The 152nd radio program as part of the Center for Research and Security Studies’ (CRSS) counter-radicalization initiative Ulasi Taroon (Social Cohesion) aired on the subject theme.
The program emphasized the need to responsibly exercise the constitutional rights and freedoms as it can impact the overall state of peace and harmony in the society.
The first guest on show, Assistant Prof. Bakht Zaman Yousufzai from Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Peshawar, noted that the Article 19 of the Constitution of Pakistan empowers every citizen with the right to freedom of speech, freedom of expression and freedom of the Press, albeit these rights are subject to reasonable restrictions and come with responsibilities; not to use them to violate others’ rights or to jeopardize the security or defense of the country.
Unlike conventional media, the new media has widened the scope, role and responsibility of media more than ever particularly because of its massive outreach. The expansion in its followership and footprint across wider population makes sensible and conflict conscious media programming much more critical to achieve social cohesion. Especially during the last decade or so, the media has strongly emerged as the fourth pillar of the state, both in Pakistan and around the globe. This can be attributed to different factors but most importantly, due to its capability to inform and educate the society, highlighting the issues of social concern, and supporting the first three pillars of the state by providing them valuable information that they need to improve public service delivery.
The social media has proved to be a game changer component of media and has heightened its scope to a whole new level. It has enabled even the individual members of the society to play the role of and act as media by posting publicly viewable content. While it empowers the citizens, it means a huge individual responsibility for sensible usage and adhering to community guidelines. The individual users should make the most of its potential, use it to strengthen accountability mechanisms in the society and highlight and deliberate the issues key to social cohesion.
It is among the fundamental ethics and standards of journalism to verify the news from credible sources before publishing and disseminating it for public notices, just as a matter of media credibility. There is a huge onus on the media organizations as well as social media users to use the potential of its different mediums to connect and unite the society.
The second guest on show, Ms. Farzana Ali, Bureau Chief, Aaj News, Peshawar, said that media serves as eyes, ears and tongue of a democracy and has a watchdog role in every democratic state that helps in – including but not limited to – accountable governance and public service delivery, rule of law, and social peace and harmony. In regard, it is really important to promote investigative journalism, participatory and demand oriented and community focused media programming.
Access to information is also key to investigative journalism and to nurture the media industry besides citizens’ empowerment. Media can play a very important role to educate citizens about their democratic rights and responsibilities that each one of them is equally entitled to. While it is important to cover and highlight political developments, media should give due coverage to the social issues, and finally there is no room for media to be biased.
About Ulasi Taroon
Ulasi Taroon is a counter radicalization initiative of Center for Research and Security Studies that aims to address the radicalization challenges, extremist ideologies and foster social cohesion through a discourse anchored in the core constitutional values which are fundamentally essential prerequisites for social peace and harmony. The endeavor aims to cultivate and sensitize the people of KP in the core values in the Pakistani constitution and our social contract. It’s an attempt to highlight the criticality of abiding by these ideals – such as adherence to rule of law, primacy and sanctity of constitution, equal citizenry, responsible citizenship, respect for fundamental human rights, tolerance for diversity and different opinions, inclusive democracy and good governance – as a measure of strengthening social cohesion and promoting peaceful co-existence.