Editorial: The News - 26 June 2013

The SC can save the media

Collateral damage can sometimes be totally unintentional but could, at times, turn out to be fatal. In its intervention – as well-meaning as in many other numerous matters of national importance where the superior judiciary saved losses and prevented thefts of billions upon billions – the Honourable Supreme Court of Pakistan took suo motu notice of a complaint by Transparency International over the alleged misuse of secret funds by the information ministry, and stayed the disbursement of payments to any advertising agency or media house for advertisements printed and aired by the media till the next date of hearing and directed the deputy attorney general to provide particulars of any summary approved on or after March 10, 2013. It was a perfect case to intervene in as corruption and misuse of funds were rampant. But as the nitty-gritty of the whole operation was complicated, a large part of the national media began to suffer unintended damage and grave financial consequences. Genuinely earned revenues that would have kept the media’s wheels rolling were suddenly blocked, even for those who had committed no wrong and were dependent on the cycle of billings and legitimate release of funds for ads already released and published. While the thieves should have been caught, the innocent were caught in the grill. Some who were already facing an acute financial crunch have come close to sudden collapse. The petitioner, TIP, also conceded this point and requested the apex court to revisit the stay order and redesign it to keep the innocent, and independent, free media afloat.
The APNS and the PBA – representative organisations of the country’s print and electronic media – have stated in their representations to the honourable court that the blanket stay order is badly hurting the liquidity of their members, some of whom were already facing acute financial crises. It may help to restate that members of the APNS and the PBA are owed billions of rupees by governments at both the federal and provincial levels, a problem exacerbated over the years due to corruption and red tape. Getting paid for advertisements is just like retrieving genuine payments from any government department in which all kinds of blackmail and extortion is practised. Backlogs running into years are deliberately kept by the government departments, and their agents, to keep the media under their thumb and vulnerable to blackmail as the stakes, and receivables, always keep rising. The apex court was reminded that government advertisements are published after official Release Orders (ROs) are issued by the Press Information Department at the federal level and the provincial information departments at the provincial level. It is business accepted on the basis of trust in the government’s capacity to honour its written word. Once space in newspapers, and on the electronic media, is given to these ads, the payments become receivables under the law. Ad agencies only act as middlemen and collect 15 percent as genuine commission but the remaining 85 percent has to go to the media. What the SC stay order has inadvertently done to check corruption is to make the holders of genuine stakes suffer the consequences. No one knows who will bear the responsibility of the losses thus suffered but the honourable judges can only be requested to get to the bottom of the problem. Time is also of the essence. Government budgets lapse onJune 30 every year and if a payment is not made by then and the money lapses, the entire rigmarole of getting new approvals and sanctions will have to be repeated – starting from scratch. A whole new platform for the extortionists to enjoy and subjugate the free media will be automatically created.
An independent and free media is fundamental to democracy and a prerequisite for the creation of a vibrant democratic culture. The apex court, it is understood, never had any intention to punish the media but wanted to catch the thieves. Yet, practically, the capacity of the independent media to function as a watchdog against vested interests and corrupt mafias is seriously under threat. The worst is yet to come, but the situation can be saved. If the apex court revisits its order in light of these humble submissions, a lot of unintended collateral damage would be averted. The Supreme Court has always supported, strengthened and preserved the freedom of the press as guaranteed under the constitution. If the media is financially crippled, for no fault of its own, it will not only be media freedoms that will be compromised but the constitutional guarantee would also be at stake.

Kabul attacked

On Tuesday the Taliban mounted an attack within the supposedly secure diplomatic zone in Kabul that houses the presidential palace and a CIA outstation. Three checkpoint guards were killed in a two-hour fire fight and the attack was immediately classed as ‘complex’ – with one of the attackers blowing himself up and the other three eventually being killed by the defenders. The attackers were wearing military uniforms and had fake identity cards for a compound inside the secure zone. These IDs were fortunately spotted before the attackers got deeper into the compound. The message that was being delivered was that the Taliban can talk peace on the one hand and fight a war on the other, but that they are doing the war fighting rather more effectively than they are doing the peace-talking for the moment – the opening of their Doha office notwithstanding.
President Karzai is increasingly a marginal figure, and double games are being played on all sides. For Karzai his mounting frustration is rising alongside the shortening of the length of time he has in power; and for the Americans there is an almost desperate need to get out of an unwinnable war with as much honour and dignity as may be saved. Both Karzai and the foreign forces now in Afghanistan are transitional figures, here for the short-term only and the Taliban can afford to wait and see. Wait and see what the outcome of the 2014 elections will be, and wait and see just how much they can chew off the vulnerable Afghan National Army in the weeks and months immediately following the end of the transition. Despite being outnumbered and outgunned in every sense, the Taliban fighting the Isaf forces have consistently proved themselves capable of mounting small but deadly attacks. A huge military machine is tied down and successfully engaged by a numerically small guerrilla force that is nimble, largely invisible and has considerable support among the local population. Some commentators have opined that partition along ethnic and sectarian lines will be the ultimate fate of Afghanistan. It seems that it is not as far fetched as may at first be thought.