Columnist Zahid Hussain says unannounced censor policy imposed on Pakistani media

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published: 18 April 2018

Columnist Zahid Hussain discusses the imposition of an unannounced censor policy on Pakistani media. He addresses the influence of invisible forces and the challenges faced by news outlets.

Summary

ISLAMABAD - Columnist Zahid Hussain on Wednesday maintained that an unannounced censor policy had been imposed on media in Pakistan.

In his weekly column in Dawn, Hussain said the censorship is “about the growing perception of political manipulation by ‘invisible forces’ often referred to as namaloom afraad.”

Though the restrictions have indeed not been imposed by the federal government or any regulatory body, Hussain said the media houses are compelled to follow a diktat.

Referring to the refusal to print articles by The News, he wrote: “Opinion pieces violating ‘guidelines’ have reportedly been withdrawn by the management of some leading newspapers for fear of being penalised.”

He also talked about the closure of Geo TV. “Over the past weeks, a TV channel has reportedly been taken off by cable operators or shuffled out of the main bouquet of news channels as ‘punishment’ for being too ‘outspoken on certain sensitive issues.’”

The article maintained that the deep state is manipulating the political set up and muzzling of media is part of it. “There is little probability that the democratic political process will be completely derailed. But the growing perception of the deep state increasingly getting involved in alleged political manipulation raises apprehensions that we may be heading towards a ‘managed’ or ‘guided’ political dispensation.”

Photo courtesy: dawn.com