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Pak plea to lift ban on its TV channels in India | Pakistan has approached India on the possibility of lifting the ban on Pakistani channels (both government and private) being aired in India. India, it appears, has responded positively to the proposal, and this is a good
sign. But allowing Pakistani television channels from airing content in India
has nothing to do with "sprucing up" (as one media outlet put it) people-to-people
contact. It has even less to do with warm and fuzzy notions of reconciliation
and “peace” between India and Pakistan . Instead, by permitting Pakistani television
channels from broadcasting content, India will be underscoring its own confidence
and commitment to its liberal democratic credentials. Whether and to what extent
Pakistan reciprocates is irrelevant. The notion that censuring information and
opinion emanating from sources considered adversarial is a relic of an era that
preceded the proliferation of electronic media. India, for example, blocked the
Internet website of the Karachi-based English-language newspaper, Dawn, during
the Kargil war in order to prevent the dissemination of Pakistani propaganda during
the conflict. More recently, there have been protests in Pakistan against the
“spreading of Indian values” through Bollywood and soap operas broadcast on Indian
television channels in Pakistan . In 2010, a ban on Indian television channels
by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulation Authority (PEMRA) resulted in mass
protests by Pakistan 's cable operators, for whom broadcasting Indian content
is a major source of revenue. To be sure, the dissemination of information and
option is regulated in democracies all around the world. The U.S. , for example,
prohibits companies not incorporated in their country from operating television
channels. But does this really impede the flow of news, opinion or even propaganda
into the U.S. ? The rapid proliferation of Internet connectivity today, both in
India and in Pakistan , means that Indians and Pakistanis consume news and opinion
from a variety of sources, and most increasingly, from websites and social media
networks on the Internet, where governmental regulation is, at best, weak. By
allowing the airing of PTV and other Pakistani private news channels, India will
be making a statement about our commitment to the free flow of information and
our own confidence in our own positions on terrorism, Jammu & Kashmir and other
issues of contention with Pakistan . Further, permitting Pakistani channels from
broadcasting in India will offer Indians a window into Pakistan 's crippled and
chaotic political system. No doubt, there are security considerations at play
here. But the government of India will always have the option of taking Pakistani
channels off-air, should events necessitate it. Yes, venom and demagoguery from
the likes of Hafiz Saeed and Zaid Hamid will be unleashed on our TV screens. But
ban or no ban, aren't we already witness to their hate-infused propaganda? Hafiz
Saeed and Difa-e-Pakistan's propaganda are already exist online, and Mr. Hamid's
fanatical rantings are freely available on You Tube. The airing of Pakistani content,
no matter how false and misleading it may be, cannot possibly erase the images
etched in the minds of our citizens of Pakistan-sponsored attacks against the
people of Jammu and Kashmir and the rest of India . In this regard, Pakistani
government and private television channels, as well as armchair jihadi warriors
are ill equipped to wrest the narrative on terror or J and K from the government
of India . How exactly does one “erase” memories of the bloody carnage at Chhatrapati
Shivaji Terminus or the Taj? The realities and results of Pakistan 's sub-conventional
war are there for all of India to see, and cannot be wished away merely through
insidious propaganda. (ANI) Attn: News Editors/News Desks: Rohan Joshi is a Fellow with
the Takshashila Institution. The views expressed in the article are the author's own.
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