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ISN’T free media a guarantor and guardian of truth in society? At least in theory it reports on collective or individual wrongs, highlights institutional failures, transgressions, discusses critical issues threadbare and allows the audience to make informed decisions.
There can be no dispute over the wholly healthy effect of such a media on any society if it is fair, impartial and balanced. The freedom it exercises varies from country to country depending on local laws, regulations and even customs.
Today, however, both globally and very definitely in Pakistan, commercial interest, political biases of the media organisations and the prejudices of the practitioners working within these are also coming into play, often putting such spin on fact that it is impossible to recognise it for what it is.
It would be cause enough for lament if this was all. But it isn’t. Some owners and certainly many media practitioners have devolved additional responsibilities to themselves; among these to be a willing conduit for content that falls very distinctly under the category of psy ops or even war (psychological operations/war).
All the media needs to do to serve society and fulfil its role is to have an unflinching commitment to the truth, fairness and objectivity.
By willingly accepting this role or even by reluctantly acquiescing to it, the media men and women are going to strip themselves of being taken seriously, respected for their professionalism and being seen as unbiased reporters, analysts and commentators in the long run.
I have beaten about the bush long enough. Let’s get to the specifics. The operation against the TTP has proceeded apace in not just the tribal areas but elsewhere in the country as well. Since the murderous and fanatical Taliban apparently don’t even enjoy negligible public support they have been mainly dealt with militarily.
Now come to Sindh. It seems the military-led operation has identified as major culprits the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and to a slightly lesser extent the Pakistan People’s Party who, despite their propensity for violence and corruption respectively, still enjoy popular support. Therefore, a different strategy appears to have been deployed.
This strategy has seen the media willing to be used as a conduit for information and even disinformation to demonise the two political entities, possibly in an attempt to tarnish their image and erode their support.
For example, none among the media questioned how the so-called videotaped confession of the MQM’s convicted assassin Saulat Mirza was made public a few days before his execution. Did anyone ask if death-row prisoners are routinely videotaped confessing to their crime and implicating dozens of others? Neither did they pause to consider whether it was legal and/or ethical to carry it.
Then there have been dozens of such ‘confessional’ statements and it isn’t clear whether these were deposed before a magistrate (to be of any legal value in a court of law) or extracted under torture or even willingly made to lighten the burden on their conscience by the alleged target killers themselves.
The issue is the media carried each one of these even before a possible trial and often attributed such statements to unnamed sources. If this wasn’t outrageous enough look at the recent disclosures supposedly made by the PPP’s imprisoned leader Dr Asim Husain during ‘interrogation’ and, of course again attributed to unnamed sources by the electronic media.
Apart from ‘confessing’ to every conceivable corruption charge and implicating dozens of politicians and officials in such instances it was disgusting to see the media quoting from one such ‘interrogation’ report earlier this week.
In the said report, Dr Asim Husain, an orthopaedic surgeon, is alleged to have told his Rangers interrogators he ‘examined’ Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and declared him as suffering from bipolar disorder.
As this so-called report made the airwaves and started to generate a storm on social media as well, apparently the Rangers top brass seemed to realise what some lowly minion running psy ops that evening had planted, and vociferously distanced itself from it.
Of course, our ‘investigative’ media sleuths or their editors, if there are any left in the anchor-powered and driven news these days, did not bother to pause for a moment and consider that even if the report were to be true there were issues of privacy and doctor-patient privilege that needed to be addressed.
Any impartial observer of the Sindh scene would tell you that everyone, perhaps even diehard supporters, are aware of what the two most popular parties in Sindh have been up to. The point is those running the operation need just present evidence in courts and secure convictions.
These psy war tactics are mostly counterproductive as they are seen as ‘dirty’ and reinforce the persecution and martyrdom syndrome these parties have long used to generate and galvanise support. The best course is an even-handed and above-board enforcement of the law.
If the law-enforcement machinery wants to restore peace and sanity to Pakistan like it says it does, and I have no reason to doubt it, these apparent leaks to the media must stop as they show the forces in a rather negative light, even desperate.
For its part, even if some of the media is allowing itself to be used in the mistaken belief that it is serving a good cause, my humble suggestion would be: don’t. No good cause is good enough or needs to be served with patent lies and unethical practices.
All the media needs to do to serve society and fulfil its role is to have an unflinching commitment to the truth, fairness and objectivity. And if it has been unable to follow such a course because of intimidation or other pressures that sin can’t be atoned with untruths and half-truths.
Objectivity warrants that wherever the performance of the state machinery has been good and effective it should be praised. Where sacrifices are being made gratitude has to be solemnly offered and the heroes hailed. But even here there isn’t a need to beatify an institution that is merely clearing much of the mess it itself created.
The writer is a former editor of Dawn.
Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2015
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