Be a watchdog, not blackmailer, PM tells media

WASHINGTON: Prime Minister Imran Khan Tuesday present government would be the most inclusive government as for as the freedom of press was concerned and said the media should act as a watchdog, not a blackmailer.

To a question about censorship on press in Pakistan during his address at the US Institute of Peace, the prime minister said Pakistani media is even freer than British media.

“In Britain, no media would be allowed to publish the kind of news our media publishes,” the premier said, adding that strengthening media watchdogs was not censorship. He said he himself was the biggest beneficiary of free media as he forwarded his message to the people through media. Otherwise, he said, there was the state television at that time, which was under the government’s control.

He said that media should avoid personal attacks and not a become party. Imran Khan said there were 70 or 80 channels but only three have issues.

About minorities issue, the prime minister said that the minorities had full protection in Pakistan and what the present government had done for them, no government had done before.

The premier said he had spent 18 summers of his life in Britain where he had had noted that the media is very open and free.

“The Pakistan media, in my opinion, is even freer than the British media, it is not just free but sometimes out of control,” said the prime minister.

He went on to say that in Britain no media would have published the kind of remarks that the Pakistani media had since he had come into power.

“A prime minister of a country and this man sits on television and says he is ‘getting divorced tomorrow’,” he said, referring to rumours that had circulated in the media a few months ago about his allegedly rocky relationship with First Lady Bushra Bibi.

“I can tell you since, I have been in power I mean imagine, I don’t think even in America, this would be allowed, even though, media has love hate relationship with president trump more hate then love sometimes.”

“In the olden days, this guy would have been beaten up. In Nawaz Sharif’s time, he had journalists beaten up. Asif Zardari — people were petrified of him. People would disappear,” he said.

The premier said he, on the other hand, had gone through the legal channels to take action.

“So what we need, is to control the media, not through the government but through a media watchdog. They reported wrongly that the IMF had said that the rupee would fall, to a number they quoted. There was a run on the rupee. Who would do that?” he said.

He said that the media would have to be more accountable and will have to answer for their source of income. “Even if we ask them about taxes, they say this is against freedom of expression,” he said.