The independence of news television in this country has been a landmark struggle unparalleled in the history of global news. Many who run the networks now were torchbearers in that iconic struggle against a state bent on treating the audio-visual medium like its private advertising agency. But, with honourable exceptions, just as many of the leading foot soldiers of the freedom struggle against the British turned into power-hungry politicians when they attained power, we are now discovering that many of our TV luminaries do indeed have feet of clay. In a country, where live news on private radio is still banned, television must remember where it came from and be true to its mission.

This is the greatest danger of it all. If the indications from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting are true, then we are already seeing the first whiff of a counter-reaction. The proposal to provide only edited and pre-censored footage of emergency situations is preposterous — a case of cutting your nose to spite your face. It must be opposed by all those who believe in the institution of the free press and, as expected, television editors have reacted strongly. But this also gives a moment to pause and consider how much of this counter-reaction is a result of their own impetuosity. Surely at a time like this, the lessons of history must inform us and not the weekly tyranny of television ratings.

A short postscript: Revisionist American naval historians concluded by the 1970s that the USS Maine probably sank from internal explosion caused by the combustion of coal kept next to an ammunition magazine. There may be no such smoking gun reprieve for Pakistan in the current case, but we can surely learn from the lessons of the Maine and the discourses that surrounded it.

... contd.