Bleak era for media.

Byline: Abbas Nasir

THERE is little doubt that the media in Pakistan is besieged today as it is getting battered by different elements that range from the authorities to the economy.

Supreme Court Justice Faez Isa is not known to mince his words on transgressions of the rule of law and the Constitution. He remarked during a hearing on Thursday that there appeared to be a move to silence the media.

He lamented that 'we are now living in a controlled media state' where all points of view, other than the one that powerful elements of the power structure are comfortable with, were not welcomed.

The judge asked if the country's future was being determined by parliament or, what he called, insidious forces. Justice Faez Isa's remarks came during the hearing of a suo motu case in the Supreme Court on the Faizabad dharna during the final days of the last government.

The two-member bench, headed by Justice Mushir Alam, expressed shock and dismay that TV news channels were taken off air on someone's orders by cable operators, and took to task the regulator Pemra for not lifting a finger to ensure the free distribution of news channels on cable networks.

The bench was also displeased by the role of the ISI and demanded that the court be briefed about the exact mandate and role of the all-powerful security service. The court came down hard on the attorney general of Pakistan for not appearing before the court in this matter of import, despite a clear commitment.

Many of us know that while the court is a robust backer of freedoms, there are powerful forces determined to make Pakistan a 'uni-narrative' state.

All who believe in the freedom of the media would take heart from the remarks of the honourable court. Still, many of us would also know that while the court will be a robust backer of freedoms, there are very powerful forces determined to make Pakistan a 'uni-narrative' state.

It is not a very well-kept secret how the media was beaten into submission in the run-up to the elections by agencies, and told in no uncertain terms what was acceptable and what was not. Notwithstanding the odd case of heroic defiance, much of the media content reflected the self-censorship that was enforced on the fourth estate.

Of course, the PTI strategy to blame the slowdown of the economy mostly on the policies of its predecessors and not even a bit on its own scare-mongering tactics may have been designed to demonise the PML-N, but it began to cut both ways.

As...