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Accepted Paper:
Path dependency and the liberalization of the media: reassessing the Musharaf regime
Kiran Hassan
(School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London)
Paper short abstract:
By analysing the emergence of Pakistan's highly unregulated private television industry, this paper compares the Pakistani media system to Mediterranean countries in the light of Hallin and Mancini's (2004) theory of media models.
Paper long abstract:
Political communications is determined by who controls the media. Unlike a democracy, where media control and content is dispersed and pluralistic, dictatorships tend to monopolize the control of media. However, General Musharraf liberalized Pakistan's broadcasting sector in 2002 for three reasons. First, in the aftermath of the severe press restrictions imposed by Nawaz Sharif's civilian government in 1998, and 1999, the local media welcomed his coup . Second, under the irresolute and inconsistent governments of Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto in the 1990s, a policy paralysis had taken hold. Neither civilian government was interested in or capable of passing a broadcasting privatization bill - leaving it for a military government to initiate this much needed policy change. Third, by ignoring sections of PEMRA policy, and allowing media houses to operate, General Musharraf obliged and earned early support from the biggest newspaper group in the country. While PEMRA regulations specifically barred cross-media ownership, this newspaper group was allowed to establish its first private television channel in August 2002.
This paper will discuss how the liberalisation of the media under Musharraf set a new form of path dependency for media regulation in Pakistan.
Rethinking the role of institutions in South Asia: historical institutionalism and path dependence
Session 1