Two months back Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry outrightly disowned and distanced his ministry and the PTI government from a leaked draft of the Pakistan Media Development Authority (PMDA) Ordinance, terming it “fake news”. If reports of a bill being tabled in the National Assembly very soon, drawn along more or less the same line as that of the original PMDA ordinance, are to be believed, then Mr Chaudhry was straight-up lying. That he has since spelled out how media house s would be fined millions of rupees and further penalized for reporting news deemed unacceptably overcritical, should be clarity enough of where things are headed: a space for journalism that is suffocated by fear of penalization, fueled by arbitrary and draconian laws that all media will be afraid to do moral justice to their job.
Prime Minister Imran Khan and his ministers have stated on multiple occasions that Pakistan’s media is one of the freest in the world. These comments have been repeated with unwavering confidence during foreign media interviews as well. However, the reality is much different and the methods through which print and electronic media has been made to self-censor since the PTI took over is simply unprecedented. In its latest barrage against dissent and valid criticism, the government is planning to push through the PMDA ordinance that aims to regulate all forms of media and is being advertised as “independent, efficient, effective and transparent”. Upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that the PMDA is a horrifically draconian collection of rules and regulations that would all but abolish whatever modicum press freedom is left in the country. To begin with, it would repeal all existing media related laws and make the new authority a single entity through which all licensing, registration and other necessary legal requirements would be processed.
In its current form, such a law would be difficult to get through parliament, which is why it will be bulldozed through as a presidential ordinance and eventually lapse. But it would still remain in place for at least eight months. It is therefore imperative that all media representative bodies and progressive media outlets oppose and reject the PMDA collectively and outrightly.
