KARACHI: Freedom of expression linked to public rights: seminar
KARACHI, May 4: The freedom of expression is vital for safeguarding rights of citizens, including civil liberties, and all authoritarian regimes are bent to gag the voice of press in every part of the world, said speakers of a seminar on “Press Freedom: claims and grounds realities”, organized by the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Sindh at Quba Auditorium here on Wednesday on the occasion the world press freedom day.
Prof Ghafoor Ahmed, Naib Amir of JI, paid rich tributes to Pakistani journalists and said under the black clouds of dictatorship, when all other voices fainted, they were the brave Pakistani journalists, who challenged the dictatorship and raised a strong voice to support justice and truth.
He said when parliament, judiciary and other national institutions lost their vigour, they were the brave Pakistani journalists who continued strong advocacy for upholding constitution, safeguarding basic rights and protecting civil liberties.
He said though the government was claiming that press was free, but in fact it was working to subjugate press through various tools.
Shahnawaz Farooqui, in his presentation on current situation of press freedom in Pakistan, said the press freedom was closely related with the very existence of man. He said it was a mater of life and death for those, who had something to say and who also felt them duty bound to say it.
He said it was an absurd notion to demand freedom of press from rulers. He said the very existence of ruling classes depended on hiding real facts and figures from the people, and they would die but not grant 'permission' for the press freedom. He said the truth always found its own channels of expression.
He said the West boasted about the notion of an absolute freedom, but in fact their freedom was also relative. In this regard, he quoted official policy of France on the issue of scarf-wearing. He said that like the freedom of expression, the West had also double standards on democracy and human rights.
He said that Islam always linked the freedom of expression to the truth. If someone has a truth to tell, Islam fully advocates his right of expression. He said it was also a wrong notion that owners of newspapers and media houses were concerned with the matter of press freedom. He said that like governments, the media house owners had too their own axes to grind.
He said currently vested interests was fully exploiting both print and electronic media in Pakistan for their vested interest He said a strong lobby wanted to change our social and cultural values. He said this lobby was working on a well-planned 'social re-engineering programme' in Pakistan. He said this lobby was even trying to manipulate Islam on the media, and impose its own interpretations about Islam on people.
He said new words, ideas and philosophies were being introduced in society with the help of media. He said this particular lobby wanted to reshape mindset of our younger generation on particular pro-Western lines.
Shahnawaz Farooqui said in fact this particular lobby had succeeded in changing the basic mindset, social values and cultural priorities of our people.
Giving an example, he said a few years back our religious and political leaders used to make a strong hue and cry when a female newscaster even failed to place her scarf properly on her head, but now when two Indian films were shown in the two largest cities of Pakistan, Karachi and Lahore, there was not a single voice to protest. He said even the religious leadership of Pakistan was mute on this issue.
He said in fact the religious forces in Pakistan were losing ground rapidly. He said the say of these quarters in social, political and other spheres of life was on a constant decline. He feared that this trend would continue if religious leadership failed to open its eyes.
He said mere opposition of TV channels was futile. He asked the religious leadership to provide alternative TV channels to the masses if they had objections over the policy of current TV channels.
He said vulgarity and obscenity were now worn-out and obsolete words, as what was being shown on TV channels presently was much more than vulgarity and obscenity.
He urged the religio-political leadership of Pakistan to now come out of their daydreaming in the harsh world of reality. He said if they failed to jump into the arena of action now, they would not find even a berth as spectator for them in the times to come.
Khalique Sindhi in his address said agencies and NGOs were fully manipulating media for their own interest. He said that multinational companies, through their advertisements, were also affecting media policies. He said the multinational companies were not only making a windfall in Pakistan, but also discharging their ideological duty to create and promote a pro-Western culture and values here.
He stressed the need for raising awareness in the media circles about the particular forces working against the interests of Pakistan and its people. JI Sindh Information Secretary Mujahid Channa and MMA MPA Younus Barai also spoke.—PPI
