ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Information, Broadcasting, National History and Literary Heritage Marriyum Aurangzeb while co-chairing a boardroom discussion titled ” Information and Entertainment Systems Stewards Meeting” at Devos on Thursday said that as Pakistan was at the cusp of history to complete uninterrupted democracy for a decade for the first time, the media which enjoyed freedom of expression and access to information, had a role in removing the ambience of mistrust in the country and transform it into an abiding hope and confidence and reinforcing democracy.
She said that democracy was well on its way to entrench itself and there was a permeating view in the country that the existing fault lines in the Pakistani politics would be gradually eliminated with the support of an independent media.
The minister said that ensuring freedom of expression and allowing free flow of information was one of the top priorities of the ruling party Pakistan Muslim League (N) and since assuming power in 2013 it has made strenuous efforts in this regard.
She said that Pakistan was currently in the process of implementation of CPEC and the role of information in safeguarding the news about it and ensuring regional prosperity could not be overemphasized. She said, “Pakistan has joined the club of countries who have formally done legislation on free flow of information by adopting Access to Information Bill in the recent past that was the result of a prolonged consultation process with the media representative bodies and other stakeholders,” the minister said. The minister said as far as the freedom of expression and free flow of information was concerned Pakistan was faithfully adhering to Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Declaration of Fundamental Principles adopted by UNESCO on November 28, 1978 for the promotion of fundamental human rights including the Freedom of Express designed to establish a New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) besides other international conventions.
With a view to creating an enabling and secure working environment for the journalists, she said, the government was also in the process of promulgating a law for the security and welfare of the journalists by seeking input from the journalist community. While striving to create a congenial atmosphere for the media to play its desired role, Marriyum Aurangzeb said Pakistan was also fighting a perception war regarding its image at the global level tarnished by the phenomenon of terrorism in our region and to some extent biased and out of context reporting by the international media glossing over the successes that Pakistan has achieved in the war against terrorism and the sacrifices rendered to accomplish the objective.
She said apart from media offensive to portray the true image of the country, efforts are also underway for the revival of culture, national heritage and film industry which are considered essential ingredients for projecting the real and soft image of the country and changing the existing perceptions. We are also promoting screen tourism with a view to fight perceptions and unfurling realities.
A film policy for the revival of the film industry will soon be announced by the government, she said adding that the first ever cultural policy is also in the offing. She added that Pakistan is trying to rediscover its original narrative through sports and revival of entertainment Industry. She said that Pakistan was according top priority to the education and training of youth as they constitute majority population of the country.
The minister said that since 2002, there has been an exponential and qualitative change in the media landscape of the country when the monopoly of the government on the electronic media was culminated and private sector was allowed to set up TV and Radio channels besides allowing cross-media ownership.
The development of the digital technology has broadened the scope of communication outlets and revolutionized the media industry, she noted.
Published in Daily Times, January 26th 2018.
