Illiteracy is a plague that has held back Pakistan from truly thriving in the global sphere. However, lack of education and literate professionals is less of an issue than censorship. Barring literary journals, magazines, books and other forms of press media is the determining factor in the developmental stagnancy of the country at large. The historical constitution of literature and its negative connotations all boil down to censorship. There is a dynamic play between cultural regulation and literary expression, the latter often being restricted by the former. Suppressing the true meaning of words and stigmatizing their context is a paradoxical pandemic that humanity has observed for years. During the digital age, censorship continues to play a role in the brutal repression of speech and opinions. The persecution of the art of writing, of words and sentences and phrases, it in itself attributed to the sovereign power of the violent nature of censorship. Its progression in today’s advanced world and how the formulations of censorship have evolved can still be seen at the heart of Pakistani literacy.
When we begin to trace the genealogy of literary censorship, we find ourselves all the way back in ancient Rome. Medieval religions and cultures often corrupted the written word by way of sedition, heresy charges, taking this all the way to theatre control and early copyright licensing. The breakthrough of the Enlightenment elaborated on the interdependence of such regulations and modernity, side by side. The crime itself was merely ‘radical content’, as we know it today. Labelling something as radical today on the internet is not dissimilar to earlier times, when trains of thought were institutionally penalized. The media in Pakistan is at the forefront of holding words in captivity for their crimes, essentially corroding their primary function from the outset.
Amidst this crisis of independence within literary spheres, the encroaching takeaway of the military continue to deter effective journalism and writing. Reporters and academics have resorted to self-censorship so they can stay on the good side of the Pakistan military, the most powerful institution in the country to date. In 2016, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) ran a report to assess these military pressures on print and other of media. Ostensibly, the crime of words was multifaceted, and self-censorship steadily became a norm for these professionals. After mass curtailing of reports and articles, external reasons were cited to be the cause. Unofficial government controls, the oligopolistic structure of newspaper ownership and a dented security system within legal rules are just a few examples of this non-accessibility to facts and information.
Pakistani journalists and reporters are not the only ones facing issues in regards to censorship and surveillance. The Pakistani government has taken to implement the most staggering rules on internet censorship in the world, primarily impacting global companies. Facebook, Google and Twitter were threatened with severe penalties if they failed to comply with these regulations, with the impending warning of shutting down these services altogether. However, the tech giants refused to give into these undue demands and banded together to leave seventy million internet users in the country. This would mean that Pakistani citizens would be confounded by a pre-digital age, shrouded in uncertainty. While this was being resolved by the Prime Minister, the turbulent relationship of the country with media freedom was coming to light. The leader of the nation comes from a strong military backing, making censorship a bigger problem than ever for internet users and professionals.
Journalists, writers and politicians have spoken to international media outlets to explain the fear that censorship instills and how it suppresses voices standing for civil liberties. There are claims that the situation is even worse than Zia’s dictatorship, which set back Pakistani media and print outlets by decades. Channels transmissions are threatened to be interrupted mid broadcast if the military finds anything financially unsecure at their own end, journalists and activists are picked up off the streets, forced into disappearances for raising their voices, and the legal system remains silent when the country faces censorship turmoil.
Even during the free reign of social media platforms and free speech, legal actions is being used unfairly to quiet matters down. The press faces court orders and threats from lawyers if they deign to speak upon matters that displeases the government. Journalists and activists who posts online content are accused of cybercrimes and agendas against the country, merely based on comments made in articles and blogposts. The government is permitted to take down online content or make it unreachable in order to stifle the dissent of the masses, especially when it comes to national issues. The content that is allowed to be posted on Facebook and Twitter is heavily curated, scrutinized and made conducive to the military and its preferred narrative. At the same time, free press is not facing the most welcoming climate. Even if there is a chance to bypass these strict rules and regulations, digital journalism is not recognized as ‘real’ and under this critical thought, it is not believed either.
Under the Citizens Protection (Against Online Harm) Rules, 2020, social media platforms are to block or remove any content that the government thinks is objectionable. Furthermore, any date or information acquired from these companies goes into the hands of these officials. They can monitor posts, mitigate their impact and report to national coordinators if anything seems amiss. While these are reportedly being implemented to protect the country from hate speech and violence, the strict enactment of the rules without public consultation seems to tell a different story altogether.
In Pakistan, censorship is still a pressing issue, even with internet giants threatening to abandon the digital sphere. For better or for worse, the free market remains and these censors may not fare as well in the new age of digital rights and freedoms, especially in the long run.
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