Development of press and regimes and state relations

DEVELOPMENT OF PRESS IN
PAKISTAN
STATE MEDIA RELATIONS
REGULATORY REGIMES OF
MEDIA IN PAKISTAN
BY: ZARMEEN DURRANI

DEVELOPMENT OF PRESS IN
PAKISTAN

WHAT IS PRESS
 Means of mass communication in the form of
printed publications, such as newspaper and
magazines.

DEVELOPMENT OF PRESS
 In 1947, only four major Muslim-owned newspapers
existed in the area now called Pakistan:
 Pakistan Times
 Zamindar
 Nawa-i-Waqt
 and Civil-Military Gazette.
 A number of Muslim papers and their publishers moved
to Pakistan, including Dawn, which began publishing
daily in Karachi in 1947
 the Morning News, and the Urdu-language dailies Jang
and Anjam. By the early 2000s, 1,500 newspapers and
journals existed in Pakistan.

 From 1994 to 1997, the total number of daily,
monthly, and other publications increased from
3,242 to 4,455.
 However, from 1994 to 2003 total print circulation
increased particularly for dailies (3 million to 6.2
million).
 And after the low point in 2003 the number of
publications grew to 1279 in 2004, to 1997 in 2005,
1467 in 2006, 1820 in 2007, and 1199 in 2008

MAJOR PRINT MEDIA GROUPS
OPERATING IN PAKISTAN
 Dawn group
 Nawa-i-Waqt group
 Jang group
 Express group
 Daily Times group

DAWN GROUP
 Normally known as Dawn Group of Newspapers,
the company was founded in 1941 by Mohammad
Ali Jinnah.
 Its flagship publication, the daily Dawn, was first
published in 1947from an already independent
Pakistan.
 Their main trademark, in fact, is a secular and
tolerant approach to some of the most burning
issues in Pakistan’s Society.

MAGAZINES
 Herald (English monthly magazine)
 Aurora (marketing and advertising Based bi-
monthly magazine).

JANG GROUP OF NEWSPAPER
 Commonly known as the Jang Group, it was
established in 1942 in Delhi by Mir Khalil-ur-
Rehman.
 The Group’s flagship publication is the Urdu-
language newspaper Daily Jang, which is printed
from six stations across the country. The group also
publishes arguably the second largest English
newspaper The News.
 a moderate conservative perspective ’
 Until the early 1950s Daily Jang was considered an
independent newspaper, but since then it has
gradually succumbed to political pressures and
temptation.

MAGAZINES
 Akhbar-e-Jehan (Urdu)
 Mag Weekly (English) [Fashion magazine]
 The News on Sunday (English)
 Jang Sunday Magazine (Urdu)
Other newspapers of Jang group
Daily Awam (Urdu)
Daily Awaz (Urdu)
Daily Waqt (Urdu)
Pakistan Times (English)
Daily News (English – evening)

NAWA-I-WAQT GROUP OF
PUBLICATIONS
 Established in 1940 by Hameed Nizami, one of the
founding fathers of Pakistani journalism, Nawa-I-
Waqt started its operations in Lahore.
 The first publication to be launched was the
fortnightly journal Nawa-i-Waqt.
 In an article that appeared in 1977, Nawa-i-Waqt
was defined as the ‘self-appointed custodian of the
ideology of Pakistan’, and, in the first five years of
existence of the country, it had hunted and pursued
a remorseless campaign against all liberal trends
and progressive forces in national life.

MAGAZINES
 Nida-i-Millat (Urdu) [Sunday magazine]
 Weekly Family (Urdu)
 Sunday Plus (English)
 Weekly Money Plus (English)
 Monthly Phool (Urdu) [For children]
English Daily:
 The Nation (English)

EXPRESS NEWSPAPER GROUP
 The Daily Express, founded on 3 September, 1998,
is one of Pakistan's most widely circulated Urdu
language newspapers.
 Published by Century Publications, a Lakson Group
subsidiary.
 Editor - Abbas Ather (one of the renowned
columnists).
 Magazine: Express Sunday Magazine

DAILY TIMES GROUP
 The Daily Times (DT) is an English language
Pakistani newspaper. Launched on April 9, 2002.
 Daily Times, which is simultaneously published
from Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi, is edited by
Rashed Rahman. The paper was owned by the late
Governor of Punjab and Pakistan Peoples Party
stalwart Salmaan Taseer.
 Daily Times is recognized as a newspaper that
advocates liberal and secular ideas.

