SPOTLIGHT: Euphoria over documentary hides lack of action over the ugly problem highlighted!: Media courageous in politics but encourages loose morals!

There is a lot of apprehension in the media about government's alleged intention to put curbs on its right of free expression. I recall that in Musharraf's time a few months down the line after the media had been freed from government control, a meeting of the King's party was in progress in which Ministers and party leaders sat with glum faces all round. Reason?
Media was making life difficult for them by exposing their corruption and poor governance. Some curbs were placed on the Media but that didn't last long and the Media was free again while Musharraf and his party were shown the door. The Media, except for some easily identifiable black sheep has continued on with its role of exposing corruption in politics and governance and identifying culprits.
HUGE, UNDENIABLE POSITIVES The media - especially the electronic media, at least in the main - has been winning laurels for its contribution towards acquiring and spreading first-hand information about what is happening in this country, in politics and education, in government departments and the Parliament, in the corridors of power and in political rallies, in dark corners and slums, even in and around graveyards, in houses and eateries where harmful "foodstuff" and gutka is manufactured and sold. It has exposed policemen in the act of collecting bribes. It has covered political rallies in graphic detail. Its anchor-persons have walked into disaster areas, braved floods, risked their lives in covering scenes of crime and lawless activities and have informed the people about these in many cases almost as soon as they occurred. In the process they have suffered attacks by those exposed, have had their equipment damaged or taken away and have suffered physical harm and even death.
AND SOME VERY STRONG NEGATIVES There are said to be fresh moves in the offing by the present government to bring in some kind of control over the Media to prevent it from exposing its corruption. If there is some truth in this it is to be resisted by all possible means - political and legal. Once this is said, it does not follow that Media, the way it operates today, does not need any restraints. Particularly in point is the way it shows men and women in plays, films and ads and many events on screen which have the potential to encourage promiscuity and loose morals. Film scenes and ads increasingly show females clad in increasingly nude state. Men and women, boys and girls, are shown behaving with each other in ways which I am sure owners and directors of TV channels would never allow their sons and daughters to behave. Some plays seen on the screen and graphic coverage of some events on the screen are equivalent of lessons in seduction, robbery and murder.
Sexual excitements such exposures arouse result in sex related crimes which are becoming more common and more desperately cruel with no care for the devastation caused to the life of willing or unwilling victims and their families. Obviously money is the basic motive force behind these errant ways of our mainstream media today barring some exceptions. Here is where the TV channels have an obligation to the people to lay down voluntary self restricting guidelines which must be followed and red lines which should never be crossed. Whether the TV channels fulfil this obligation on their own or not, the government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan would have every right, nay obligation, to move strongly in the direction indicated by the norms of an Islamic or aspiring-to-be Islamic, country.
WHAT IS BACKWARD, WHAT IS NOT! Let us hear what one brave and distinguished Yemeni girl had to say about nudity among women. In the backdrop of the huge awakening sweeping like a Tsunami across much of the Arab world, Yemenis went to polls February last week to mark the end of the despotic, 33-year long rule of President Saleh and election in his place of VP Mansur Hadi. The Arab world's first woman Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2011, Tawakkul Karman, and a young political activist hailed the poll as a "day of celebration" for Yemenis. According to a press report, when asked about her Hijab by journalists and how in their view it was not proportionate with her level of intellect and education, Tawakkul Karman replied: "Man in the early times was almost naked, and as his intellect evolved he started wearing clothes. What I am today and what I'm wearing represents the highest level of thought and civilisation that man has achieved, and is not regressive. It's the removal of clothes again that is regressive back to ancient times". Food for thought for our so-called "liberals"?
THE 7-PANEL CARTOON I am reminded of a 7-panel cartoon combo I had seen some years ago which brought out this contradictions in dress etiquette in Western cultures as no words could. The first panel in the combo showed a barefoot man in shorts and vest (under shirt), and a woman who was fully dressed, wearing a full-length coat, scarf on the head, veil on her face and hands in gloves. The man was looking at her with deep displeasure. In the second panel the man had put on a shirt and trousers while the woman had taken off her veil. The man still stared at her with dislike while the woman was perplexed and unhappy. In the third panel the man had put on a jacket while the woman had taken off her scarf and gloves and was shown looking up to the man for a sign of approval of the change. But the man was still unhappy. In the fourth panel the man was shown with feet in socks and formal shoes while the woman had taken off her scarf and stood bare-headed. The fifth panel showed the man with hat on his head and a tie in his shirt collar as well while the woman had taken off her coat and skirt. But the man showed no sign that he was any the happier. In the sixth panel the man wore gloves on his hand while the woman now had only her under garments and bra on her body and was looking very unhappy but the man's visage showed no emotion except indifference. In the last and the seventh panel the man was fully dressed, in full suit, tie, hat and gloves while the woman stood stark naked before him looking imploringly at him as if to ask "are you at last pleased, my master"? But the man was no longer interested. He was now looking away from her at another fully clad woman also visible in the last panel!
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