The world has marked International Press Freedom Day today including Pakistan, which spots two points lower than the previous year and is two points behind Siri Lanka in terms of the freedom of the press. The World Press Freedom (RSF) Index by Reporters Without Borders marked Pakistan at position number 152 in 2024. While in 2023 Pakistan dropped from 157THnumbers to an improved position of 150 in 180 counties.
Why Pakistan dropped and is still among the unfavorable countries for journalists is a question to be understood. The area of press freedom also speaks both about the government and those violating freedom of speech. Anyway, World Press Freedom Day is observed on May 3 each year. This year’s theme of the day is “A Press for the Planet: Journalism in the face of the environmental crisis.” It emphasizes the important role of journalism and freedom of expression in the context of the current global environmental crisis. Like in the world, every political party in Pakistan in a way highlighted this day’s importance.
President of Pakistan – Asif Ali Zardari – in his message emphasized the need to take measures for the safety and security of journalists to enable them to report on important issues fairly and without fear. He also urged the media to follow journalistic ethics and reporting responsibilities following the national interest.
He realized the commendable role of the media in promoting democratic values and raising awareness on issues of social and economic significance, especially climate change and global warming. He hoped the media would make a continuing contribution to issues of global concern. He affirmed cultivating an environment where media is independent and diverse and enjoys freedoms. as enshrined in the constitution.
Given this year’s theme, he said “We believe that media can play its role in encouraging people to protect the environment by promoting forestation, adopting clean technologies, reducing carbon emissions, and protecting biodiversity to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change on our ecosystem.
The Prime Minister of Pakistan (PM), Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif assured that the incumbent government would make all-out efforts to uplift the media industry and resolve the issues this sector is confronting. He also reiterated the government’s resolve to maximize cooperation to protect the rights of the media industry, and its workers. He acknowledged that both male and female journalists, media workers, writers, and cameramen who sacrificed their lives during coverage in Gaza were the heroes of humanity.
The PM said the freedom of the press and expression were the foundations of democracy, the protection of civil rights, and the voice of truth in society. he urged a collective role of media and other stakeholders to create a conducive atmosphere to ensure smooth media functioning. He said the government firmly believed that freedom of media and expression guarantees democratic durability. He also celebrated that during his previous 16-months of his government, Pakistan improved by seven points in the World index as the government had taken steps like legislation for media protection, health insurance, and payment of billions of rupees to media and insurance amount worth millions of rupees to media workers. However, it is important to note that the government is all set to bring new social media regulations.
Pakistan has been a country where opposition political parties support press freedom but prove to be the first to curb it when comes to power. In Pakistan, press freedom was compromised and is likely to continue even in the future. This is likely to continue for reasons including constitutional and for the polarized politics that once again erupted in Pakistan over the past few years, particularly, after the year 2018. Though Pakistan is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), it cannot prove beneficial to both media in Pakistan and those wishing a complete space for the freedom of speech.
Pakistan ratified UDHR in 1948 and the constitution of Pakistan was adopted in 1973. The UDHR is a milestone in the history of human rights. The United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 proclaimed this universal document through UN Resolution 217. This universal instrument, for the first time in history, framed fundamental human rights and made them universally protected. It widely recognized and inspired the adoption of more than seventy human rights treaties in the world that apply today.
This document comprised over 30 articles that speak to ensure the most fundamental rights and freedoms of people in the world. Article 19 of the UDHR holds prime importance and states, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
Importantly, this article of the UDHR is not in conformity with Article 19 of the constitution of Pakistan. Article 19 of the Constitution of Pakistan says “Every citizen of Pakistan has the right to hold opinions, the right to express them, and the right to speech. The law can abrogate this right only in the interest of the glory of Islam and the integrity, security, and defense of Pakistan, to maintain public order, decency, and morality, or in relation to contempt of court and or incitement to an offense. If there is a contradiction between the constitution of an independent and an article of the UDHR, the constitution will prevail.
When the glory of Islam, security, integrity or defense of Pakistan, public order, decency, morality, and contempt of court are the stipulations then who can stop the government from making laws and regulations? When the UDHR was ratified in 1948 and the constitution of Pakistan was adopted in 1973 after 1973 several governments remained in power including the PPP, PMLN, and PTI and none of them ever tried to bring a constitutional amendment as Article 19 of the UDHR states then what more is left behind?
In this given situation it doesn’t matter that PTA, PEMRA, and PECA already, as every government in view of its priorities will remain busy framing even more laws. On the other hand, social media users also blatantly violated limits in the name of freedom of speech particularly after 2018. Now the only available choice is to show responsible behavior as framing of new regulations doesn’t look to be stopped.
(Senior journalist Rana Kashif has authored this piece)
