Monitoring Desk: Media is already dead in Pakistan because what is being produced and provided to consumers could be anything but not journalistic content. Wishes of anchors are portrayed as news, allegations are called facts, insulting anybody is considered the dutiful right of the media persons, and hatemongering against the state is measured as exposing the wrongdoings of state institutions. How could media live in these circumstances that have led the media scene of Pakistan over the last 20 years?”.
This was observed by the writer in an article titled “Media Rights under Threat” published in Express Tribune in which the writer who is an academician in the field of Communication Philosophy claimed that Media rights organizations had never reprimanded absurd media persons for their unethical media practices who are spreading unverified defamatory material against government employees, politicians, and state institutions and this practice is going on for the last 20 years and unchecked, unverified fearmongering is considered ‘journalism’ in Pakistan.
The writer Shazia Anwer Cheema who studied Communication Philosophy in Europe and has lived there for a long mentioned the factor of insult and defamation of anybody is unacceptable in Europe where nobody can get away with insulting anybody or defaming any individual or institution as insulting and defaming anybody are criminal acts all over Europe. In Pakistan, insult is not considered a crime, and defaming anybody has become the only tool in the toolbox of media persons.
“If the PECA Act can ensure that nobody can get away with abusing, insulting, and defaming any individual in mainstream media and social media then what is the harm in it? It will just put some extra financial burden on media houses to train their employees and teach them media ethics and media laws because ‘a free-for-all free fall’ cannot be the answer anymore”, commented the writer.
She believes that there are responsible journalists still in Pakistan but they are rear of the rear who still follow media ethics and there are still some media outlets where news gathering and reporting still follow the rule of accuracy, objectivity, and transparency; where editing and production of paper still go through professional editors who protect the privacy of others, get consent if mentioning someone as an official source, follow rule of balance and diversity when deciding which stories to run and how to present them.
Source:https://dnd.com.pk/media-scene-in-pakistan-an-unethical-media-can-not-survive-for-long/323775/
