Pak civil-military nexus to make Indian, foreign media obey its orders

Islamabad, Jul 1 (ANI): The Pakistan Government has thrashed out "policy guidelines" for media organisations reporting in the country, in order to dilute and ultimately sideline the Indian and foreign media.

Federal Information Secretary Sohail Mansoor has slated a meeting of an unheard of "media coordination committee on defence planning" to discuss formulation of guidelines and preparing standard operating procedure for grant of permission to foreign media for reporting and making documentaries.

The meeting is also supposed to "suggest measures for dilution and ultimate elimination of Indian media infiltration in the country".

The agenda of the meeting, shows that the 14-member all-bureaucrat committee will deliberate on proposals given in the "working papers" by the ministry of foreign affairs, the information ministry, the Army's Joint Staff Headquarters (JSHQs) and the cabinet division, The Dawn reports.

Information Secretary Sohail Mansoor confirmed that he had convened the meeting of the coordination committee, as he was its head. He, however, refrained from discussing the agenda and the composition of the committee.

Mansoor said that he had only convened the meeting when he came to know about the existence of such a committee. "Either we should work in accordance with the functions of the committee or dissolve it," The Dawn quoted him, as saying.

The Pakistani foreign ministry is unhappy with the role of private media in the country as it states in its working paper that "no private media does so much damage to their own country, as in our case. Pakistan remains a victim of hostility in global media and cynicism, negativism and emotionalism promoted by our own private print and electronic media networks."

The foreign ministry has suggested that "in order to secure the core national security interests, our media strategy should encompass a balance between political and economic reporting, positive and negative news, emotionalism and objectivity, freedom and responsibility". (ANI)