In the last few decades, the issue of development emerged as one of the most debatable questions in South Asia. The states and societies in this part of the world never disputed development. In fact they badly needed to develop their own social and political structures after liberation from the colonial rule. What made the issue controversial was the difference in interpreting the term. It was felt that the concept of development should not be reduced to material connotations only, it should also include social and political awareness of the masses so as to enable them make their own decisions.

To create awareness in a society which constitutes an overstated literate population of 34 per cent, according to official statistics, a sound information infrastructure is indispensable. Whether the prevailing oligopoly in media industry can deliver the goods in a closed society where access to information is discouraged, invokes serious thought. The intensifying relations of Pakistan and India, which lead to tests of deadly nuclear devices on both sides, have already posed serious threat to the regional peace. While both the nations are ranked very low among the developing countries, the high military expenditures in the name of national security have slowed down the development pace almost to a dead halt.

Viewing the media, peace and development issues as integrated and relevant to each other, Journalists Resource Centre (JRC), in collaboration with Punjab Union of Journalists and Press Club held a three day South Asian dialogue on Media, Peace and Development in Nisar Osmani Auditorium, Press Club on May 22-24, 1999. The dialogue aimed to share the experiences of South Asian countries pertaining to role of media in peace and development. 

About 200 Journalists and intellectuals from all over the country and also delegates from Sri Lanka actively participated in the dialogue and gave useful input for further contemplation and action.

The discussion pattern of the dialogue was different from the typical seminars in which a consensus is developed before starting a debate. The rectangular sitting arrangement ensured maximum participation of all the individuals present. The resource person, an expert on the issue under discussion, spoke on the issue and facilitated the participants with the background and important dimensions. The participants raised questions issue or commented about the issue.

Executive Director Journalists Resource Centre, Mohammad Tanveer, commenced the inaugural session. While Chairman Board of Governors JRC Rashed Rahman welcomed the participants and initiated the dialogue. 

Describing the scope of the dialogue Rashed Rahman said that it was imperative to discuss issues concerning media owing to the hostile attitude of the government towards the press. Highlighting the prevailing security threat to the South Asian region after the nuclear tests conducted by India and Pakistan within two weeks, he criticised the arm-race in subcontinent, which has shifted the priorities of both the governments from peaceful development to the misfortunes of war. He said without drastic economic reforms in agrarian and industrial sectors along with keen emphasis on human development things could not get better for the people.

Challenges of development

The development challenges facing the country cannot be met unless there are changes in the notions of power and security, said Dr. Akmal Hussain, a renowned economic expert, while discussing his paper on poverty, growth and governance in the first session of the dialogue, Development Challenges to He viewed it as the failure of the ruling elite and not of the state itself, if majority of the people found no access to the basic facilities. He emphasised that danger and insecurity was not to come from across the border but it might erupt out of deprived people. He said it was high time for us to stop demonising each other and take measures to ensure citizens' security by resolving their problems, instead of over-emphasising on the traditional notions of national security. 

Citing the cultural perspective of the region he said people conceive power as an ability to do for the people, however, the governance perspective of power is about control. Instead of focussing on what can be done for the people, governments emphasise on what can be done to the people, he opined. 

He maintained that in economic terms Pakistan has a reasonably high growth rate but still more than 30 per cent of its inhabitants live below the poverty line. Criticising the growth models propounded by the west, he said that these structures have intrinsic flaws, which restrain any capacity to erode poverty. He viewed the distribution of the productive assets as highly concentrated and said that the skewness in ownership of assets has resulted in lesser productivity and growth rate. The land reforms in agrarian sector form only a part of the solution: the government should formulate policies to provide leverage to the new generation in terms of finances and training, in both the industrial and agrarian sector, he added.

To further increase growth, he said, the industry has to shift from low-value added to high-value added domains. He pointed out that the low value added sectors earned less income and consequently, the workers were paid lesser wages. He also mentioned the low skill level of the labour force as another important factor that hampers economic growth.

Stressing on the importance of South Asian peace, he said that India was the 142nd country in terms of per capita income and the largest importer of weapons, whereas, Pakistan ranked 119th in per capita income, was 10th among the largest ammunition importers. The expenditure on defense is decreasing all over the world but in case of India and Pakistan, the military expenditure is increasing per cent a year. The magnitude of sacrifice by the people is immense as by saving one year of military expenditure, 238 million children can be provided primary education; 400 million people can be provided access to clean water; and, 234 millions can be provided with essential medicines, Dr Akmal Hussain informed the house.

