includes news sites, bloggers and social networking. As a result, it has to grapple with the problem of declining sales and falling advertising revenues.
The print media has to reinvent itself just to survive in the new order. Newspapers have cut down on pages and size as well as on staff. Despite this, prestigious papers like The New York Times and The Washington Post have not cut back on the quality of their journalism. However others, especially the tabloid press, has become more aggressive and ruthless in their coverage.
As members of the former staff of NOTW testified, the only way to survive in the paper was to inculcate a culture of aggressiveness devoid of morality with ends justifying the means – to get the story at any cost even if it means to hack the phone of a murdered teenager.
One of the stars of the NOTW was a reporter of Pakistani origin, Mazhar Mehmood, also known as the ‘fake sheikh’. He would disguise himself as an Arab Sheikh to con members of the British royalty making them spill the beans about their dubious business deals. The same reporter posing as a bookie entrapped the Pakistani cricket team.
Closer at home, even the South Asian media has been somewhat beset by the same malaise. The nexus between big business and some of the large Indian newspapers is not new. Large business houses own some of the big titles like The Hindustan Times and The Indian Express.
However, the new trend is to even sell/sponsor editorials in return of stock options of the companies favoured in print. Another pronounced trend is dumbing down of content owing to competition from television. More colour, fancy makeup but less analysis.
Thankfully, the Pakistani print media is not as yet fully afflicted by the global media trends. However, if not arrested, negative tendencies are bound to creep in. The English language newspapers, although churning out by and large quality news and analysis, remain ‘the boutique media’ read by a miniscule part of the population – the elite. The rump of the readership is with the Urdu language press which cannot claim the same kind of quality.
Thankfully, there are only a few overt restrictions on the freedom of the press and the government does tolerate criticism – fair and unfair. Despite this, Pakistan remains a most dangerous place for journalists. Scores of journalists have lost their lives during the course of their professional duties. The ghastly and still unexplained murder of Saleem Shahzad is a case in point.
Despite basking in the glory of its freedom and a fiercely independent judiciary to guarantee it, the media should set its house in order lest its freedom is snatched away in one way or the other. Presently, there is no self-regulatory mechanism in place or a code of ethics to monitor content. In fact, newspaper owners, editors and journalists are quite oblivious to the need for any such arrangement.
In the past, moves to establish a self regulatory Press Council have been thwarted simply because of the desire of successive governments to treat the proposed body as a special court. Publishers and editors on the other hand have resisted any form of accountability, even for the sake of self-regulation.
Another problem is the weak and fragmented nature of newspaper and journalists bodies like the APNS (All Pakistan Newspapers Society), the CPNE (Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors) and the PFUJ (Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists). None of these bodies, which are split into different groups, have ethical standards of journalism close to their hearts.
Another tragedy of the system is the demise of the professional editor. There is no harm in a professional journalist owning a newspaper and editing it. However the rub lays where the institution of the editor is simply made redundant and the owner or his progenies run the paper through fiat.
The need for inculcating professionalism in the media cannot be over emphasised. For this to happen, newspaper bodies should encourage professionals amongst their ranks instead of promoting factionalism in order to perpetuate their hold on these bodies.
It is indeed ironic that stakeholders in the print media do not tire of espousing democratic values but have made these professional bodies a closed shop for the sake of self-perpetuation.
The writer is Editor, Pakistan Today.
Sir, we can not totally rule out that journalism is not plagued with the virus which brought down Mr. Rupert Murdoch and his son James on the account which you mentioned in your article. We still don't know which news paper or media house is on right or left except one widely known as Jang Group. The others if seen closely are having mix plates in their houses which creates more problems for its readers and viewers. Sponsored news both in print and electronic media is on rise from powerful elements both in the government services and non-state actors. We also need some sort of accountability in our country though it is not so easy keeping in view our ideological differences at large. Personal stakes are more important than the country and its safety. Anyhow thanks for providing lot of fresh information on Mr. Rupert and Co……
90% Pakistani newspapers of Karachi,Tv channels are neither ethical or professional but much beyond representing their masters points of view to reap tons of money for them.To abet them in this media guttering overtly or covertly is ARY,Express,CNBC,Samma,Newsone,Indus,AAJ,partly Geo etc and
not to forget certain columnists,TV analysts,Tv anchors who are not shy to hide any sinful proclivity to give MQM-PPPZ suiting their motives not difficult to understand.Most wicked are DR Danish,Badami,Asma Shirazui,Mubashars,who are more devilish in giving twist as they wish to than devil could.These and TV channels,anchors, analysts including nazeer should be banned to save the depression they cause to people ruined by the most wicked coalition of PPPZ,MQM,ANP,MLQ whom they project as the saviors and Vatican Popes.Some abrasive and posing more Sacrotese than Sacrotese was,MR Choraha are too toxic and myopic to be further listened.Nonetheless,I would urge someone to probe the scandalizing on the same night with more venom than News International on the ‘no ball’ case of Amir Khan.It looked to me that Pakistani collaborators were in full connivance to get them out from world cup because Amir irregularity was not as sinful deserving such extraordinary punishment.There was something else into by the media owners in Pakistan.
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