Laws that give controlling powers to the state machinery over news operations of media outlets and the flow of information in society are bad laws. There cannot be any disagreement with the axiom that a new organisation should be free from any outside pressures, but it should be responsible from within. Pakistani state machinery started giving authoritarian looks the moment Western influence on our political and military elites started to recede in the wake of the seeming completion of the US counter-terrorism mission in Afghanistan.
Freedom of Expression and the idea of giving journalists and media men a privileged status within the society was never a deep-rooted commitment with Pakistani ruling elites. It was a fashion and fashion which they imported or imitated from the West. Cultural imitation of the West has been a long-standing tradition in Islamabad.
Let me give you a remarkably interesting example. Pakistani government officials and rulers used to address press conferences and briefings comfortably sitting on chairs behind large tables before the tragic events of 911. After the A-Qaeda attacks in New York and Washington, as we became US allies, our military and political elites started to address conferences standing behind dias just like their American counterparts.
So, freedom of expression and media independence were fashions that the military government of General Pervaiz Musharraf was willing to concede to the journalists in a few major cities like Islamabad, La.
