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E-media under focus
The Citizens’ Media Commission of Pakistan (CMCP) recently observed the Electronic Media Freedom Day — albeit belatedly — an event initiated by them in 1998 and meant to be held on February 14. For the occasion, the Commission tried to get together a cross-section of the electronic media world so that varying points of view on the subject of ‘Freedom and Anarchy in the Electronic Media’ could be exchanged.
Unfortunately, many of the speakers did not bother to show up, which left the discussions quite lop-sided — as there was no one to present their side of the story — and the agenda woefully incomplete. Apparently, the PBA (Pakistan Broadcasters’ Association) also decided to hold its meeting on the same day, so that the fourteen-or-so channels represented by their handful of members were unable to attend the session — assuming they had been invited. In fact, the only one from PBA who did manage to attend was Duraid Qureshi of Hum TV and joint secretary PBA, who requested that he be allowed to speak first so that he, too, could beg leave.
With his paper on ‘Perspectives from the PBA and the FM radio broadcasters’, Qureshi spoke on the freedom of expression practised by the 32 satellite channels emanating from Pakistan. “All channels have their own codes of censorship and Pemra steps into the picture only on rare occasions. By and large broadcasters have been responsible and have been exercising restraint on their own, keeping in mind the norms of our society,” he said.
As joint secretary of the PBA and in response to a question from the participants as to whether cable operators who are running privately owned channels would be allowed membership, he replied in the negative, stating that it is a broadcasters’ association and not a cable operators’ forum. He also admitted that some of the members had initially not been listed with Pemra at all, and it was only at the association’s request that they had later become legalized. He also stated that there are no specific guidelines that PBA is following presently, as it is still in its nascent stage.
Ali Jawad Qureshi, secretary of the CMCP, gave an overview of the March 2006 electronic media scene in Pakistan. He expressed the need to portray societal problems on television and bemoaned the fact that entertainment and commercials take away most of the television viewing time. He recalled the days when only six per cent of the viewing time on PTV was occupied by commercials and said that a cap needs to be now placed on advertisements. He also asserted the need to sort out the licensing of cable-viewers. Since there is no legal framework for the cable operators to function under, there is no subscribers’ data available, which is necessary for growth. He was referring to the 45 FM radio stations already on air covering 22 cities and the need to develop people’s metres for radio.
The next speaker, a representative of Pemra, failed to grace the occasion — a shame since there had been much discussion about the achievements or lack thereof of the organization. The session moved on to a speech by Lakhani, a cable TV distributor. The man certainly deserves a hats-off for his nerve to single-handedly face all the criticism levelled at his community and in fact, making a valiant attempt to present his fraternity as underdogs and even victims. After presenting a brief account of the cable industry in Pakistan, M. Lakhani made no bones of expressing his unhappiness at Pemra for removing certain channels and not allowing them to be aired even after they had stipulated to the pay for landing rights. He also groused that the government was often threatening them with fine if they refused to telecast certain processions and interviews.
Admitting that cable operators have so far been running a non-professional setup with no code of ethics or policies, Lakhani said that they are now trying to form an association. When criticized for showing movies illegally, particularly imported ones that are running legally in local cinemas, thereby infringing their intellectual property rights and jeopardizing their business, he unconvincingly argued that cable-operators paid a fee to HBO, and were not responsible for airing whatever was available.
The last speaker for the event was Javed Farooqi from CNBC, who spoke on corporate social responsibility. Citing his own channel as an example, he elaborated upon the high quality of content and technology available on their channel.
Some important resolutions were drafted stemming from the points that came up during the session. Among them were the need to set up a monitoring cell, adoption of a code of ethics and proper portrayal and representation of women on electronic media. Whether these resolutions will ever be adopted remains to be seen.
Earlier, although nowhere on the agenda, Javed Jabbar — one of the participants — made an unscheduled presentation. He pointed out some pertinent issues regarding the electronic media that included cross-media ownership and the status of Pemra. He gave a brief history of the CMCP and then launched into more poignant issue of Pemra’s approach for issuing licences. Jabbar pointed out that so far we do not have a single community radio or a non-profit radio, which is indeed sad. Also, when cable TV owners begin to buy channels, there is a strong chance that they can shut out other channels from their areas, he said.
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