ISLAMABAD: Proposed government guidelines on terrorism coverage threaten the press’s independence, journalists said.

“This is an irrational proposal and a bolt from the blue for journalists”, said Fahad Hussain, a senior print and broadcast journalist who heads a television channel based in Lahore.

“This Media Co-Ordination Committee of Defence Planning has been unheard of until now”, Fahad said.

The government recently formed the committee to define guidelines for electronic and print media covering terrorist incidents and national security issues, according to media.

Government officials defended the proposal. The initiative is not an attempt to control the electronic media, and the code would resemble rules “practised all over the world”, presidential spokeswoman Farahnaz Ispahani said last week.

Such assurances did not calm Pakistani journalists. Many oppose governmental codes of conduct as a plot to control freedom of expression.

“This is totally unacceptable”, said Muhammad Malik, editor of the English daily The News. “We will resist it. … Who is it (the government) to formulate codes for us”?

The government wants to control media, he said. “Nobody has been consulted”, he added. “If (the government) is serious, it must take the key stakeholders, including public, media and civil society in confidence, before making any law regulating media”.

Other journalists supported the code. Zahid Hussain, a senior journalist and author of a book on the militancy in Pakistan (Frontline Pakistan: The Struggle with Militant Islam), said Pakistani media need guidelines, particularly for covering national security.

“In the prevailing situation, Pakistani media must have a code of conduct”, Hussain said. Pakistan is at war with militants, he said.

“It is a fact that militants have successfully exploited a section of media”, Hussain said. A number of TV anchors glorify militants and their brand of Islam on talk shows and programmes, he said. “It (glorifying militants) must be stopped, and there is a need to follow certain ethics in the larger national and public interest”, Hussain said.

Some Pakistani journalists said they already have a voluntary code of conduct, which they developed in 2009. The code compels journalists to refrain from showing graphic violence (including badly injured people) and talking to emotionally distraught victims.

It also allows news managers to use a time-delay mechanism in live transmissions so questionable content can be edited out. “We are more responsible than government functionaries”, Fahad said. “Journalists know better than anybody else how to safeguard public interests. … (Government officials) need to first put their own house in order before interfering in our affairs”.

Hussain disagreed with Fahad on the effectiveness of the journalists’ voluntary code. “That (voluntary code of conduct) regards only live coverage of terrorist acts, hostage situations and bomb blasts”, Hussain said. Pakistan needs a code covering media policy on all stories, not just on live coverage of blasts or blast victims, Hussain said.

“Even the code of conduct framed by heads of media organizations has not been followed”, he claimed, referring to another code of ethics, published by the Pakistan Broadcasters Association (PBA) in April 2009.

The PBA code of conduct defines how to cover terrorist incidents and matters related to national security. “PBA members will be required to avoid glorifying or providing a heroic picture of terrorism or terrorist activity”, Clause 1 of the PBA code of ethics reads.

Top international media, such as the BBC, follow certain codes of ethics framed by the government, Hussain said.

Democracies do not control the media, Malik said. “(The press) is self regulated. Journalists are playing the watchdog role, not governments”, Malik said.

The government’s decision will further antagonize media, free-lance journalist and civil society activist Aimal Khattak said.

The government needs to work with the media before writing a new law on media, Khattak said. “It must incorporate the voluntary codes of conduct formulated by professional journalists and media owners”. -http://centralasiaonline.com