Thirty years ago a draconian law to “control” the press was ordered by a dictator. It was called the Regulation (sic) of Printing and Publication Ordinance (RPPO). The press agitated against it but was warned to shut up or else. Dictators came and went but the RPPO stayed. Ten years ago, after Zia ul Haq bit the dust, a caretaker information minister (now the speaker of the national assembly, Mr Elahi Bux Soomro) made bold to repeal the RPPO. The amending ordinance (RPPPO) lacked in certain areas. But it was a significant step forward and the press welcomed it.
Then democracy was ushered in and Benazir Bhutto became prime minister in 1988. The press expected her to enact the temporary RPPPO as a permanent Act of Parliament. But she didn’t do that. She merely extended the ordinance from time to time and sometimes even forgot to do that. When the RPPPO lapsed, the press raised a din because the status of the law became unclear. If a repealing ordinance lapses, does the old ordinance (in this case the hated RPPO of 1969) come back into play? Or what?
Mr Nawaz Sharif emulated Ms Bhutto’s policy from 1990 to 1993. He did not enact the RPPPO as an Act. He also allowed the RPPPO to lapse from time to time and extended it only when pressurised by the press. Ms Bhutto returned in 1993 and continued with this familiar tactic. Now Mr Sharif is back in the saddle and the Muslim League government, which has pushed through two constitutional amendments in two minutes, is dragging its feet over the issue. Meanwhile, the RPPPO has lapsed and the status of the press is in doubt again.
But the story doesn’t end here. Indeed, it has taken a turn for the worse. Mr Sharif now wants to impose a watchdog on the press. It is called a Press Council. The idea was floated by Ms Bhutto in 1994 but she was persuaded to drop it after the press threatened to revolt. Mr Hussain Haqqani was then Information Secretary. As a former journalist, he was not keen on the idea and did his bit stop it from being implemented. The boot is now on Information Minister Mushahid Hussain’s foot. He too is a former journalist who, as the much respected editor of a national newspaper once, did much for the cause of the freedom of the press during the dark night of General Zia ul Haq. Will Mushahid Hussain disavow his original pledge to uphold, defend and protect the press for a highly dubious and fleeting job in the service of Nawaz Sharif?
A draft bill proposing a watchdog council over the press is currently being examined by a Senate Standing Committee on Information and Media Development. The good news is that the committee is chaired by Mr Raza Rabbani, one of the few good men still left in the PPP. The bad news is that this draft has not been discussed with the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) despite earlier assurances by Mr Mushahid Hussain that no draft would be formulated, let alone forwarded to a special parliamentary committee, by the Information Ministry and the Law Ministry without the approval of the apex press body. What next? Will a copy of the draft be sent to a similar committee in the national assembly led by Mr Khurshid Kasuri, perhaps the only true liberal in the Muslim League?
We are truly perplexed. The Law Minister, Mr Khaled Anwar, is a liberal. So too are Mr Rabbani and Mr Kasuri. Mr Hussain is a former top press man. Are they all going to join hands and connive in the undoing of the very institution they have lauded all these years? Are they going to be part of a conspiracy to muzzle the press in the same fashion in which the 14th amendment has gagged parliament?
If the message has not got through to Mr Sharif, we will spell it out for him. The press has fought long and hard for its freedom. We are not going to accept any government sponsored watchdogs over us, even if some of us have to revolt against an unjust law and go to prison for it. If the government has a case, it should discuss it with the CPNE for as long as it takes to meet its approval. There can be no “compromise” over this issue.
In theory, the proper course of action would be to seek the approval of the CPNE for a purely advisory body of independent journalists from significant sections of the press to mediate conflict between the press and public and the press and government. If any regulation is to be done, it should be left in the hands of the press. The time to consider a alternative solution would be if and when the press demonstrates its collective inability to redress serious public grievances. In the meanwhile, the government could lay the basis of a fruitful dialogue with the press by incorporating its reasonable suggestions for amending the RPPPO and enacting it as a law of parliament. Buck up, Mushahid Hussain!