By Justice Markandey Katju
The mainstream media in Pakistan is almost entirely silent about the reign of terror unleashed by the Pak army and police, abetted by the corrupt PDM leaders.
The media owners, who have many businesses other than running their newspapers and TV channels, which naturally they would like to protect, were reportedly summoned a few days back by the DGI/DG ISPR and told to toe the line of the Establishment, and never mention the name of former Prime Minister Imran Khan. They have readily complied.
But what about the so called ‘liberal’ and ‘independent’ social media ? Other than a few brave journalists like Moeed Pirzada, Sami Ibrahim, etc who run their Youtube channels, they too have meekly surrendered.
A typical example are the portals nayadaur.tv and thefridaytimes.com, run by Raza Rumi and his sidekicks like Mehr Husayn.
A careful perusal of these portals reveal their character. While from time to time they post some items purporting to show their ‘independence’, they never condemn the fascist reign of terror unleashed by the Pakistan Establishment, the thousands of arrests by dragging people from their houses, beatings, torture, and even killing and ‘disappearing’, military tribunals set up to dispense kangaroo justice, Supreme Court order fixing the date for the Punjab elections flouted with impunity, muzzling of most of the media, and other atrocities and illegalities.
I had earlier written articles about Raza Rumi and Mehr Husayn who masquerade as journalists.
But their wishy washy approach and non condemnation of the terrible atrocities being perpetrated on the people of Pakistan and gross violation of human rights, expose their professed and much flaunted ‘liberalism’ and ‘independence’.
The ‘liberal’ and ‘independent’ Pakistani media is not so liberal and independent after all, and its ‘liberalism’ and ‘independence’ is just a fig leaf for its cowardly surrender to the Establishment.