The second paper focussed on NGOs and scope of social change in Dr Arshad Waheed, an expert in social policy & planning, talked at length about the aspirations and achievements of the non-governmental organisations in the past couple of decades. While challenging the role of NGOs as the agency of social change and the sole representative of civil society, he said that such claims of the NGOs seemed unrealistic when analysed objectively. He said it was still questionable as to who determines the agenda on which the non-governmental organisations have to operate. He said the most of the proposals are written in the required jargon to meet the desires of the donors rather than focussing on real issues confronting the society.

Pointing out the lacunas that prevail in the approach of the NGOs, he said that the activities of the NGOs were mostly adhoc and randomly issue focussed. He also criticised the NGOs for not giving serious considerations to tap local resources and enhancement of voluntarism. Substantiating his argument on diversion of the NGOs from the core issues, he said that none of the NGO had ever touched the issues of structural violence in class contradictions, poverty and growth. He mentioned that where the NGOs have posed resistance against oppressive all-powerful state, they have not chalked out any plan to fight out the cruel monopoly of market economy. He strongly recommended bridging of the gap between the NGOs and the political parties, if the former were to look for a social change.

Madhavi Aribandhu, Co-ordinator South Asian Network of Disaster Mitigation and an expert working with Intermediate Technology Development Group in Sri Lanka, stressed that the development models provided by the West were not appropriate for the South. 

The South has been facing problems that were much different in nature and magnitude from those experienced in the West. The western models focussed primarily on the development of the urban centres; consequently such a development would only result in social, economic and cultural disparity within developing societies, she added.

She said the development challenges in the South could be countered only by using appropriate technology, which can be determined through skill levels of the people, infrastructure and dynamics of economy. The usage of indigenous resources would greatly help in reaching the goal of development.

Sunethre, speaking on the dynamics of alternative culture, said that the only way to remove cultural disparity was to acknowledge the fact that we lived in a multi-cultured society. She questioned the cultural totems on which people act rigidly to defy others.

State and media in Pakistan

Renowned journalist, Mr I A Rehman, addressed the first session on the second day of the dialogue. Discussing at length the topic, State and Media relations, Mr I A Rehman said today's state is more vulnerable than that of 1947. State then had a consensus and the problems facing it were evident, but presently, neither the state has a consensus nor its problems can be termed as objective ones.

He viewed that media strengthens a democratic state and free media can only be ensured by a stable state. Tracing back the history, he said our state had always remained vulnerable since independence. Our state systems are inherited from a colonial administration, which do not support freedom of press. They are still being practised, as the law of the land and those laws, by no means, ensure a free society. He said that freedom of press was in fact a reflection of people's desire for freedom.

Elaborating on the history of mass media he said that the preliminary forms of media were either government gazettes which described the achievements of the government, or those established by freedom aspirants. Since the inception of mass media each and every government tried to harness the press. 

Mr Rehman was of the opinion that a democratic debate was not considered in favour of the state and the role of the press media was connoted more like an enemy of the party in rule. The phenomenon of governmental oppression on the freedom of press was not new; newspapers came under fire a few weeks after independence, he added. 

Discussing the tactics of the rulers to tame down the press, he said that there are innumerable precedents in which rulers brought out their own papers and news agencies; bought out the exiting newspapers; or, sealed them down. During the martial law regimes many papers were banned in East Late dictator General Ziaul Haq created differences among journalist organisations that were opposing his dictatorial regime and awarded his own men. He said that the course of action had changed now, as there are no more parallel organisations to cause problems for the genuine representatives of the community, the differences are created from among the organisation, instead.

He said the worsening of the state-media relations would be evident when we compare the number of strikes called by journalists from 1963 to 1976 and those called afterwards. Terming the present situation as a ridiculous one, he said that the government changes but its working manual remains the same. The successive government made ordinances that curbed the press freedom. Mentioning the 1963's Press and Publications Ordinance (PPO), he said that the only change was the replacement of PPO with Registration of Press and Publications Ordinance (RPPO) in 1988, in which declaration was granted impromptu three months after submitting declaration before the DC office. He said the purpose of declaration, even in the colonial administration, was not of a license, but only to inform the administration about the address and name of the publication. 

