http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Cyril-Almeidas-principled-patriotism/articleshow/54819808.cms
Global attention pivoted to Cyril Almeida in Pakistan this week, immediately after the acclaimed journalist and assistant editor of Dawn newspaper (founded byMohammad Ali Jinnah in 1941) published his explosive scoop about “an extraordinary verbal confrontation” between civilian and military authorities. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s office complained the story “risked vital state interests,” threatening “stern action.” Almeida found himself on the “exit control” list denying international travel. Then he tweeted, “concerned, possibly convinced, more than 24 hrs after the travel ban was imposed that govt is planning to take further, uglier actions.” Amesty International promptly declared “Pakistan’s authorities must immediately revoke a travel ban on a leading journalist and allow the media to operate freely and without fear.” The human rights watchdog’s Audrey Gaghran said “the travel ban on Cyril Almeida is a crude intimidation tactic designed to silence journalists and stop them from doing their jobs…the language used by the Prime Minister’s Office is chilling. It is one thing for the authorities to dispute and contradict a media report. But it is quite another to threaten a journalist under the guise of national security.” The response of Almeida’s closest colleagues bears close attention for its stark contrast to consistently craven capitulation that has become the rule for Indian media. Dawn reaffirmed it “handled the story in a professional manner and carried it only after verification from multiple sources” then added, “journalism has a long and glorious tradition of keeping its promise to its audience even in the face of enormous pressure brought to bear upon it from the corridors of power. Time has proved this to be the correct stance. Some of the most contentious yet historically significant stories have been told by news organisations while resisting the state’s narrow, self-serving and ever-shifting definition of ‘national interest’.” Lahore’s The Nation newspaper went further, “a denial, perhaps even three, were expected. What was not expected – possibly because the government was incorrectly credited with better judgement – was a witch-hunt. If the government and military top brass were affronted by the implication in the report that Pakistan was facing growing international isolation, they can now congratulate themselves on a coup de grace that unreservedly confirms this fact…how dare the government and military top brass lecture the press on how to do their job. How dare they treat a feted reporter like a criminal. And how dare they imply that they have either the right or the ability or the monopoly to declare what Pakistan’s “national interest” is.” On stage at the Goa Arts and Literature Festival, where Almeida (who has distant ancestral roots in the state) starred in 2012, 2014 and 2015, the former lawyer and Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, persistently made an eloquent case for liberal Pakistani nationalism, precisely in the mould of the original vision of that country’s “Quaid e Azam” and primary architect, Mohammad Ali Jinnah. These sessions left no doubt about his sincere patriotism, in the purest and most enlightened sense of the term. To audiences here, it was clearly apparent Cyril Almeida is a national treasure for Pakistan, possessed of a calibre any country in the world would be privileged to call its own. It is characteristic of the weakest, most insecure polities to be threatened by citizens who love their country with the clearest, least biased eyes. Almeida himself says, “I don’t write for the sake of addressing the subjects of my pieces, I write for the readers – people like myself who are just interested in knowing what’s going on, with no hidden agendas, no personal favourites, who don’t see too much evil or too much good in any situation or person or institution.” These original, best ethics of principled journalism are rarely perceived in contemporary practitioners, which makes it bleak irony to witness the pillorying and bullying of Almeida for simply doing his job very well. There is much gleeful hooting in India about this crisis, as though it erases its own extensive litany of restrictions, flagrant censorship and rights violations. Tribal rights campaigner Gladson Dungdung and Greenpeace’s Priya Pillai have been forced off international flights, grounded in identical predicaments to Almeida. The Kashmir Reader newspaper remains banned, about which the Editor’s Guild of India finally responded “any move to obstruct, infringe or impose a ban on the press is an assault on democracy itself” but then speedily switched to lecturing about “fairness and balance.” Mostly, silence and apathy reigns. It is a thoroughly pitiful track record even - perhaps especially - when compared to Pakistan.