The state of the media

In today’s constantly changing world, even as the print media somewhat sadly fades away, the media in all its other forms has become a more and more powerful entity. We can see this in Pakistan where debates over the media, its perceived role, what its role should be and what popular topic of ‘fake news’ is heard everywhere.

The latest Pemra law to tackle the media is in some ways not a terrible one. It does offer some guarantee that workers would be paid in cases where they have gone without pay for months. But of course, we do not know if there would be any implementation. The question is: can there be any guarantee anywhere in the world that all the news that is read is not disinformation and not misinformation?

Information is a sensitive and difficult commodity. Unfortunately, fake news or disinformation does sell. We have seen this around the world through the decades. Stories made up for commercial or political gain. If a way can be found to combat this it would be of use. Perhaps the new law can help – provided it is not misused in any way. Certainly new mechanisms have to be developed to manage news in the midst of the chaos we see today.

Ideally, the role of a journalist should be to try and highlight all that is wrong in society which needs correction. But this is not easy to achieve especially in a country like Pakistan where there’s corruption within the media, where in today’s age, virtually no editors exist at all. With owners taking over what should be their role, the situation has worsened. In this state of affairs, we must ask what can be done to make media effective and a contributor to society in one way or the other.

The answers are not easy but governmental attempts to regulate the media should not be accepted. If regulation is required, and perhaps in a country like Pakistan it is to some degree, we need an organization like the UK's Ofcom to look at the standards and generally address the content of news channels and possibly social media to the extent that this is possible. Of course, it will be extremely difficult to achieve this. Essentially people should have the right to a wide variety of news and a wide variety of views with the freedom to choose what they believe is correct and what they believe to be false. They are the final decision-makers in this.

The right to free information is the right of every citizen. This is often curbed in a country where the limelight falls so often on journalists and the press in essence, as well as the electronic and social media channels. But the right to free information is crucial. Journalists need it to carry out their professional work and the public needs it in order to acquire access to information they have the right to know.

Currently, despite some attempts to bring in laws on the right to free information, it is extremely hard to access most kinds of information. And only a few reporters have succeeded in struggling their way through the vast maze of legal and bureaucratic measures which allow them to finally reach what they seek to know.

Ideally, we need a situation where viewers and readers are the ultimate determinants of what is good news, what is bad news, and what is true news. This can only happen if they are given widespread access to news in all its different forms so that they can develop the discerning vision that has been developed in other nations, to some degree at least, and tell for themselves what to believe in.

The task is growing harder around the world in the age of social media, when YouTube channels can be run by virtually any individual, with very few checks and very few attempts to monitor the content. Other forums allow even more open dissemination, and virtually any kind of information. But we need to work towards developing a structure that can work and benefit people in every possible way.

The task is a difficult one, but Pemra it seems is not the right kind of body to carry it out. Ideally media organizations should have their own mechanisms to determine if the material they put on there is suitable for the audiences to whom it goes out. At the same time, a completely neutral monitoring body could be of use. This is what we need to work towards and end the controversy that persists over media content, its accuracy and significance. It is our challenge to find a way to achieve the system that can come as close as possible to delivering accurate news and meeting the information requirements of people everywhere.

The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor. She can be reached at: kamilahyat@hotmail.com