Jabbar wants media commission proposals implemented

Karachi
Former minister Javed Jabbar has said that the government should implement 40 recommendations of the media commission formed in 2013 on the directives of two member bench of Supreme Court comprising Justice Jawwad S Khawaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain.
He viewed that the media was powerful to such an extent that they can change the mind of a person, but people should not become its slaves.
The ex-information minister was delivering a lecture on the ‘Electronic Media: Challenges and Opportunities’ at Sindh Madressatul Islam University. The programme was organised by students of the Department of Media Studies and Social Sciences.
He mentioned that Justice (Retd) Nasir Aslam Zahid was chairman of the commission and he was its member, adding that now Justice Jawaad S Khawaja has become the chief justice of Pakistan, hence he will hopefully give a decision regarding implementation of the report.
According to him, the standing committee on information of the National Assembly as well as Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid had supported the recommendations of the commission given for reforms in the media.
“Today we are living in the convergent media age, hence all the bodies and ministries like ministry of information and broadcasting, ministry of information technology, Pemra and PTA should be merged together.”
Jabbar also suggested reforms for private television channels, saying the media should introduce self-accountability process and there was also a need to free media from the influence of advertisers.
The renowned media guru also praised the role and performance of the SMIU and gave its credit to its vice chancellor Dr Mohammad Ali Shaikh.
Earlier, Dr Shaikh said that in the past there was a media theory known as ‘magic bullet’ and today there was a media theory termed as “user and gratification.
Thus, today the viewers have a choice to select a programme. He was of the view that people, especially students should monitor the media and write their observations to the television channels. “This sort of act can bring positive change in the media programmes and policies,” the SMIU VC mentioned.