Ban: to what end?
IN April I was living in Islamabad, in a leafy neighbourhood I had moved to after a few months cooped up in the Red Zone. The talks were on and the city was full of foreign correspondents. We passed a coffee shop on our way out of town and half the café was press. What I remember is how much everybody loved Islamabad. On camera and off it. The hills, the food, the hospitality. Testimonials. The…
In April, the correspondent was enjoying Islamabad, a city known for its beauty and hospitality, but the situation changed dramatically in August. Foreign correspondents could no longer travel freely to cities outside Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi to produce stories without a No Objection Certificate from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Fake registration of fixers, freelancers, translators, and camera operators became mandatory. A weekend trip to Murree required permission, which might take three working days. Al Jazeera’s website remained inaccessible from Karachi, and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) refused to provide any explanation. The ministry claimed that the channel was selective in its reporting and that it misrepresented the elections in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
The government wanted to control the narrative and prevent any "yellow journalism." The ban on Al Jazeera was not a response to any specific provocation but rather a permanent measure to restrict access to information. The correspondent argues that such restrictions do not reduce scrutiny but instead create an impression that the state has something to hide.
The government spends resources on checking and controlling expensive, verifiable journalism while leaving the cheap, unverifiable kind untouched. As a result, uncheckable facts remain unaddressed, and the government cannot effectively refute them. The ban on Al Jazeera has not achieved its intended purpose, and the state's attempt to control the narrative has backfired, leaving the public with no alternative source of information.
Written by urgent.news from Dawn's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
