Pakistani journalists oppose Press Council

Pakistani journalists say the proposed creation of a 'Press Council' by the government, to enforce rules regarding press responsibility, is more an attempt to muzzle their freedom of expression.

''I do not think there is a need for a formal Press Council in Pakistan,,'' says Dr Sheereen Mazari, the editor of the weekly Pulse. ''If it is going to be an indirect way to control the press, then I think it would be most unwelcome,'' she adds.

In recent months, Federal Information Minister Mushahid Hussain has time and again talked of drafting ''ground rules'' for the print media.

However, instead of putting the new rules before Parliament for its approval, the government, even though it has a two-thirds majority, is attempting to force the watchdog body on the print media through the newspaper owners.

The manner in which the government has proceeded with the formulation of the Press Council has raised doubts about its independence among journalists.

To their dismay, Law Minister Khalid Anwar has promised that the ''proposed press council will not be toothless like the British Press Council but will be fully equipped to monitor effectively and regulate the press.''

Pakistan's nine-month-old Nawaz Sharief government has not bothered to consult the journalists unions, even though the need to draft rules for the print media in Pakistan was first expressed by reporters and editors in 1959.

On their submitting a 13-point proposal, the then martial government ruler, General Ayub Khan, set up a Press Commission, which after a detailed examination, proposed that a Press Council be set up to regulate the print media.

The council was to consist of five representatives each from among newspaper owners, editors and working journalists, two university professors, and an equal number of government officials. A high court judge was to be appointed the chairman.

However, the proposal did not lead to the creation of a Press Council. Subsequently in 1980, during another long period of martial law, the Council of Newspaper Editors drafted for itself a code of ethics and took a solemn pledge to make it binding at the tomb of the founder of Pakistan.

The code listed 14 dos and don'ts, which newspaper editors said were based on Article 19 of the Pakistan Constitution which guarantees every citizen ''... The right to freedom of speech and expression, and there shall be freedom of the press, subject to any reasonable restrictions imposed by law ...''

The rules for the press, proposed by the present government, are akin to the code of ethics, except for a clause that lays down the punishment for publishing ''misleading news''.

The government has decided that the Press Council will be armed with the power to warn and take action against newspapers that break the rules. Those affected can claim compensation of between PRs 10,000 and PRs 100,000 ($ 2,300).

The council is to be headed by a serving or retired judge of the Pakistan supreme court or a high court. It will consist of four members, including a working journalist nominated by the government, and nominees of the All-Pakistan Newspaper Society and the Editors Council.

Both the society and council have raised objections to the government's plan to include a judge and a journalist in the council. Caught in between the two sides, are journalists unions who can neither support the government nor the employers.

Farrukh Saeed Khawaja, president of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, has flatly rejected the Press Council proposal since it does not give due representation to working journalists.

In his opinion, ''as there is no representation of working journalists in the Press Council, only then should the publisher be involved in case of misconduct. If working journalists are to be involved, then they must be given due representation so that they can defend their community.''

Journalists have often been been left to the mercy of the government by newspaper owners.

In 1992, during Prime Minister Sharief's first tenure, Maleeha Lodhi, editor of The News International and her staffer were accused by the government of sedition following the publication of a poem that was critical of the administration. No action was taken against the publisher though, and the matter was only resolved after the intervention of journalists unions.

Three years later, the special correspondent of the largest circulated Jang newspaper was targeted by parliament for publicising the list of defaulters, among them ruling and Opposition leaders, on loans amounting to a total of Rs 32 billion taken from the Habib Bank.

The so-called leakage to the press was discussed in parliament the same day, which decided that the publication of the list was a conspiracy against the democratic system, and demanded that action should be immediately taken against the ''culprit.''

A 25-member parliamentary committee was constituted to follow up the case, but the sudden dissolution of the assemblies soon after, brought the proceedings to a halt.

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Hussain says the ''government has discussed the (Press Council) issue with the editors' council.''

"Not good enough," says well-known journalist Mariana Babar of the daily The News. ''Any law concerning the media must be acceptable to the journalists who are directly involved and responsible for the coverage in the newspapers,'' she says. ''It is only right that the government consult with working journalists and not just with the owners of the papers, who always have their own priorities.''

UNI