TV THOUGHTS: Should the Pemra Ordinance surprise given media censorship in this society?
Tuesday morning's newspapers, including this daily, have reported that the Pemra Ordinance 2002 has been amended and that "President General Pervez Musharraf has promulgated an Ordinance to amend the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) Ordinance 2002 to hand the country's radio and television watchdog greater powers, amid protests against the alleged blocking of three private news television channels.
The Ordinance enables the Authority to seize broadcast or distribution equipment or to seal premises that are operating 'illegally'. The report further said that "private television stations Geo, Ary-One and Aaj TV accused the authorities on Monday of blocking their transmissions for the past three days because of their coverage of the ongoing judicial and political crisis in the country."
The new Ordinance said the Pemra (Amendment) Ordinance shall come into force at once. And a spokesman of the Information Ministry explained that "the amendments to the Pemra Ordinance promulgated were only intended to facilitate certain existing sections of the Pemra Ordinance and no new section has been added".
Given the history of media and censorship in this country, it is, not at all surprising that there have come still more pressures on the electronic media in the last few days. One is reminded of the various phases that the journalists have braved in the last sixty years, of how newspapers were bullied, and gagged, and subjected to advertising pressures and varied forms of official censorship.
The events of this week as far as the blocking of the private TV channels goes, has obviously evoked discussion, arguments and angry protest not just from the mediamen across the country, but also from other segments of civil society. Journalists, lawyers, political parties, NGOs and other civil society bodies throughout the country and abroad have strongly condemned the amendment to the Pemra Ordinance.
As one reflects on the issue, thoughts certainly turn to the fact that the country's general elections are very much in sight. Indications of some kind of a timetable have been coming and it seems that autumn this year will be a period of intense political activity, and suspense to say the least. Does this recent change in law and official posture reflect the stance and the attitude of the government as far the media are concerned, and in particular the private television channels which perhaps mirror the depth of the dissent there is in this society?
That there is dissent and division in this society is amply reflected on scores of issues, in the print and the electronic media. Which way will the dissent go and where will it take this society is something that remains to be seen, and is a point of sustained concern.
There is something to contemplate about in the grim and threatening statement that has come from the Cable Operators Association of Pakistan. The office bearers of the association told a press conference that they would shut down the transmissions of those TV channels "showing negative programmes against the solidarity of Pakistan, the armed forces and the judiciary." They said they "cannot become a party to the campaign of TV channels against the state, armed forces and the judiciary".
The office bearers were Khalid Shaikh, Chairman of the CAP, Central President Malik Furqan, Khalid Arain, S.M. Akhtar, and Ghufran Mujtaba and they said that provincial committees of the their association had begun monitoring the TV channels from 2nd June. They asked the Pemra to provide protection to the cable operators and their transmission systems throughout the country.
Viewers were rather surprised that cable operators should have taken this stand and it does make one wonder about the direction of television transmissions in the future if cable operators were to be determining the content of the channels. Stretched to other domains, it could become rather complicated and chaotic were other distributors to become policemen of sorts.
A relevant report in Daily Times on Tuesday said that as the Sindh Bar Council saw it the cable operators were "forming a state within a state". In a press statement, the Chairman of the Human Rights Committee of the Sindh Bar Council said that "television channel owners are being urged to bring in the latest system of transmission to end their dependence on cable operators". He further alleged that what the cable operators have said amounted to "pure blackmail if they take any channel off the air for its content."
He felt that the government was "committing a double mistake in the first place by imposing restrictions and a ban and then leaving the TV channels at the mercy of the cable operators". He also suggested that an organisation of TV viewers and users should also be formed to "counter cable operators illegal activities, who should be forced to close down in protest".
It also needs to be mentioned here that Wednesday's dailies reported that a constitutional petition was filed in the Sindh High Court questioning the promulgation of the Pemra Amendment Ordinance 2007 by President General Pervez Musharraf prior to the commencement of the National Assembly session. The petition was filed by Syed Mohammad Iqbal Kazmi and the respondents are the Federal Information Ministry, the Pemra and Sindh Information Department. The petition submits that the Pemra amendment Ordinance is aimed at gagging the media.
CHANNEL SURFING:
Readers of this column are familiar with the fact that I keep referring to the channel surfing that I am accustomed to. Even in this present context of what is happening on the judicial and political front, and with a variety of options available with regard to panel discussions and Talk shows, I have done this.