Talking about the Freedom Information Act, he said the freedom of expression includes all sorts of freedom for citizens. In the presence of freedom of expression there is no need to talk separately about the information acts or press freedom. He quoted the example of Indian constitution where there is no separate clause about the freedom of press. To recompense the early injustice with the press, the 1973 constitution clearly laid down the freedom of expression and freedom of press separately. He said country's renowned constitutional expert Fakharuddin G Ibrahim gave a proposal regarding the freedom of information act but that was later on misinterpreted by the elected government. The code of ethics propounded by the government does not vary much from that given by General Ayub Khan, he observed. 

He said the Press Council suggested by the government has seven members out of which none is a professional journalist. This attitude of the government only reflects contempt towards public opinion. Press freedom is not an absolute end; it is a mean for better democratic culture. He said the journalists should struggle after mustering support from the people to ensure their freedom. It should also be looked into whether the freedom of press has caused more damage to the country or absence of such freedom, he concluded.

Responding to questions about the non-payment of salaries, government regulations, code of ethics, he said that these issues are prevailing due to the weaknesses of the journalist community.

Mr Khawar Mehdi, a journalist from Islamabad, argued that the state did not damage the press as much as did the pressmen themselves. He quoted the examples of journalists who had joined hands with the state and despite the damage they have caused to the press freedom movement, they are still recognised as journalists.
Many other journalists participating in the dialogue questioned the active participation of journalists when big shots of journalism enter into a conflict with the government, while the journalists working in regional centres find no support from the big guns in times of trouble.

Afterwards, President Press Club, Mr Saqlain Imam discussed his paper on the issue. He said that the danger to the state lies not in press freedom but it is from the corrupt classes and multi-national companies. Also, the press freedom could not be isolated from the other civil liberties. Viewing the shortcomings of the existing laws, he said as many as 30 colonial acts were still prevailing even fifty years after independence. He said only 15 per cent journalists were getting their salaries in accordance with the wage award while others get less or no salary at all.

Social role of media

Professor Mehdi Hasan, an academician and expert on mass communications, addressing the second session on social role of media, said that creating awareness about the rights of the people had never been considered favourable by the government. He said the constitutional protection was not for the majority but to provide relief to the social and political minorities. 

Discussing the problems in media profession he mentioned one of his researches in which it was found out that 97.6 per cent of the news published in newspapers is based on statements. He said the columns published in newspapers are not for people's education, rather they are aimed at self-projection of the author. 

Furthermore, most of the column writers do not get paid rather they pay the newspapers for getting their columns published.

He said it was the responsibility of the journalists unions to build the professional capacity of the journalists and if the journalists are less skilled, the state and newspaper owners could not be blamed for that. Referring to the role of state-owned electronic media, he said that according to another research it was found out that the news mentioned the name and the designation of the Prime Minister 53 times per day on average. The much talked about social responsibility of the press was to be determined by the press itself, he maintained. 

Prof. Hasan said that Britain has complete freedom of press and in America there is no censor board even for the commercial films. He mentioned the incident when some private photographs of Sarah Ferguson were published in Daily Sun and the paper proudly wrote that these photographs cost them five years and 1.5 million pounds. Times London while commenting on it in one of its editorial maintained that they would not have published those photographs even if they had found them free of cost. He said that there is a universal code of ethics, which every journalist has to follow. The matter, which should not be published, includes photographs of mutilated dead bodies, rape details and private beliefs, he added. 

Elaborating on the role of specialised education of journalism, he said that the journalists need proper training to develop their skills so that the newspaper owners may treat them as true professionals and pay them more salary. He also said the people sitting in Islamabad could not solve problems facing the people in Karachi. Invoking Quaid-e-Azam he added that the founder of Pakistan never labelled his political opponents as traitors, while successive governments have been abusing the terms of 'national interests'. 

Aziz Mazhar, Editor Reporting daily Pakistan, speaking on neglected issues in media, said that one should not confuse media-government relations with media-state relations. He pointed out some of the areas to which the journalists were completely oblivious. These included issues of the rural areas, women, child rights, health and the problems in neglected regions of

Peace and conflict in South Asia

The third day of the dialogue was initiated by Editor Foreign Desk Daily Jang, Mr Azad Kausary. While reading out his paper on the roots of cultural conflict in South Asia, senior journalist Azad Kausri said that religious, class, ethnic and national identities of the South Asian region all should be recognized. When someone tries to counterpoise one against the other, it will create conflicts, both cultural and political, he added.

