Harking Back: Gagging laws of 1857 and the journalists still flee

On the 13th of May, 1857, the Indian sepoys of the Mian Mir Cantonment of Lahore were disarmed. The ‘Punjab Mutiny Report of 1857’ describes this one act as critical that saved the rest of India for the East India Company.

The report goes on to suggest that of far greater importance is the ‘gagging’ of local newspapers, for “through them the seeds of mutiny spread faster than any army can quell”. So the next most important event to follow was the ‘Gagging Act’ of 1857. That evil ‘law’ continues in different shapes and under other fancy names. This ‘gagging act’ was supplemented with another subversive law that closed down all businesses who advertised in local newspapers the colonialist did not like. Stories were to be vetted before publication. Journalists were being harassed, beaten up and jailed. They still are.

The media war between both foreign and local rulers and the people of this land had started once communication improved. It still continues. This can be seen in different forms. Now let us shift our attention over 100 years down the road to another set of military rulers. Like the British they also have the support of the large landowners and factory owners. It is an economic compulsion. Newspapers were nationalised and journalists jailed. All they did was to call them ‘traitors’. They still do.

Down the road ‘enlightened’ elected rulers were no better. But let us try to study the effects of these ‘gagging acts’ on the lives of honest hardworking journalists. Have you ever heard of any of the following names? Have you ever heard of Ali Jaffar Zaidi, or Hamraz Ahsan, or Mushtaq Lashari, or Hassan Jaffery, or Zafar Tanveer, or Iftikhar Qaisar, and the list is endless. All of these gentlemen were in the days of Gen. Ziaul Haq among the leading journalists of Pakistan. They stood for the truth and that did not suit the establishment, in a way a replacement of the colonialists.

How many know that these fine gentle souls were all whipped and tortured with arrangements made for them to migrate to England. On the streets of London and other cities exists a very large community of writers, poets, journalists and university professors, most of them from Lahore, who 45 years ago were ‘gagged’ and whipped to silence and poverty. That their employers did not support them was to be expected. Journalism was a commitment then. Now it is a business. These brave souls continue to write away in love of their homeland that has little time for them.

For example Hamraz Ahsan, once very close to ZA Bhutto lives in London. He suffered like few could manage. Even listening to his ordeal is painful. Then Hassan Jaffery lives in Nottingham, and Zafar Tanvir in Bradford, and so on. They sought different employment where the slightest opportunity arose. They survived, but we have forgotten their stories.

Let me narrate the story of another journalist of Lahore just to show the helpless situation he was pushed into. As a reporter of a leading English-language newspaper of Lahore, he covered the Ganga Hijacking Case by just being present among hundreds of others at the Lahore Airport. But a scoop presented itself when an agency’s agent at the airport promised him the opportunity to interview and take photographs of the till then ‘unknown’ hijackers. So in a military jeep he was dropped off near the Indian aircraft. In the grass along the way commandos lay in wait.

Shockingly, the leader came out and asked for his ID card, and on seeing it allowed him to enter the aircraft to interview him and his comrades and even passengers. Once the 36-frame camera reel was exhausted, the jeep took him to a faraway building where he was arrested. They took the camera away and started a discussion among themselves on how to quickly develop the photographs to send to Islamabad. It seems they had a shoddy 24-hour arrangement. Opportunity comes in strange ways.

Immediately on being informed that the newspaper darkroom could do the job in 30 minutes they drove him and the photographer to the office. Quietly the photographer developed two copies of each frame, dropping one in the wastepaper basket in the darkness. The four officers had no idea what was going on. Pleased with their ‘efficiency’, they left promising to provide three pictures the next day.

But the next day the newspaper was littered with over 20 photographs. Early the next morning they picked up the young reporter and chained him with a bright lamp on his face. Ultimately, he was released after a good thrashing. No one ever thrashed the ‘efficient’ soldiers.

Then came a spate of violent events. Every time our journalist went to the airport to cover Gen Ziaul Haq’s arrival, he would smile and greet everyone with a sinister grin. Every time it was a warm double handshake a thrashing awaited. The ‘airport beat’ was best avoided by all journalists.

After two whipping experiences and a few severe police beatings, our journalist was not allowed back in the newspaper building. “Zia’s orders” was what an ‘esteemed’ editor informed him. So within three weeks with his wife and two little daughters he landed on a cold February night at Heathrow. They had no place. But like any good journalist they managed by sleeping in an empty room with old newspapers as cover.

On the streets of London, and other cities, scores of exceptionally competent journalists roam, victims of the numerous ‘gagging acts’ that plague our beautiful country. Each one can narrate scores of even more horrendous incidents that befell them. A few returned while a majority stayed on.

But as the media transforms from Mughal-era street-heralding to wall posters to newspapers in print to television and now to internet, the mafias play with money, the amounts now being unimaginable. When a journalist is beaten up, rest assured the news mafias are at work. The government continues to take yet new steps to enforce fiercer ‘Gagging Acts’. It is a decline that reflects our inability to cater to the poor of this land, as the rich grow richer. They represent the East India Company of our age.

As TV anchors become more important than their guests, it reminds me of Richard Dimbleby, who famously said: “Society is in decay and decline”. Confucius advised that ‘fish rots first from the head’. But Pakistan is another country he had not heard of. Here the head might be clean with rosary in hand, hence everyone else claims piety as a tactic. What a country! The communicators have become more important than the message. The image matters not the substance.

So it is that the finest journalists of the land have been forced to flee to maintain a decorum of mental peace. Competence and honesty in the end will matter more than a name people suspect. So as new ‘Gagging Laws’ are enforced the true communicators will continue to flee to far corners of the world.

Is there a way out? Surely it is there for everyone to see. All ‘gagging laws’ must be abolished. If a story is not correct take the editor and journalist to court. Simple. Demand massive amounts as compensation. But in the process speed up the judiciary. That is the only answer. The rest is foul.