ISLAMABAD: A discussion on the ‘Role of Media’ at a local five-star hotel raised more questions than answers and demonstrated that the Pakistani public, while conscious of existential issues around media and journalism in Pakistan, still hold very simplistic black-and-white views when it comes to the nature of the media and what its professional responsibilities are.

Organised under the aegis of the Centre for International Strategic Studies and the German NGO Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, the two-part discussion was attended by an impressive panel of journalists and media professionals, who covered a host of issues with the media, but mostly steered clear of addressing some of the more difficult questions around the nature of news coverage and the pressures that make things the way they are.

Instead, the speakers chose to generalize, drawing on the history of the struggle for freedom of press in the country and how the media landscape is changing now into a more global and freer medium with the advent of new technologies such as social media.

The first keynote address, delivered by former Pakistani ambassador to Washington, D.C., Sherry Rehman, included ruminations on the root of the struggle for journalistic freedom in the country and how a defiant and vibrant media grew out from under the shadow of a sclerotic dictatorship.

“Media should be holding governments and corporations to account, but should also be accountable itself,” she said. Ms Rehman raised many eyebrows in the audience when she stated, matter-of-factly, “The media has become a very polluted garden.” Her candour, however, was short-lived, as she made veiled references to recent partisan behaviour by TV channels in covering the anti-government protests that still continue outside parliament.

“Media is a reflection of society and your leaders are as good as you,” she said, pointing towards the audience and maintained that sensationalism could only get an outlet so far. “To be credible is the only currency.”

Ms Rehman emphasised self-regulation over independent regulation, but advocated the regulation of social media. “Everything can’t be consumer-led and the regulator must mediate between the media and the public at large,” she said. She also warned the audience against tacit approval of unsuitable content, saying, “Don’t become passive consumers of bad media; do something about it.”

Senior journalist Zahid Hussain also spoke at length about the history of print and TV in the Pakistani context. He pointed out that in the electronic media, there is little to no editorial control, which upsets the balance in most news programmes on TV. He was also critical of the fact that distinctions between news and opinion had become blurred. “Opinions are now presented as news on the front page,” he said.

Dr Zubair Ghauri, presenter on PTV and a university professor, talked about the contradictions that prevail within the media and how they had to reconcile seemingly opposing ideas. He admitted that the media was a commercial enterprise at the end of the day.

In her presentation around freedom of expression, Ms Gulmeenay Sethi, also a PTV World presenter, told the audience that the need for self-regulation or censorship becomes evident when talking about controversial topics such as the blasphemy law. “Viewer feedback can be misguided,” she said and cited the example of Pemra’s feedback website.

She showed screengrabs from the comments section and said that nearly all the complainants called for a ban, there was no middle ground. “Objections to Animal Planet were nearly the same as the objections to Geo News or ARY News,” she told a surprised audience, adding with a chuckle that the language used to report these problems was often very politically incorrect itself.

Wajahat S Khan, a journalist with the US-based National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) talked at length about the social media, saying it cuts out the middleman and was changing the face of journalism.

He told the audience that a scientific study by his organisation had led NBC to conclude that 270 words was the average maximum that a modern reader would be able to consume and talked about the challenges associated with writing within those constraints.

Disagreeing with Zahid Hussain’s contention regarding separation of news and opinion, he said that TV, newspapers not the same as they used to be 50, 30 or 20 years ago. “We have evolved as readers and consumers,” he said.

Capital TV chief executive Basit Riaz Sheikh offered an owners’ perspective on the media equation, talking about pressures on broadcasters, the problems with distribution in a cable-heavy system and discussed the sampling problems in ratings system. He said that 650 households with the People’s Meter could not be a representative sample of what people in Pakistan wanted to watch, especially if half the meters were in Karachi and there was no representation for Balochistan.

He told the audience whimsically how he started his channels with high ideals of impeccable coverage and analysis, but soon realized that to survive the ratings race, had to play the game. “Most TV channels don’t even break even, let alone make money,” he said, spelling out one of the main problems with the media industry today.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2014