A Free Press Is The Key To Democracy

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It was 18 years ago this month that the dictatorship of Gen. Zia-ul-Haq began its notorious crackdown on the Pakistani press. Four Pakistani journalists were tied to a rack and lashed with a whip. Their crime? Thinking independently and refusing to publish the "official" government story.

The general knew what has been made clear to us time and again in recent history: The key to maintaining a stranglehold on power is muzzling the press. Control the information, and you control the minds of the people.

Zia-ul-Haq moved quickly to crack down on his opponents and critics. The unnatural silence that followed could then be claimed as implicit "support" for his regime — proof that he had a consensus behind his illegal rule.

For it is in the din of the free press that democracy is born. It's in the clash of ideas and the confrontation of how to deal with issues that debate takes place, the public can be informed and the leaders made accountable in a fair and free general elections.

By choking off the free flow of information, authoritarian regimes such as Zia-ul- Haq's bend the press to their will. Oppression is projected as social justice. Stagnation is reported as dynamism. And voices of dissent representing sanity are misrepresented as discordant notes from "enemy agents."

Soon after his crackdown, the general no longer had to resort to the whip as his only means of control. Through martial law and regulations enforced by the threat of imprisonment, censorship was imposed. At first, it was in the form of news items excised from newspapers, leaving only blank space in their place. Since empty pages were suspicious, however, the regime imposed a ban on all blank spaces — and then prohibited newspapers from informing the public of this new rule.

Finally, a press advisory system was put in place. Publications were "advised" on what not to print (for a time, this included my family name).

They were also "advised" to print whatever was sent to them. This system deteriorated to the extent that government officials directly called news desks with orders on what to publish and under what headline, bypassing editors entirely.

But many brave members of press did not bend to these threats and impositions. Human destiny is shaped by the few who dare to challenge an unjust order when others are frightened into silence. Human destiny is changed when a few dedicate their lives selflessly to an ideal larger than themselves. Human destiny is affected by ordinary men and women who develop a character of iron in extraordinary circumstances.

The more unjust a situation, the greater the anger. The greater the anger, the greater the passion. The greater the passion, the greater the determination. And it was this determination that finally rolled back the dictatorship and led to a renaissance of the free press in our country. It is an irony of fate that injustice often incites the greatest human creativity.

Today, visitors to Pakistan can contrast the current freedom of the press with the humiliation that was heaped upon the media not too long ago. They can watch as those who kept silent in those days of terror are free to publish what they will, whether it's fair or unfair criticism, just or unjust accusation.

But this highlights one of the dangers that can arise in this exuberance of new liberty: Some journalists are not acutely aware of the inseparability of freedom and responsibility. Some overlook their basic responsibility of checking, rechecking and once again checking their information until solid facts are sifted from rumors.

A baseless report, for example, recently caused panic on our stock exchange, before the truth was known. And those who lost millions turned their fury on the government, which they accused of lacking the will to govern.

Instances like these challenge any government that is nurturing the sapling of democracy. A tabloid's screaming headlines on a baseless story can cause considerable damage before the wrong information is corrected.

This, however, is no excuse for the intolerance some public officials have for the press. While the reporters talking to them are required to observe a modicum of decency, politicians cannot make an awkward question a justification to slap the offending reporter.

Following a long bout of authoritarianism that bred an elitist culture, some of the press and some public figures need time to discover the new rules of the game. And journalists pay the heaviest price until democracy's roots go deep enough for everyone to recognize the people's right to know all that affects their lives.

No democracy is possible without the free flow of information. It is when the people are kept in the dark that the greatest travesties in our world have occurred. It is when journalists are whipped for telling the truth that we are in the greatest danger.

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