An unconstitutional, panicky news blackout
The unfortunate decision by the country’s electronic media authority (PEMRA) to order closure of television news channels and avoid live coverage of last Saturday’s operation against sit-in protestors in Islamabad turned out to be one of those adverse buzz words which best describe the ill-conceived actions and overall performance of the government, a blunder, unthinking and unmitigated. Depriving the free flow of information to a general public now addicted to the daily talk shows, as to an opiate, and at a time when the callously ignored dangers surrounding the expanding protests were worsening, was only giving fillip and space to those great enemies of truth, rumours and gossip.
To cover up characteristic oversight, this time of a sensitive religious issue, the constitutionally guaranteed right of freedom of information, and the life-blood of democracy, a free press, were arbitrarily and brutally choked. What frustrated cable subscribers most was that by a whim of fancy, their popular means of contact with the outside world was snapped and there was nothing they could do about it. First, there were instances of total mobile service shutdowns under the benign cloak of security, and by this electronic media block, the government has clearly graduated to bigger things. The statement of the state minister for information that the decision was ‘painful’ can only be taken with a dose of cynicism. Military dictator Pervez Musharraf who, after declaring emergency on November 3, 2007, likewise muzzled the electronic media, must be chuckling in his hideout-in-exile.
For 28 hours people were literally in the dark, wondering worriedly about what was transpiring in the capital. Despite the channel and social media networks ban, the protests went on nevertheless, claiming their tragic casualties and causing dislocation. The newspaper bodies, CPNE and APNS condemned the step, but the cowed channel houses surprisingly took it lying down, which can only encourage future such banana-republic gags. Within this NEPRA move also lies the familiar tale of nepotism, favouratism, and top appointment made not on merit, but on political basis or personal liking, with eligibility rules relaxed and perks raised. It is the same disease that afflicts our whole society, in miniature.
