Curb on expression.

IN 'Whitney vs California', 1927, justice Brandeis of the US supreme court said '... in ... government, deliberative forces should prevail over the arbitrary; ... freedom to think as you will and to speak as you think are means indispensable to the discovery ... of political truth'.

Recently, Pemra, the electronic media regulator, imposed a blanket ban - subsequently suspended by the court - on broadcasting live or recorded speeches of former prime minister Imran Khan on all electronic media channels. The stipulated reason was that Khan was levelling unfounded allegations against state institutions and their officers, and thus, compromising state security.

Such blanket bans by Pemra on free speech have become the norm.

Blanket bans on expression are based on the obsolete 'doctrine of prior restraint'. In 1501, Pope Alexander VI applied this doctrine as a tool to control publications promoting dissent. Prior restraint entails imposition of restrictions on expression in advance. Prior restraint is different from subsequent punishment, and blocks expression altogether. Conversely, subsequent punishment allows the expression but imposes a penalty after it.

Pemra has no right to impose blanket bans.

In England, under the Licensing Act, 1662, no one was allowed to print, sell or import any publication unless they were a licensee of the Stationers' Company. In 1695, when this law expired, parliament refused to extend it. In the US in 1971, when the Pentagon Papers began appearing in the New York Times, the government attempted to prevent their publication on the pretext that divulging sensitive military information could threaten national security.

In 'New York Times vs USA', discarding the prior restraint principle, the supreme court held that 'despite the sensitive nature of the information, the newspapers could still publish it'. Effectively, it allowed free expression to outweigh potential harm by holding that the government's concerns were speculative.

In our constitutional parlance, Article 19 guarantees freedom of speech and expression. It provides that free speech is not absolute; rather the same can be curtailed by law through the imposition of reasonable restrictions. Our superior courts have held that the phrase 'reasonable restrictions'connotes that limitation should not be arbitrary, excessive or disproportionate, and must reflect intelligent care and deliberation.

IncontroAvertibly, a prior blanket ban on mere anticipation can never...

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