MEDIA ETHICS AND PTV

Media freedom or liberalization is one the most highly debated topics of the present times. While media liberalization on one hand allows the summation of information necessary for bureaucratic incentives, on the other hand it also helps citizens/ opposition to coordinate on replacing the incumbent ruler. Hence, there is a definite tradeoff for any government from a political perspective whenever a decision on media freedom is made.

Besides intensifying politics liberal media may also result in increasing rates of corruption which has negative impacts on other important economic indicators. If one goes by the news alone, it would seem that every country that has strived for media freedom is now suffering from rampant corruption. For instance, the he New York Times has published 99 stories about corruption in Brazil since the country allowed media freedom in 1985.

Pakistan itself is a highlighted country in this regard as many believe that the worst political situation of the country has occurred in the past 7-8 years after President Pervez Musharaf allowed the freedom of media in its true sense. Whereas a contradictory view on the same places media responsible for the political and economic crisis. As by bringing everything to public knowledge the media can promote country wide crisis and revolt.

Talking about ethics of a state owned network, PTV, on the other hand has always been perceived as a pro-government channel because of its policies of not revealing news and events that may highlight the government’s position. Over the past many years, and before the inception of private media, the Pakistani population was of the view that our country has been doing really well. This view was due to the fact that there was only one TV channel that was portraying what the government wanted them to portray. With the inception of private media in the early years of President Musharaf, the public got to know the real side of political and economic realities of the country.

The inception of private media let to the shift in the viewer ship patterns of TV in a way that people started trusting private media more than the state media. PTV, however, tried to stick to its policies being a state owned channel but failed miserably in gaining confidence of the public. Realities, along with a bit of ‘masala’ led to public attention.

It was necessary for PTV to regain its popularity keeping in view non-revealing policies of the government and in spite of shouting and crying out loud that PTV is no more a pro government channel and is a pro Pakistan channel, the efforts led to no conclusion. Unfortunately, our state owned channel is still a channel with no ethical values and is lead by the head of the state.

Regards,

Anas Kamdar