The media in 2019

An American citizen, Steven Butler, was denied entry at Lahore Airport on October 17, 2019 – despite having a valid visa issued from the Pakistan Embassy in Washington. Was he a criminal? No. He is the Asia Program Coordinator for the New York based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). What was his crime? He wrote an article in the 'Washington Post' on July 23, 2019 titled 'Why is Pakistan’s crackdown on the press getting worse by the day?'.

Steven Butler came to Lahore to participate in the Asma Jahangir Conference which was attended by many government and opposition politicians as well as by some sitting senior judges. When I contacted some government officials and asked why Steven Butler had been denied entry, they said “he is anti-Pakistan”. When I demanded evidence, there was nothing. Government officials were not aware that the same Steven Butler had raised a voice against the arrests of some Kashmiri journalists by the Indian security forces many times in 2019. He had written to some Indian officials about illegally detained Kashmiri journalist Aasif Sultan who received the Press Freedom award from the American National Press Club Washington in 2019. The CPJ released a report on September 24, 2019 titled 'Kashmir news media faces existential crises amid restrictions, arrests'.

Butler was forced by Pakistani authorities to go back to the US and the next day he participated in Asma Jahangir conference through Skype from Washington. Denying his entry in Pakistan highlighted how authorities use their power to suppress dissenting voices.

This year, 2019, was another bad year for media freedom not only in Pakistan but all over South Asia. According to the Global Impunity Index released by CPJ in 2019, four South Asian countries were included among the 13 worst impunity offenders. Pakistan is at number 8 and India at 13. At the top is Somalia followed by Syria, Iraq, South Sudan, the Phillipines, Afghanistan, Mexico, Pakistan, Brazil, Bangladesh, Russia, Nigeria and India.

It is interesting to note that Afghanistan is placed better than Pakistan and India in the World Press Freedom Index 2019 released by Reporters without Borders (RSF).This index evaluates the state of journalism in 180 countries every year. Norway, Finland and Sweden are on the top. Afghanistan is positioned at 121, Sri Lanka 126, India 140, Pakistan 142, Bangladesh 150 and China at 177. The index shows that economically stable countries have more press freedom than those countries where press freedom is always under threat.

Economic stability and press freedom are also linked to rule of law. There was a significant drop in the killing of journalists all over the world in 2019 but unannounced censorship and threats to the media dangerously increased. Prime Minister Imran Khan claimed on December 26 that a mafia was sitting in newspapers and was criticizing his government. His Information Adviser Firdous Ashiq Awan was also angry at the critical questions raised by the media regarding the case against Rana Sanaullah. Another government minister Sheharyar Afridi claimed that “footage” and “video” are two different things but that the Pakistani media does not understand the difference.

PM Imran Khan was not the only popular leader who was angry at dissenting voices. Donald Trump in the US and Narendra Modi in India also criticised the media publicly in 2019. Trump used the narrative of 'fake news' as a weapon to discredit independent media. According to the 'New York Times', he made more than 600 tweets on fake news.

There were some guiding lights in the darkness. Some countries removed restrictions on the media and moved forward after improving their human rights situation. Ethopia, Malaysia, Armenia and Ecuador improved their position on the World Press Freedom Index; their economy was also stabilised. On the other hand, some government politicians in Pakistan publicly blamed the media for economic instability, because the media was highlighting the price hikes in the country.

Many Pakistani TV channels were shut down in 2019 just for airing interviews and speeches of opposition leaders like Asif Ali Zardari, Maryam Nawaz and Maulana Fazlur Rehman. The Pakistan Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) issued an order in October 2019, prohibiting news anchors from expressing their views in talk shows hosted by other TV anchors. Some government ministers like Fawad Chaudhry and Asad Umar declared that order illogical. The Islamabad High Court also took notice of that and eventually Pemra had to withdraw its order. The distribution of some newspapers was also disturbed quite a few times in 2019. The office of English newspaper Dawn was surrounded in Islamabad by unknown people who threatened its staff openly.

Fake news and disinformation on social media was used to silence independent voices in the print and electronic media. Social media activists, purportedly of the ruling party, initiated a hashtag trend on Twitter against more than 30 journalists: “#ArrestAntiPakistanJournalists”. However, no prominent PTI leader condemned it. This pressure on the media was not only coming from the ruling party. Fifty-one baseless cases were registered in 2019 against different journalists in the province of Sindh which is being ruled by the PPP.

Six journalists were killed in Pakistan with impunity during 2019. These included Urooj Iqbal, Mirza Waseem Beg, Bilal Khan (blogger), Ali Sher Rajpar and Malik Amanullah Khan. A TV anchor Mureed Abbas was also killed in Karachi due to a business dispute. Seven journalists were killed in Pakistan in 2018. According to a Freedom Network (FN) report released in November 2019, 33 journalists have been killed in Pakistan due to their work in the past six years. There has been 100 percent impunity for killers and zero percent justice for the murdered journalists. Many governments in the past promised to pass a journalists protection bill in parliament but they were not even able to present a bill. The current government had also made the same promise when they were in opposition.

Credit must be given to Human Rights Minister Dr Shirin Mazari who at least started consultations on the draft of a proposed journalist protection bill in 2019. This draft was not finalized due to many reasons. She is planning to share the draft with journalists bodies and other stakeholders in 2020. She is committed to table this bill in parliament in the new year. This is one issue which can give a good name to the government and improve the position of Pakistan on the World Press Freedom Index. Opposition parties should cooperate with the government on that bill and the aggrieved Pakistani media may also then forget the use of fake news and disinformation against many journalists and media houses by some political mafias in Naya Pakistan.

The writer works for Geo News. Twitter: @HamidMirPAK