‘If society remains silent, do not expect press to behave differently’

In a society where freedom of speech and expression is continuously threatened, the press faces an existential crisis.

This was stated by speakers at a panel discussion titled ‘Has Media Deteriorated as a Source of Educational Values and Coherence?” The session part of the SPELT’s pre-conference event on the occasion of its 40th anniversary celebration was moderated by Ghazi Salahuddin.

Hameed Haroon said the press thrives in an open society with constitutional norms, but our society is not open. “We have no in-built rights such as freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of association. Then, we have the most corrupt ruling class,” he added.

“This ruling class’s major form of response is not support for the established order but acquiescence, total and complete in the perpetuation of that order. So when this is your situation, what do you expect from the press?”

He said different governments have attacked the press. “When Imran Khan launched his attack on the press a few years ago, everybody acquiesced. Everyone was silent. So if your society remains silent, how can you expect the press to behave differently?” he asked. “Because if the carrots and the lollipops are being offered and the ruling class is acquiescent with that, then I think the press too will fall into line.”

Mr Haroon said there was no mechanism to defend this press, adding that governments since the last 50 or 60 years had ensured that the press did not have a reasonable independence in income and they would do everything possible to tie up the revenue ends.

“Media has deteriorated as its biggest problem has been its cutoff of funds and revenues, which means it can’t pay for the best writers, staff, foreign news services and photographers,” he maintained.

Analyst and columnist Mazhar Abbas said: “Soon after independence, as it was the print media at that time, proprietors unfortunately decided to declare the media an industry. The problem started from there because then you became dependent on government advertisements.” He added that nobody could now question an establishment officer, who roles out the policy for the media in five minutes saying that Imran Khan won’t be covered.

“News became the first casualty of advertisements,” he opined, adding that the biggest decline was due to the financial model of electronic media, which was bad. “If you look at the salary of editors, news editors, city editors, sub-editors in the print media, you will not see any difference, but if you look at the salary of an anchor and a news editor, you will see the difference of 30-40 lakhs,” he went on.

Mr Abbas said two institutions rose as independent ones in 2007. “One was judiciary and the other was media. Both were divided because they were challenging the establishment,” he maintained, suggesting that media stakeholders should sit together to look at standards of journalists.

He was of the view that one reason for decline in journalism was job insecurity. “You don’t get salaries for three months in the print or electronic media. There are low salaries. How will you see a good breed of journalists?” he asked.

The News Op-Ed Editor Zebunnisa Burki said: “We are giving more relevance to the mainstream media and legacy media, TV, etc. I teach 18 year olds and kids these days don't watch TV or read newspapers or visit news websites. What they do is to go to Instagram or TikTok etc and get their news from their socials mainly.”

She added: “The thing is: forget anyone over 35 as far as this conversation goes; we have to think of the largest demographic....the under-35s and what media they consume and how they consume it. Technological disruption in my opinion can be good. We just need to use it. For example, I now use podcasts and video and audio to teach students. Because that's what works."

Seema Tahir Khan said the digital age has brought in a lot of awareness and information at our fingertips, but social media has also reigned in all the evil expression, and all the ugly pictures of the underworld and the underbelly of the darkest side of our society. She said there lies an opportunity and a way forward for educationists to use digital media for empowerment and a new way forward in education.

Talking about digital media and internet contribution to writing of books and creativity, Muneeza Shamsie said the kind of books available in bookshops today were not available many years ago and these were not Pakistani writers because people didn’t know about them. Now through access to the internet as well as literature pages in Dawn and The News, which continue despite pressures, the people are able to know about these books, she added.