It has been on numerous occasions very difficult to decide which TV channel to watch - for the variety of options available at the same time. Let me state that with time the content of the conversations and the candour and freedom that the participants have shown bring out the gravity of the prevailing situation.
One does want to go into the details of the various issues that have been discussed in the TV channels, after the government made its intentions known on what it thought of the content of some of the news channels.
Some of the themes discussed (like what constitutes "national security" and who will decide it?) have been argued and analysed in ways and degrees that have given a new dimension to the content of our conversations, and perception of various sensitive classified themes in Pakistani society. I am consciously not mentioning names and channels here, but the reality of Pakistani society as seen through the media is disturbing, and does make citizens wonder which way and how Pakistani society is evolving.
A report in the Daily Times on Wednesday said that the "Government is to target print media next". It has reported from Islamabad that "the government is planning to introduce another law to restrict publication of objectionable cartoons and editorial comments in national and regional newspapers and periodicals that may defame the armed forces or other state institutions.
AND IN VENEZUELA:
An interesting report from Washington from Khalid Hassan has appeared in the Daily Times with the headline: "US State Department's two faces on media" and it has been said that "the contrast between the mildly worded expression of support given to media freedom by the US State Department on Monday in the case of Pakistan and the Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice's resounding denunciation of the closure by Venezuela of a single TV station has not gone unnoticed here".
The Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez decided not to renew the licence of Radio Caracas Television and Ms Rice described it as the President's sharpest and most acute move against democracy, said this report.
It makes one contemplate and recognise the growing power of television channels the world over.
I opted to watch for a short while the interview of former Test captain and chief selector of the Pakistan Cricket Board Wasim Bari on Geo sports on Wednesday morning around eight in the morning. The interviewer was Mirza Iqbal Baig, who is a journalist and broadcaster who has created a place for himself in the last few years.
I realised as I watched on the interview that this was not the best time to be spending on the cricket theme, in a grim context where there is much to be worried about, as far as the national scene goes. But the fact remains that while there are news channels that are focused in high profile on the judicial and political themes, there are numerous channels that are merrily (it seems) carrying on with a variety of other themes, sports included.
Take for instance the fact of the cricket theme, which after the World Cup 2007 and the death of Pakistan's cricket coach Bob Woolmer has continued to be a major one ever since. The performance of the Pakistan Cricket Board, and its leadership have been under sustained scrutiny by the TV channels. Pakistan's win against Sri Lanka recently has also been a point of high interest.
And what is noticeable is that in an overall political climate there are a vast number of viewers who pay for phone call they make to the TV channels and ask difficult and embarrassing questions from men like Wasim Bari who appear on different shows. It is very significant, this diversity of public interest.
I would like to mention here the fact that while on the one hand there is the phenomenon of the blocking of channels and more regulation to control news channels and dissent, there are other channels with vast viewing where themes like entertainment and music or children's programmes, and cooking are regularly being telecast, and watched with the same high levels of interest. There are other channels like the movies (Western mainly) that are popular, or the Indian channels or the National Geographic, or the HBO and various live shows with male and female stars. I have noticed that there are the Urdu TV and the ATN Bangla (Bengali) channels that are considered as popular by relevant sections of society.
But let me return to the Wasim Bari interview, which I tried to watch as much as I could, as I went about the morning routine before going to office. That I was doing this at the expense of denying myself the obvious opportunity of updating myself with the news of a Wednesday morning (even the morning dailies I put aside) needs to be stated. A slight guilt and a fleeting feeling of being negligent created ripples within.
But it was, all said and done, a wonderful but brief opportunity to up date myself on the cricket scene, And because cricket is my most favourite game, (no more a sport, but an industry now, sadly speaking) I found all the information and opinion that Wasim Bari gave as very engaging. Once again he emphasised the need to manage cricket in Pakistan in a corporate manner. He is a firm advocate of corporate culture being brought into the cricket world, as the sport is now an industry, he repeatedly says.
It was very enlightening to hear him on how cricket selectors work, how foreign coaches are selected and needed in Pakistan, how selectors should share the blame when cricket teams fail, how captains should be strong but reasonable when it comes to dealing with selectors, and so on. A point that Bari stressed was that he did not ever believe in naming names, and that he believed in principles and issues that were paramount. And he was very unhappy with the way cricket was suffering at grassroots level for decades now.
But let me confess that I have felt uneasy at having lost the time to have watched Aryone World, Geo or Aaj TV that morning. I am assuming that they had not been blocked again. Were they?
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