PAKISTAN MEDIA NOT FREE TO PROVIDE COMPETENT COVERAGE OF ELECTIONS
January 10th 2008 00:44
Pakistan's media is not free to provide proper coverage of the legislative elections scheduled for February 18, because of a climate of censorship that is sustained by the permanent threat of fines, closures of news media and arrests of journalists, according to Reporters Without Borders.
The government has introduced a series of regulations that drastically restrict the broadcast media's ability to cover the election campaign. The ban on Geo News, the freest and most popular of Pakistan's TV broadcasters, proves that press freedom has not been guaranteed for the polls. At the same time, journalists are exposed to great dangers, with the security forces being responsible for most of the violence.
Pakistan's only national, terrestrial-broadcast TV station, PTV is directly controlled by the government and systematically plays up the statements and activities of President Musharraf and other government leaders. It has been forced to modernise its style since 2002 because of competition from privately-owned cable TV stations, but its coverage of the legislative elections has been heavily biased in favour of Musharraf's followers.
Before her assassination, Benazir Bhutto was very clear in her condemnation of the government's attacks on the freedom of the media.
During a protest in defence of press freedom in Islamabad on 10 November, Bhutto said, "I have come to demonstrate my solidarity. I reject these restrictions. We believe in free speech. Our war against the dictatorship continues, we are for freedom, we are for the media."
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