Self-Censorship In The Pakistani Print Media

Ramanujan D. Nadadur
Additional contact information
Ramanujan D. Nadadur: Ramanujan D. Nadadur is an undergraduate student in his senior year at the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.

South Asian Survey, 2007, vol. 14, issue 1, 45-63

Abstract: Though there is no formally enforced press censorship in Pakistan, journalists have been indirectly forced to curtail their reporting due to various external reasons. This article examines the print media's potential role in Pakistan and identifies the direct external causes of self-censorship such as unofficial government controls, the oligopolistic newspaper ownership structure, the legal system and the lack of security for journalists. In addition, the paper looks at specific structural characteristics of the Pakistani print media that have created an environment for self-censorship to thrive, namely the reach and accessibility of the print media and the isolation of the Pakistani journalist from the international community. Finally, the paper puts forth three strategic recommendations to address the problem of self-censorship, first, legal reform to create an environment conducive to free journalism; second, ownership reform to increase plurality and create free market competition in the newspaper industry; and third, development of a self-regulating, professional Pakistani journalist association.

Date: 2007
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/097152310701400105 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:soasur:v:14:y:2007:i:1:p:45-63

DOI: 10.1177/097152310701400105

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in South Asian Survey
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().