ISLAMABAD: The media should be more responsible than simply breaking news and conducting fiery talk shows, participants of a seminar held on Tuesday said.

A seminar on ‘Current State of Media – Responsible or Irresponsible’, was organised by Media Matters for Democracy, National Press Club (NPC) and the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Union of Journalists (RIUJ).

The seminar was attended by parliamentarians and television anchors, all of whom decried the state of the electronic media and blamed the government and the top management of television channels for the negative image of the media amongst the public.

Press Council of Pakistan Chairman Salahuddin Mengal spoke about ethics in media, but said the council was limited to Islamabad because of budgetary constraints.

“While discussing media freedom and rights, we all need to differentiate between the state and government. And there is a need for electronic media to follow a code of ethics,” he said.

Most anchors and senior journalists spoke about the controversy stirred by Dr Shahid Masood in the Zainab murder case.

Hamid Mir said not all anchors fell in the category of journalists as many had directly landed at their anchoring job.

“The issue with Dr Shahid Masood is that the managements of almost all channels have hired him. The previous government even made him head of [Pakistan Television,” he said.

Mr Mir added that the main reason a few faces had been allowed to create controversies was that a code of ethics was not being followed.

Other senior journalists criticised the government for keeping the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) a weak and subordinate body.

“Partly we all are to be blamed. The media is not a regular commercial entity but a public service industry,” said veteran journalist Mohammad Ziauddin.

He said the owners of media outlets should be made accountable, as they seemed to have now crossed lines.

Mr Ziauddin added that the media in Pakistan has never followed a code of ethics, but “earlier, the owners used to toe their lines in the shape of news, not create news”.

Although Dr Shahid Masood came under fire by most other speakers, his colleague Nadia Mirza defended him and said a joint investigation team has been formed to look into the matter.

“The most serious pressure faced by all of us programme anchors is the ratings race, and even our jobs depend upon this ratings level,” she said. “Unfortunately, all such discussions regarding media ethics are held [behind] closed doors, without any impact on the owners.”

Politicians such as PPP Senator Sehar Kamran, PML-N MNA Dr Ramesh Vankwani and Balochistan National Party (Mengal) Senator Jehanzeb Jamaldini spoke about the overall performance of the media and called upon media outlets not to limit themselves to politics and focus on social issues as well.

Published in Dawn, February 7th, 2018