PPP's Young Turks.

Byline: Arifa Noor

A CLOSE friend of a PPP prime minister during the 2008-2013 term says he once told the latter that the press was inundated with critical stories about him and his government. Shouldn't the prime minister do something, he asked. The prime minister chortled and dismissed the concern by saying that coverage in itself was a good thing; one shouldn't worry about it being good or bad.

In some ways, the anecdote can describe the five years of PPP rule at the centre post-2008. In sharp contrast to the PML-N and the PTI, the PPP accepted the media's critical and harsh coverage with considerable generosity. Few clarifications used to be sent to newspapers, and channels too faced far less of the pressure that became the norm over the years. Except for the one high-profile but short-lived attempt during the 2009 long march to meddle with the 'numbers' on which channels appeared, there are few other systematic anti-press efforts that the party can be held guilty for.

(However, it should be added that the party's perception at the centre is contested by many in Sindh. It is said that within Sindh the record or the image is not as blameless as at the federal level; the province has one of the highest number of journalists who have cases registered against them under the anti-terrorism law. According to the Media Freedom Report 2019, 50 of the 60 journalists who had cases registered against them under the anti-terrorism law, among others, were from Sindh.)

The party seems to be waking up to the media's changing reality.

Indeed, it is generally accepted that the PPP has always spoken the loudest for press freedom and not without merit. It has always given importance to human rights in general - including the right to information (except for Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's period) -- and has been recognised for it. It has now become part of the party's value system to a large extent.

The PPP's values and culture notwithstanding, its history may also have helped shape the party's old guard's view of the influence of the press. During the 11 years of Ziaul Haq, the heavily censored press had to deal with a number of red lines where the coverage of the PPP was concerned. Those of us who entered the profession later were told many a story of those days when reporting on the PPP or a young Benazir Bhutto was not routine.

And yet, this had little impact on the party's popularity and support base. (It was simply one tool among many used by a dictator to...

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