Freedom of media and independence of the Parliament in Pakistan has been gravely undermined by the culture of secrecy and behind the facade of terms like national security and national interest.
Speaking at a Pak-Bangladesh moot in Islamabad on Monday former PPP senator Farhatullah Babar said that it was for the people to define national interest through their elected representatives and the security agencies alone could not assume exclusive monopoly over what constituted national interest.
Journalists in Pakistan and Bangladesh should take stock of the anti-media freedom laws and press for adopting legislative measures in order to utilise the full potential of media in playing its role in regional stability and co-operation, he said.
He said that journalists in Pakistan have been arrested and tortured under the archaic Officials Secret Act 1923 and behind the facade of national interest and national security.
In March last year two TV journalists Mukesh Rupeta and Sanjay Kumar were held up in secret detention centres for three months and when under public pressure they were finally produced before a magistrate they were charged under the Secrets Act. Similarly, another journalist was hauled for publishing extracts from a letter by the Crisis Management Cell asking the Sindh government to stop a certain ethnic party from collecting donations for the victims of Asian tsunami.
He said that the Secret Act was promulgated in 1923 by colonial masters and needed massive review by the parliament. Under the Act a person is presumed to have been in communication with a foreign agent if he has, either within or without Pakistan visited the address of a foreign agent or consorted or associated with a foreign agent, or if the name or address of or any other information regarding a foreign agent has been found in his possession, or has been obtained by him from any other person.
The expression 'foreign agent' includes any person who is or has been or in respect of whom it appears that there are reasonable grounds for suspecting him of being or having been employed by a foreign power either directly or indirectly.
He said that according to press reports, India recently has undertaken a review of the Secrets Act. Even the parliament has been denied information in the name of secrecy, security and national interests. He said that a simple question whether military officers submitted their annual declaration of assets was not allowed to be asked on the ground that it was secret and sensitive.
He also pleaded for free flow of information and media products within and across the South Asian region and also for the media to watch the overbearing security apparatus.
Likewise the media must also have access to information. The Freedom of Information Act now in vogue in Pakistan hampered rather than facilitated access to information, he said. The journalists' bodies in Pakistan and Bangladesh should propose a model protocol on freedom of information and the Secret Act for adoption by respective legislatures of the two countries, he said.
He also called for developing a protocol on free movement of journalists and media products across South Asia and also to establish a South Asia Media Development Centre.
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