PRESS FREEDOM IN DICTATORIAL AND DEMOCRATIC ERAS IN PAKISTAN: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
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Abstract
This study investigates to locate the status of press freedom in a comparative manner in democratic and dictatorial governing forms. It empirically demarcates the form of government in Pakistan spanning a difficult history for the freedom of press. A generally held perception is that press enjoys more freedom in democracies as compare to dictatorial rules due to their approaches to individual rights of which the most important is right to expressions and press is the eloquent mean of its implication. In this contexture, this study attempts to explore the media history of Pakistan to locate the form of government which more bitterly treated the freedom of press as both equally contributed the political makeup of the state for last seventy years. For the purpose to empirically analyze the comparative situation of press freedom during democratic and dictatorial eras, content analysis method for exploring the media history in connection with political arrangements is employed. The results reveal that the study of political history in connection to actions against press and journalists aimed at confining the freedom of press makes it fair to conclude that press in Pakistan has never enjoyed freedom as it has suffered atrocities in every regime either that is in democratic form or is a dictatorial rule. It is also proved that press and journalists has suffered more in democratic era than in the dictatorial period.
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