MAGAZINES
 Friday Times Magazine (English)
 Weekly WikKid (English) [For kids]
 Daily Times Sunday (English)
 Aaj kal Sunday Magazine (Urdu)
Newspaper
 Daily Aaj kal Urdu

STATE MEDIA RELATIONS
REGULATORY REGIMES OF MEDIA
IN PAKISTAN

PRESS AND GOVERNMENT 1947-1958
 When Pakistan appeared on the map of world, cold
war was going on between Soviet Union and
America and the channel being used was media.
 The whole world was divided in two blocks i.e.
Communist block and American block.

 When Pakistan came into being it also has to
choose between the two, so leaders of the nation
decided to be a part of American block.
 After that numerous actions were taken against
those newspapers, magazines and journalists who
were more bent towards communist school of
thought.

PROGRESSIVE PAPERS LIMITED
(PPL)
 Important organization formed by Mian Iftikhar
Uddin, a former member of a communist party of
India, to publish newspapers from different places
to spread the message of Muslim League and to
support the Pakistan Movement

PROGRESSIVE PAPERS LIMITED
(PPL)
 The intellectuals in PPL were mostly those that took
part in Progressive Writers Movement (1936).
 It is the only organization in the history of Pakistan
that gathered such a huge number of laureates and
intellectuals under its roof.

 After joining American Block the first newspapers
and publications that were targeted by the
government were PPL’s publications.
 In 1953 Communist Party was banned.
 From 1947-53 almost 58 magazines and books
were banned by the establishment and removed
from the market.

 On October 7, 1958, President Sikander Mirza
abolished the Constitution and declared Martial Law
in the country.
 This was the first military regime.
 The parliamentary system in Pakistan came to end.
 Within three weeks of assuming charge on October
27, 1958, Sikander Mirza was ousted by General
Ayub Khan, the then Commander-In-Chief of armed
forces, who then declared himself President.

 Ayub Khan within the first week of his coup
imprisoned:
o Syed Sibt-e-Hassan, editor of weekly Lail-o-Nihar,
o Ahmed Nadim Qasmi, editor of Amrooz,
o Faiz Ahmed Faiz, editor of Pakistan Times
o Journalists who worked for Progressive Papers
Limited (PPL)

PRESS AND PUBLICATIONS
ORDINANCE (PPO)
 In 1961 Press and Publications Ordinance was
formed and enforced to keep the newspapers under
government’s control.
 It was a black law, completely boycotted by media
organizations and journalists.
 Covering 30 pages, it dealt with printing presses,
newspapers, periodicals, books and other
publications.

ORDINANCE (PPO)
 Government had been empowered to ask for
security deposits from printing presses for
publishing newspapers or books as well as for
issuing objectionable material as defined by the
ordinance.
 Security deposits ranging from Rs500 to Rs10,000
could be demanded from printing presses.
 Appeals against such action would lie with a
Special Bench of the High Court.

ORDINANCE (PPO)
 The government had also been empowered, in certain
cases, to prohibit the printing presses from publishing
books or newspapers.
 Under the new rules, before obtaining a declaration, a
publisher would have to show that he had the financial
resources required for regularly publishing a newspaper.
 Editor was required to possess reasonable educational
qualifications or satisfactory experience in journalism.
 A publisher proceeding abroad for more than three
months was to
 name a person who was to take over his responsibility.
The nominee was to give a written undertaking to that
effect.

NATIONAL PRESS TRUST (NPT)
 In 1964, National Press Trust was established and
all the PPL
 papers were given to this monster.
 NPT had right to take over any such newspaper,
magazine which is apparently financially not able to
run the newspaper or is dangerous to country’s
security.
 Apparently it was an independent body but actually
it was state-controlled.

 PPL’s publications Daily Mashriq was also handed
over to NPT, Sindhi paper Hilal-e-Pakistan was
also taken over, Morning News which was being
published since 1936 first from Calcutta and after
partition from Karachi and Dhaka was also taken
over.
 Some Bengali newspapers were also taken over by
NPT.
 Dawn, Jung, Nawa-e-Waqt were the only papers
that were not taken in government’s custody but
they still had a tough time in Ayub’s time as they
were not liked by government

 Another harsh action taken against press by Ayub’s
government was the condition imposed on
international news agencies that they cannot
directly send news to their subscribers in Pakistan.
 They were asked to send their news via APP or
PPI. This action was taken to restrict the news and
information coming from international media to
reach the Pakistanis.

 In March 1969 second Marshal Law was enforced
in Pakistan by General Yahya Khan.
 In his regime, press was given complete freedom
and a suspension was put on PPO that it cannot be
used against press any further.

 Although freedom of press was enjoyed by the
media and newspapers yet General Yahya’s period
is not considered as a flourishing period of
journalism as in this period no ethics were observed
by the newspapers, with an exception to few
reputable papers.
 Many dummy papers were invigorated, free
insulting and even abusive language was being
used.

