mate, the GoP is indeed allowing more powers to the media, cant be denied...but dont forget it is a relative freedom...ie more freedrom with respect to the PAST...never forget there is STILL DICTATORSHIP in Pakistan, some things dont change, the media is new, it dare not diss the government, it dare not cross the invisible line.Such a media is still a restricted Media and a controlled media, i remember when they used to show PTV here, such blatant lies comming from the national news channel spreading THE EXACT government propaganda, saying all good things about pakistan and human rights violations in India, from watching PTV, u could think that Pakistan is Eutopia!, Ministers saying how Pakistan s the best place to invest, president shaking hands with people and whatnot!!...
you cant confuse it with other countries where such a thing is hard to happen and has not for decades, till the time when the govt had monopoly on the media...now no1 watches DoorDarshan ROFL!!...where the most favorite pastime of the media is to criticise every damn thing the government does...that is why the big deal on the MRCA, the ACM leaked it to the press to put pressure on the govt and the media jumped on it as another chance to show the inefficiency and lathargy of the govt to have allowed such a situation to develop. The media here is RUTHLESS. From sting ops to digging up trash on the govt, they do it all...and for every government that comes in...that is why the corruption is going down in India, slowly but steadily...if u read the Indian news via the net or elsewhere, when the government passed the RTI(Right To Information) Bill , this is one of the HALLMARKS Of democracy and independence...the govt TRIED to cover itself by not allowing to show the 'file-notings'. The media created such a BIG BIG issue over it that in the end, the RTI did go through the parliament, unscathed and in full force.
Fr those of you who dont know what RTI is.in rudimentary terms..its very similar in nature to the "first ammendment" in the United States. Its a law passed recently in the parliament, according to it...whenever ANY citizen files a Request for Information on ANY THING on the government, the governement HAS TO show him its official documents, and associated remarks or notings. We can file RTI for asking how far the land allotment procedure has gone in the development authority. How the government came about its privatisation schemes, absolutely everything! It is a whole new world in India.
just read this and you will see what i mean:
http://www.hinduonnet.com/2005/10/07/stories/2005100703631000.htm
so u see, this is how powerful the media whether electronic or print has become in India,because there are journalists everywhere waiting to pounce on them from the biggest to the smallest issues.
Now like Bull said, due to the nascent freedom of press in Pakistan, the media has become a bit bolder...but show me a case, where the media took up a cause, showed extreme corruption in the government(mind u, the govt not the oppostion), where the media has taken a cause, and made the government bend to its will rather than vicee-verce. Where the media has severely flayed the government for any of its policies...and i mean FLAYED, not the ussual dissent. That sirs is exactly how powerful the media is in India.
You see the hyped up reports of everything in India, from suicides to MRCA's to Jessica Lal case because it is reported with a bloody strong flavour, any hint that somehting is wrong, gets reported in India, that is not the case with Pakistan...please gentlemen, keep your mind open, look at it from a bigger perspective, see how the Indian media is FAAAAR from being controlled by the Indian Government...realise the truth, not blinded by Patriotism and Nationalism. Enpower your own people living in Pakistan, make the media powerful and u will see a marked change in the way you live. You will see the government tremble and shake with FEAR because of the media if it gets hands on somehing dirty on the govt...you will see cabinet ministers resign due to some exposes by the media...you will experience something so different..it will change the way you percieve things.