By now, most Pakistani journalists are disturbingly familiar with the various slurs used against them – mostly by trolls employed by political parties and other powerful entities in the country. So there really should be no second question over expressing full solidarity with any journalist who faces derogatory remarks or pressures by any powerful group – political party, state institution or business group. Which is why journalists’ organisations in the country – from PFUJ to CPNE to AEMEND – have justifiably condemned the PML-N leadership over an audio leak of a conversation between Maryam Nawaz and Pervaiz Rasheed that revealed derogatory remarks against senior news anchors, analysts, and opinion-makers.
Be it dictatorships or elected governments, failed politicians or successful businessmen, all have at various times expressed their displeasure at the way journalists perform their duties, accusing them of taking a ‘subjective’ approach. Interestingly, when the same journalists have a positive ‘subjectivity’ towards the same entities and parties, there is no complaint. The bottom line is that no individual, institution, or party should try to manage the media in a way that the purported leak has suggested. Such practices or attempts are damaging for freedom of expression in the country. A healthy political environment calls for freedom of expression at all levels, and more than any other entity, political parties themselves benefit from such free expression
That said, all these ‘leaks’ – which are not a new phenomenon but are definitely used more frequently now – are a serious and disturbing matter which needs to be taken on. First, whether unsavoury or not, we must remember that the leak was of a private and not a public conversation. Second, there must be questions over just where these leaks come from, why they are made, and why and how they have begun to play such an important role in our politics. So, in the first place, the privacy of individuals needs to be protected – whether they are politicians in power or anyone else. At the same time, we also need to ensure the media is allowed to operate freely, and that no government, regardless of which party leads it, is able to muzzle it or exert pressure on it. Third, it was interesting – almost amusing – to see how an attempt was made to use this particular audio leak against the Jang/Geo Group but that it ended up vindicating Geo as a non-partisan news channel. What this really shows is that – at the of the day – powerful groups and entities hate critique and dissent, and that in Pakistan no political party has a clean record when it comes to media freedom. One hopes political parties understand that they can’t force or threaten real journalists into agreeing with them, and that any attempt to do so will only be a further attack on democracy.
