LAHORE, Nov 15: The Beaconhouse National University (BNU) students were barred from holding a protest rally in the varsity’s main courtyard area on Thursday by Vice-Chancellor Sartaj Aziz, following which they had to limit their protest to an indoor meeting addressed by faculty members Dr Mehdi Hassan and Kyla Pasha.

The academics issued a stark warning to students: “stand up for your rights or risk losing them forever”.

Addressing over 100 students who assembled in a small lecture theatre at the Zafar Ali Road campus, veteran journalist and academic, and currently a professor of Mass Communication, Dr Hassan slammed the current restrictions on the press and branded the state controlled PTV and Radio Pakistan as the “Unhon nai farmaya” (They have held that) channels for their ultra deferential, unquestioning form of government-fed reporting.

Dr Hassan drew a line between “agenda setting” in the form of investigative reporting which helped shape public opinion (and which he considers completely absent in Pakistan) and “agenda following” whereby journalists merely carry the statements of official figures, rather than holding them to account as is the traditional role of the Fourth Estate.

He went on to deliver a historical perspective on the importance of freedom of speech, and said: “When the printing press was invented and its use started in Europe in the 14th century, the monarchs and the church resented it because new ideas and new opinions were reaching people, which the ruling classes considered as a threat. They declared printing a crime punishable by death,” he said.

He added that since her independence, Pakistan had never seen true freedom of press and that this was to blame for many of the crises which had befallen the country, including the dismemberment in 1971, which he felt could have been prevented had the people of West Pakistan been aware of the widespread unrest in the East Wing.

He added: “On 16th of December 1971, the day of Bangladesh’s secession, the headlines were that the situation is under control and they can fight for 6 months more without getting help from West Pakistan. And at 11.30am our forces surrendered. That was the type of coverage we were getting because of restrictions.”

Dr Hassan, who has been jailed by successive military regimes for his outspoken views, concluded: “Without free mass media we can’t have a democratic culture and without a democratic culture we can’t have a strong federation.

“Political problems are not solved through administrative means. We’ve seen that in East Pakistan, Balochistan and FATA. Political problems have to be solved by political means and participation of people. If political parties are not free, then any claim of democracy is not accepted.”

Dr Hassan’s message was reinforced by Kyla Pasha, a lecturer in the School of Liberal Arts. Decrying the police crackdown on protestors all over Pakistan since the imposition of emergency, as well as the removal of basic human rights, she said: “The police aren’t trained to think of you as human beings. All violence is dehumanising and if you want to be a human being you need to make some noise.”