Media has undoubtedly become an integral part of the present day society. It would not be incorrect to pronounce that media is playing a vital role in the upbringing of the society as a whole; it is like a mirror. However, this segment of our society faces dozens of challenges. Media representatives have been facing some forms of violence. Like in Turkey, scores of journalists have been jailed and treated absurdly for representing information related to the government. More than 600 journalists have been killed so far over the past decade, and around 120 in 2012 alone.
The challenges faced by the media are not only physical, either it be pointless restrictions or cyber-crime, it is being tried to restrict the press from presenting facts regarding the society's corruption. The other predicament, which belongs to the long list of media's challenges are the restraints, such as licensing requirements or content review and subsequent fines for avoiding these particular steps. This is followed by the government's ability to withhold information by self-censorship in reaction to various pressures.
By no means, it could be said that our media is independent. It has in fact been nullified greatly by the years. The United Nations has got to play a positive role, as it mostly does, in making our media independent and supreme- giving it the right to deliver truth to everyone without fear. "A free press can, of course, be good or bad, but, most certainly without freedom, the press will never be anything but bad."-Albert Camus.
MUHAMMAD IBRAHIM TARIQ,
Lahore, July 24.