Shrinking spaces

This refers to the news report ‘Crackdown against hate speech soon’ (February 14). The information minister has claimed that some arrests have already been made. No one would disagree with the minister that misusing any media to create unjust cleavages in our already deeply fractured society ought to be discouraged. Doubtless, the language and the idiom being used especially in on social media is in bad taste. Given this situation, some regulation is imperative but not without a caveat.

The ruling party, sadly, is to blame for some of the insolent language that it had applied and promoted against its political adversaries. Moving on to the crackdown on social media, the rulers will be well advised to first find out the causes for the present abuse of the media. For various reasons, people seem to be full of anger regarding the current situation in the country. There is widespread resentment among the people due to some steps taken by the state as well as due to the present unbearable inflationary trends. There is also a serious concern that social media regulation will be misused to muzzle divergent points of view. At this point one is reminded of George Orwell’s ‘1984’ and the ‘Ministry of Truth’ mentioned in it. Any unjust step to gag the press without publicising the measures and engaging the key stakeholders will lead to unintended consequences.

Dr Zafar I Qureshi

Lahore