A widely circulated email supposedly originating from the CEO of Pakistan’s leading daily Dawn, Hameed Haroon, talks about how the Pakistani administration infringes on the freedom of press. More details here and here.

Not that this was not known before. It was kind of like an open secret worthy of being given a royal ignore by the international media. Thankfully, now that the publisher has spilled the beans, the international media would probably talk about it. Although I’m not sure if that would change matters.

In this case I don’t see the Government as the devil. What’s unfortunate is that the Pakistani newspapers depend heavily on Government sponsored ads. Now, if you depend on a party for your finances, the latter is bound to exert its influence on you.

Instead of crying foul, Pakistani newspapers should find avenues for establishing their own financial independence. Without that, their freedom would be nothing more than wishful thinking, or probably directly proportional to the administration’s benevolence, which sucks.