 In this period certain actions were taken against
journalists.
 First target was again PPL, 24 journalists were
fired from Amroz, Pakistan Times & Lail-o-Nihar.
 These fired journalists formed Journalist United
and revived a dummy paper Azad.

 A rebellion case was filed against the editorial
board of Azad in the Marshal Law court as they
were favoring the Majority Party that won the
election.
 This action made it clear that even in General
Yahya’s government freedom was restricted.

 In 1971 crisis, journalists and newspapers were
under strict observation and no journalist or
newspaper was permitted to write about situation in
East Pakistan, to keep the people blind of the
situation.
 People’s right to know was an unacceptable thing
to the government.

 Later, nation’s anger over country’s humiliating
defeat by India boiled into street demonstrations
throughout the country.
 To forestall further unrest, General Yahya hastily
surrendered his powers to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of
Pakistan People’s Party.

 After Dhaka fall, media played a great role in re-
boasting nation’s morale that were very
disappointed over country’s division into two parts
and brought them back to the real life.
 Draconian law, PPO was revived again and used
against the press by the new government.
 Weekly Outlook and Punjab Punch were closed
down using this ordinance despite the fact that
Punjab punch and outlook were among those
papers that supported PPP in election.

PRESS AND GOVERNMENT
1977- TILL MUSHARRAF ERA
 General Zia-ul-Haq came to power by overthrowing
Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, after widespread
civil disorder, in a military takeover on July 5, 1977
and imposed Martial Law.
 He assumed the post of President of Pakistan in
1978 which he held till his death on August 17,
1988.

 18 magazines and newspapers were closed down.
 almost 150 journalists were arrested and given
different punishments by the Marshal Law courts in
this period.
 Moreover, no newspaper could publish anything
without prior approval from the Information
department.

 Till 1988 these restrictions continued. In 1988,
General Zia-ul- Haq died in a planned aircraft
crash.
 After that the new caretaker government abolished
PPO and introduced a new and a better ordinance
Registration of Printing Press and Publications
Ordinance (RPPPO).
 RPPPO was a sigh of relief for the journalists and
newspapers.
 Since then press is comparatively enjoying and
working in a better environment and did not have a
major clash with the government.

In Pakistan three major organizations have been
formed to secure the journalists’, newspapers’ and
editors’ rights.
 All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS)
 Council of Pakistan Newspaper’s Editors (CPNE)
 Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ)

ALL PAKISTAN NEWSPAPERS SOCIETY (APNS)
 All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) is the
organization of the Pakistani newspapers’ owners.
 three major groups of newspapers are the major
players of APNS that are:
o Jang Group
o Dawn Group
o Nawa-i- Waqt Group.

 Its founders were:
o Hamid Nizami
o Altaf Hussain
 It was founded in 1953 by the major, pioneering
editors and publishers of the day to facilitate the
exchange of views between the editors of the major
publications of Pakistan and to protect the rights of
newspapers by giving them a voice to appeal unfair
decisions against them.

COUNCIL OF PAKISTAN NEWSPAPER’S EDITORS
(CPNE)
 In 1955, the Council of Pakistan Newspaper’s
Editors (CPNE) was established as a
representative body of the editors of the
publications of Pakistan. Both the CPNE and the
APNS struggled against black press laws that
trampled over the freedom of the press.

PAKISTAN FEDERAL UNION OF JOURNALISTS
(PFUJ)
 Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) is
located in Islamabad, Pakistan.
 PFUJ is arguably South Asia’s first association
representing the journalists of an entire country.
 PFUJ has always stood on the demand that the
government should first abolish the black laws
against press and after that talk about the code of
ethics.

 It was just in 1997-99 Nawaz Sharif’s government
had some problems with the Jang Group of
Newspapers.
 On 12th October, 1999 General Musharraf took
over but no new law or additional restrictions were
imposed on the press rather Musharraf’s
government appreciated the private sector and
gave them a chance to invest more in electronic
media which resulted into many new radio and TV
channels.

PAKISTAN ELECTRONIC MEDIA
REGULATORY AUTHORITY (PEMRA)
 PEMRA was formed in march 01, 2002 during
president Musharraf’s regime.
 The authority is responsible for facilitating and
regulating the establishment and operation of all
private broadcast media and distribution services in
Pakistan.

 In 2014, Jang Group of Newspapers had to face a
lot of restrictions and even the solitude in media
sphere; when a senior journalist of the organization,
Hamid Mir was attacked and the media
organization blamed the country’s intelligence
agency for it.
 Besides that, there is no strict rule to punish or
imprison the journalists in the going age.

Development of press and regimes and state relations

More Related Content

What's hot (20)

Similar to Development of press and regimes and state relations (20)

More from Zarmeen Durrani (16)

Recently uploaded (20)

Development of press and regimes and state relations