The Hindu : National : Media and the people of India and Pakistan should hold onto peace, says Najam Sethi

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Wednesday, May 04, 2005

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Media and the people of India and Pakistan should hold onto peace, says Najam Sethi

Special Correspondent

``Private media have great potential for persuasion''

— Photo: S.R. Raghunathan

Najam Sethi, Editor-in-Chief of The Friday Times and Daily Times of Pakistan, gives away the best outstanding student award to Ram Mahesh of Asian College of Journalism at the convocation in Chennai on Tuesday. — Photo: S.R. Raghunathan

CHENNAI: Consolidation of democracy in India and Pakistan has made the relations between the press and intelligence agencies and foreign policy establishments in the two countries quite cordial, Najam Aziz Sethi, Editor-in-Chief, The Friday Times and Daily Times, Pakistan, said on Tuesday.

While this cordiality made the use of the press as a vehicle for confidence building between the two nations difficult during times of hostility, it also aided the peace process when the establishments of the two countries were talking peace and dialogue, he said.

Outlining the history of the relations between the Indian and Pakistani media, Mr. Sethi suggested that changes could be made only in the domain of private sector media to undo the gridlock of generally hostile or false media perception on both sides.

Observing that the state-owned media were more incurable because both governments were not prepared to give the sort of freedom necessary for the desired change, Mr. Sethi, however, did see great potential for the private media, whose "ability to persuade is great despite the disadvantage of low literacy on both sides."

CBMs through media

Mr. Sethi said he was hopeful that much confidence-building measures could be done via this powerful media, especially in a situation where the movement for peace had become a people's movement. India was finally looking out of the region, "not worried about the little country next door," and this was a sign of its confidence and maturity. On the other hand, Pakistan was realising that in the prolonged impasse, it had probably done more harm to itself. In this context, the media and the people of India and Pakistan should continue to hold on to peace, not allowing vested interests to destroy the peace process.

Delivering the convocation address at the Asian College of Journalism here on "The Role of the News Media in Indo-Pak Conflict and Detente," Mr. Sethi delineated the different roles of the English language and the language media in both countries. Mr. Sethi said the opinion expressed in the language press (Hindi in India and Urdu in Pakistan) in both countries toed the official policies. In turn, state nationalist policies were moulded by the vernacular press because politicians were more sensitive to what was written in the vernacular press than the English press.

In practice, the press in both countries had until recently reinforced "age-old prejudices, fuelled hostilities and created obstacles in the process of conflict-resolution and negotiated-settlement of disputes," Mr. Sethi said adding that they remained part of the problem instead of the solution.

"In a way, changing the attitude of the influential English press in India is going to be more difficult than in Pakistan. The opinion of the English press is its own and therefore deeply ingrained as conviction. The indoctrination under democracy is deeper because it gives the illusion of being genuinely `shared' and not `imposed'."

But Mr. Sethi admitted that the times were changing and for a host of reasons, new generations in both countries, especially the middle class were less obsessed about war and less burdened with the baggage of the Partition than their predecessors. The media explosion in the last five years had also added a new dimension to conflict-articulation, management and resolution. The increasing "democratisation" of the media in both countries was favourable to the process of conflict resolution when the states of both countries had determined it to be the right path, he said.

Jugnu Mohsin, wife of Mr. Sethi and Publisher and Managing Editor, The Friday Times, said commitment could make a huge difference to the practice of journalism.

Mr. Sethi later gave away certificates and awards to the students of the fifth batch of ACJ. Ram Mahesh won the R.K. Narayan prize for the Student of the Year.

Sashi Kumar, chairman, Media Development Foundation, said the Tamil Nadu Government had allotted one and a half acres of land in Taramani in Chennai for the college and the South Asia Foundation had given a grant of $ 1 million for building the infrastructure.

N. Ram, Editor-in-chief, The Hindu, and trustee, Media Development Foundation, said that nearly all the students of the college were being recruited by media houses.

ACJ Professor Sreekumar Menon and college alumna Shalini Umachandran spoke.

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