Amjad Bhatti, a journalist from Islamabad, while discussing conflict resolution in South Asia said that peace could not be seen in isolation with the economic situation in Citing examples of violence in Karachi and Jhang, he said that they rose out of economic deprivation rather than ethnic and sectarian issues. He refuted the idea that identity issue was the conflict cause rather the conflict lied in the interpretation. He said there were precedents when different identities co-existed peacefully but violence started when any of the groups feared seclusion from the rest of the society. He said that quite paradoxically, development strategies designed by the Harvard Group in the sixties increased economic disparity and paved way for further violence in He emphasized that peace should not be dealt with ethics-orientation, it should be viewed with a structural orientation instead. He said social polarization of groups, a centralized political system and misleading economic indicators to evaluate development also caused a lot of problems to the regional peace. He said that time and again it had been proven that intervention of the state necessarily aggravated conflicts instead of resolving them. He suggested a third track diplomacy between Pakistan and India to ensure participation of the people in creating peace in the region. Currently, professional and upper middle classes are involved in the process. The peace should be viewed from a local perspective, he concluded.

Combating sectarian violence:

peace strategies

Omar Asghar Khan, addressing the last working session of the dialogue, discussed the national priorities regarding peace and development. He said Pakistan had to allocate more than 7 or 8 per cent of the GNP to create a military balance. When we compare these figures with that of the social development, we find that only 0.6 per cent of the GNP is spent on social development, he added. 

Stressing on the need for social development Omar Asghar said that if the social sector were not developed, people would inflict violence upon themselves. He said the recent suicide incidents were a reflection of the misery faced by people. Instead of taking any concrete measures for the solution of the problems, the government stopped the press from commenting on the situation. The government tends to mistrust the components of society may it be press or non-governmental organization, he added.

He said that until we integrate our peace movement with the issues of social justice and concentration of wealth, it would not deliver in Pakistani society. Nevertheless, our political culture is becoming more and more militant and intolerant. We have peace alternatives to bring Pakistan out of crises but the state is shaping itself into a national security state, rather than what he called human security state. He cited that no parliamentary member was ready to oppose 'Yum-e-Takbeer' publicly when invited by him because they feared retaliation by the state agencies. He questioned the celebrations as a promotion of violent values and maintained that despite claims of democracy there was no tolerance on difference of opinion. He said alternatives and new ideas were considered to be treacherous by the state. India pushed us to test the nuclear bombs and we were trapped to do a blunder. We are celebrating on being a nuclear power while 2000 children die in Pakistan everyday, he added. 
He said militant Mafias are threatening the peace of our society, while the weak governments of South Asia are trying to divert people's attention from real issues of this region.

Beena Sarwar, Editor The News on Sunday, seconded Omar Asghar saying that these celebrations were merely for political interests. If we were compelled to do nuclear tests as hawks argue, then there is no justification left to sponsor such lavish celebrations, she said. She also told the house that the government has also directed newspapers not to report against celebrations. She urged the sections of society to join hands for a social movement against all sort of militancy within and abroad the country.

Khawer Mehdi informed the participants of his research that 5 million guerrilla youth from 24 fundamentalist groups, present especially in Punjab and the NWFP, are threatening to disrupt the fibre of Pakistani society. These organizations are also giving employment to these young people. These groups collect 75 percent of their money from indigenous resources, he informed.

Civil society should form a resistance coalition to counter the state oppression, proposed Rashed Rahman a senior journalist and Chairperson Journalists Resource Centre while concluding this three day dialogue said that state oppression was on the rise and social institutions were being forced to submit to the will of the state. He stressed on the need to hold more dialogues on the similar pattern to discuss issues of national importance.

Of course, this dialogue was a great initiative taken by Journalist Resource Centre that highlighted various issues to which mainstream journalists were somewhat oblivious before, or felt reluctant to talk. It goes to the credit of JRC and its partners - PUJ and LPC- that this dialogue was completed funded by local resources, which indeed is a precedent for the other non-governmental organisations to follow.
JRC also launched a book, Media-Government Relations: A collection of essays on Jang-government row 1999, on this occasion.