Imran Khan Government Lifts Political Censorship In State-Run Media

Pakistan’s newly elected Prime Minister, Imran Khan, commenced his work as the PM and as one of the first and welcome move, he ended the political censorship on the state run radio and television. Henceforth, Pakistan Television (PTV) and Radio Pakistan will be allowed to air shows without any political interference or discrimination.

In the election campaign of the newly formed government, one of the policies announced was to abolish the political censorship on the state run channels.

This news was announced by Fawad Chaudhary, the new Federal Minister for Information, Communications and National Heritage on his twitter handle.

Federal Minister tweeted:

As per vision of @ImranKhanPTI Ended political censorship on PTV, clear instructions issued for a complete editorial independence on PTV and Radio Pakistan, drastic changes ll be visible in Information Dept in coming 3 months Inshallah

— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) August 21, 2018

The minister aims to make the channel as independent as the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

During the former government’s (Pakistan Muslim League) tenure, there were cases where the opposition parties approached PTV to publish and report the views of the opposition, but due to the lack of independence of PTV there efforts were futile. The PML government also had promised to make PTV an independent channel, but failed to keep its promise as reported by The Express Tribune.

The Logical Indian’s take

The development in media technology around the world has made it a necessity for governments around the world to rely on the mass media as a strong medium of passing information across.
“He who pays the piper calls the tune” is a common statement in the media. The core principle of journalism is independence and the interest or interference of a third party like a political organisation defeats the sole purpose of the media.
The Logical Indian appreciates this move of the Imran Khan government and hopes that their efforts to make the media independent brings results.

Also Read: Imran Khan Wins Pakistan Elections, Wants To “Improve Ties With India”