CSS Current Affairs 2023 : Role of Politics in Pakistan

CSS Current Affairs 2023 : Role of Politics in Pakistan 

In this era, we are facing a new government and a new opposition. The establishment is neutral, and the world is facing not a pandemic but a war in its backyard and a global recession. Our battle with the pandemic is over, but a natural calamity just started.

Whereas the attacks on the press, or the media, are not much different from the recent past. Controlling journalism and banning news channel are non-democratic actions and limits public opinion. 

The faces vary, but not the principle of keeping the press under pressure. If it was Geo earlier. Earlier, if Matiullah Jan or Asad Toor were kidnapped or attacked, Imran Riaz was arrested, and FIRs were registered against those who work for ARY.

Journalists/anchors lost their jobs, while many who suffered this fate three years ago are now back on screen. However, what remains constant is that the channels and those who work for them can still be punished for airing views that prove 'unpalatable.'

However, more than unacceptable or problematic views and stories, the system needs an overhaul. For it does not aim to fix but only punish. We do not have defamation laws or a regulatory framework to push through improvement in journalism standards. Instead, the means are more coercive, and the objective is to punish as a means to control. FIRs are registered, mysterious attacks occur, and the distribution of a paper or a channel is disrupted in a way where the fingerprints, even though they are known to everyone, are also not visible.

CSS Current Affairs 2023 : Role of Politics in Pakistan 

Similarly, in a world where 'ratings' are all critical yet opaque, it is never clear if an anchor was let go for lack of eyeballs or if it was just an excuse to ease the pressure, which is felt and felt witnessed by all but countered by none. However, not everyone has been this generous. Some have been as unforgiving as those who came before them, refusing to recognize the pressure or those under attack as journalists.

When this happens, division in the ranks makes the attacks easier and the ones leading the assaults that bit more reckless. However, then, the vulnerable always face the problem of bearing the burden of not uniting against the powerful. However, the question that comes to mind, again and again, is whether this constant pressure or threat of punishment has any link to the deteriorating standards of journalism. The polarization, the reputation many organizations have a link with one party or another, the tilt or slant given to stories, or even the choice of stories covered or not covered. All of this, after all, has coincided with the growing pressure.

This constant battle of winning approval or surviving punishment has forced the industry into survival mode. This survival is based on the 'winning' approval of the political players and stakeholders. There is no safety in good journalism; there is safety only in picking a side and hoping it will protect you. It is not as if the regulatory system, visible and invisible, is set up to encourage journalism. Neither is the financial system (a story for another day).

The viewership or readership is least important in this ruthless power game, despite the obsession with the rating game. Moreover, more than just standards are at stake here. Consider the recent floods. Compared to the 2005 earthquake or the 2010 floods, the coverage did not appear organic. In the early days, the issue was more or less ignored, and then suddenly, every organization jumped headlong into heavy coverage, more or less in the same week. As if everyone slumbering woke up at the same time.

CSS Current Affairs 2023 : Role of Politics in Pakistan 

(Discussions, on-the-ground reports, appeals for funds, everyone was at it, as they usually stumble upon the same stories and similar news priorities as to who comes first in the pecking order of the news, then their favorites whose corner they are allowed to pick, provided the street is chosen for them matter most.) It was a humanitarian calamity before organizations felt the floods merited any special coverage or reportage is more a reflection of the journalism practice in these difficult times.