JournalismPakistan.com | Published 5 years ago
Join our WhatsApp channel
ISLAMABAD — Senior journalist Ghazi Salahuddin has painted a grim outlook for Pakistan’s news media in 2020.
“Not much may change during the next 12 months, but the prospect of a shift in political power has the potential for making the media environment a little less suffocating,” he wrote for Jinnah Institute’s report The Road to 2020 – Forecasting Change in Pakistan.
He added that media had been dictated more by the establishment than the blundering spokespersons of the prime minister. “A new arrangement should allow more space to the civilian authority. Ultimately, though, the powers that be must prevail.”
Apart from a powerful establishment and the PTI government, the other factors hindering free media is an intolerant illiterate society. “Ours is an exceptionally intolerant society marked by religious extremism. We have a set of ruling ideas that are not to be questioned or even objectively examined by the media. Areas are demarcated in the name of national security, out of bounds for discussion and debate.”
Another issue for Ghazi Salahuddin is “woefully depressed state of Pakistan’s intelligentsia.” He thinks Pakistan lacks “a large enough population among the literate segment to support a viable print media.”
With dismal reading habits and intellectual impoverishment, for the senior journalist, “there is little scope for a serious discourse on our campuses, universally acknowledged as the breeding ground for new ideas and progressive social action. That there is a ban on taking up issues like the Baloch insurgency is another matter. Academic freedom, in a sense, has an umbilical connection with media freedom.”
He is also not happy with the role of TV channels. “News channels operate almost as the sole arbiters of what we may describe as public opinion. In a de-intellectualized and partly illiterate society, these channels are inherently not meant to promote progressive ideas. All they do is to chew the political cud in their talk shows.”
November 06, 2025: Information Minister Attaullah Tarar’s job offer to Nukta staff draws criticism as hundreds of journalists across Pakistan face layoffs, salary delays, and job insecurity.
November 06, 2025: Information Minister Attaullah Tarar announces jobs for 37 laid-off Nukta employees, saying they will be placed at digital platforms within 48 hours amid growing media uncertainty.
November 05, 2025: PTI’s Faisal Chaudhry’s witty reply to Gharidah Farooqi on GTV’s “G for Gharidah” goes viral as a clip from their debate over the 27th Amendment sparks reactions online.
November 05, 2025: Digital platform Nukta lays off 37 employees in Pakistan, including journalists and producers, highlighting the financial struggles facing new media ventures in a shrinking job market.
November 04, 2025: Talat Hussain denies airing the viral clip showing Sher Afzal Marwat’s vulgar remark, saying it was not part of his Samaa TV show.
November 03, 2025: PFUJ recalls November 3, 2007, as Pakistan’s darkest day under Musharraf, urging protection for journalists and the abolition of laws threatening press freedom.
November 02, 2025: PFUJ urges Pakistan’s federal and provincial governments to end Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists and ensure their safety and press freedom.
November 02, 2025: Impunity for crimes against journalists deepens worldwide as Pakistan reports a 60 percent surge in attacks and weak enforcement of safety laws.
November 05, 2025 The Pulitzer Center is offering global reporting grants for journalists worldwide, funding high-impact projects on underreported issues with rolling applications in 2025.
November 04, 2025 Journalist Rana Ayyub receives death threats over calls demanding a column on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots as CPJ urges swift action to protect journalists in India.
November 04, 2025 TV8 journalist Mariana Rata in Moldova receives a death threat after interviewing politician Renato Usatii on-air, raising concerns about journalist safety.
November 03, 2025 Global journalist unions condemn the Indonesian agriculture minister’s lawsuit against Tempo, calling it a threat to press freedom and demanding that the case be withdrawn.
November 02, 2025 Independent outlet All About Macau to halt print and online operations amid rising pressure, financial strain, and legal threats, sparking press freedom concerns in the city.