newsroom is the nerve centre of the news ecosystem. This is where all news reports come in through different sources around the country and the globe; where wire and news copies are sorted, edited, and, at times, halted – all this within deadlines. This requires extraordinary skill, outlook and command. I always call people sitting in newsrooms the ‘unsung heroes’ of the news media, without whom readers or viewers would likely remain confused and ill-informed.

From an editor to a newsroom head and those working under them, all are faced with multiple challenges, professional and in terms of security. A misleading or factually incorrect story or headline could lead to an attack on a media house or risk the lives of the staff. Many media houses over the years have come under attack. At times, ‘pressure groups’ have ransacked offices, taken those working on the desk hostages and beaten them up. Years ago, a misleading headline cost the life of a freelance columnist from Balochistan.

So, a media house having a competent lot in their newsroom has always gained respect and credibility. It is those in the newsroom who scour through copies, editing and fact-checking each line in order to make their paper and screen more presentable, readable and reliable.

Digital news media or social media platforms constitute one of the most unedited, uncensored forms of expression with limited concepts of traditional newsrooms. Be that as it may, this comes with its own challenges. The fact remains that these platforms offer by far the most effective and influential forms of expressing and disseminating information. The incidence of ‘fake news,’ and disinformation, however, is far more on these platforms than traditional sources such as newspapers or TV. Many digital or social media news outlets now have a small but organised form of newsroom with skilled staff.

Although authentic data is not available, the media outlets combined house over 50,000 media related people, journalists and non-journalist staff. Journalist unions and press clubs are now facing an uphill task – how to define a ‘journalist’ and a ‘media worker’? Citizen journalist is a relatively new term and it is not easy to mainstream it.

There are far more ethical challenges in the media today than there used to be in the past. From print to digital media, I have seen censorship take different form and shape: from ‘press advice’ by the Information Department to PEMRA notices. Recently, the power to control digital media has been given to the Federal Investigation Agency.

In the absence of the institution of the editor, a newsroom is like a team without a captain. Those working as editors today hardly have the kind of authority and power editors exercised in the past.

In the absence of the institution of the editor, a newsroom is like a team without a captain. Those working as editors today hardly have the kind of authority and power editors exercised in the past.

Suppression is the only expression

It was 1967. An information officer dialled a number and asked for the editor. After exchanging greetings he told the editor, “You must have received the story of Bhutto’s press conference, held at his Clifton residence. Don’t play it up. Tuck it away somewhere in the inside pages. After all, Bhutto is no longer important.” Then he rang up another editor and conveyed the same message. Within an hour, the entire press in Karachi, had received the ‘advice’ from the Ministry of Information. The late MH Dean, a competent news editor I worked with in the 1980s, revealed this in an article during those years.

“For me and many, it was agonising. We hated to see how an information officer was able to humiliate editors and ridicule the tradition of journalism,” he had said then.

Had the fourth pillar in this country guarded its dignity and honoured the traditions, it would have warded off all attacks on its freedom, Dean had added.

Journalist and author Zameer Niazi, who himself had worked throughout his life on the desk, once disclosed to me in person about the time when as a sub-editor he received a call from none other than Fatima Jinnah. “I was quite junior at the time. When the caller introduced herself as Fatima Jinnah, I got nervous. She wanted to record her statement and I requested her to send it with her signature. She got angry and banged the phone.” Niazi sahib said that when a minute later the editor called him, he thought it’d be the last day of his job at Dawn. “He asked me whether I had received a call from Miss Jinnah. I said yes and informed him about the conversation we had had. The editor said that I had done the right thing. He had told her the same thing because someone could have used her name.”

Ahmed Ali Khan, the longest serving editor of Dawn, once narrated an interesting story. He said the paper’s September 20, 1973, edition was published by ‘non journalists’ with no help from professional journalists because of a 24-hour strike on the call of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists to protest against a 30-day ban on dailies Hurriyat, Jasarat and Mehran, and the arrest of their editors, printers and publishers. The government used all kinds of tactics to ensure that newspapers appeared as usual despite the strike.

A newsroom is the engine of a media house. The task requires skilled and professional journalists. The need of the hour is for media outlets to ensure that these people at the heart of their news operations are paid well and treated professionally since they are accountable in case of any mistake.

If we want to protect and defend freedom of expression, suppression by state organs must be resisted. Newsrooms must get their captains back i.e., professional editors with journalistic authority. Unconstitutional interference by powerful quarters and governments and the employment of ‘carrot and stick’ approaches towards the media to tweak its content has caused more harm to ‘national interest’ than benefit.

The writer is a columnist and analyst for GEO, The News and Jang. His X handle: @MazharAbbasGEO