The press in Pakistan
holds significant power and has suffered much under various political leaders.
The press’s existence is remarkable given the often harsh means used by
government officials and military dictators to control it.
The ideological
perspective of a newspaper is vital to form not just the opinion of its readers
but to constantly train them ideologically. Sadly, print media in this country
is as problematic as the electronic one, partly due to increasing control of
the owners who are tempted to get planted stories published in their papers for
personal benefits.
According to the one of
the code of conduct of Press Council of Pakistan, “The Press shall avoid biased
reporting or publication of unverified material, and avoid the expression of
comments and conjecture as established fact. Generalization based on the
behavior of an individual or small number of individuals will be termed
unethical.” but now a days this type of reporting is very common in our
journalism. Our journalist doing biased reporting in fact it is also observed
that press use conjectures, unverified material to make their stories worthy
but forget that it might be harmful for the public.
The violation of other
ethical code which says, “The Press shall avoid originating,
printing, publishing and disseminating any material, which encourages or
incites discrimination or hatred on grounds of race, region, caste, sect,
nationality, ethnicity, gender, disability, illness or age of an individual or
group.” is also observed when media conglomerates kept their benefits
higher than their responsibility towards masses.
“Rumors and unconfirmed
reports shall be avoided and if at all published shall be identified as such.”
we observed the violation of this code of conduct at many times. For example,
The News accused PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif as a Taliban sympathizer, When a
national survey by Heinrich Boll Stiftung (HBS) found that “a majority of
people in Pakistan are willing to vote for the PPP” in the coming elections. It
was soon after this that rumours began appearing in social media that declared
a rift between President Zardari and PPP Chairman
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had left the party rudderless as elections approached.
And In an editorial in this context titled Family drama? The News does not
provide any credible sources for its claims, instead reporting that “it is
said”. But it is said by whom? Who is saying this? Are they credible sources?
Or is The News once again being misled by “incorrigible liars”? Similar to what
had happened few years earlier when this media outlet published that Persident
Asif Ali Zardari got married second time with a doctor in U.A.E. which did not
proved to be correct.
The print and
electronic media have regularly been using pictures and names of juvenile
offenders and children in need of protection, contrary to the code of ethics
given under different laws and by national and international organisations. Recently, the picture and name of a
nine-year-old female victim of child prostitution, recovered from a brothel in
Swat district, was splashed in different newspapers. It is the violation of the
code of ethical practice mentioned by the Press Council of Pakistan, says, “In
the case of sexual offences and heinous crime against children, juveniles and
women, names and identifying photographs shall not be published.”
It now becomes their common practice
to violate these laws which is not appreciable in the case of strong and
prosperous press. The actions should be taken against these activities for the
betterment of press position otherwise it loose it credibility in the society.
Conclusion:
Press can play a vital role in the reconstruction and regeneration of a nation by highlighting the social, economic, and moral evils in the society which can be helpful in eradicating the evils from the society.it is commonly said that media is the watchdog whose role can be defined in a number of ways, but in short, is primarily to “bark” loud enough about an issue so that the proper authority figures can follow up on the next steps
This does not mean
that media is authorized to move as it wants to be but it should be more
responsible to their duty as media raise or highlight issues on behalf of
general public. Reporting should be factual or authentic, avoid making news sensational,
must not make a mess as recently our Pakistani media had done. Our media
created misunderstanding between the estates of the country. Media ethics or
professionalism is kept as one of their priorities.
