Will media censorship end if there is a regime change? Journalist Matiullah Jan believes it won't. He says civilian government never had the power to change the rules and regulations.
He says it was unfortunate that Pakistan has been ruled by different political parties e.g. PPP, PML-N and now PTI, but all of these parties were never in charge. He says censorship is slapped by the establishment and civilian governments don't have much of a say in it.
2018 was a hard year for journalism in Pakistan and the trend continues in 2019.
Top news anchors and journalists for example Matiullah Jan himself, Talat Hussain and Nusrat Javed had to leave their respective shows on Pakistan’s mainstream news channels. The Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) also expressed concerns over newspaper censorship.
Moreover, according to Human Rights Commission Pakistan, cable operators across the country were compelled to take down a couple of channels from their lists.
Digital Media too was under fire. Facebook’s latest transparency report shows the highest number of government requests for content restriction were from Pakistan — a staggering 2,203, or 14 per cent of total content restrictions in the world.
He says it was unfortunate that Pakistan has been ruled by different political parties e.g. PPP, PML-N and now PTI, but all of these parties were never in charge. He says censorship is slapped by the establishment and civilian governments don't have much of a say in it.
2018 was a hard year for journalism in Pakistan and the trend continues in 2019.
Top news anchors and journalists for example Matiullah Jan himself, Talat Hussain and Nusrat Javed had to leave their respective shows on Pakistan’s mainstream news channels. The Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) also expressed concerns over newspaper censorship.
Moreover, according to Human Rights Commission Pakistan, cable operators across the country were compelled to take down a couple of channels from their lists.
Digital Media too was under fire. Facebook’s latest transparency report shows the highest number of government requests for content restriction were from Pakistan — a staggering 2,203, or 14 per cent of total content restrictions in the world.