ISLAMABAD: Top experts agree that the Dawn story on National Action Plan (NAP) meeting was neither a ‘national security breach’ nor a violation of official secret act and if any investigations are must, the only rational and just way is to initiate them from the Dawn publisher and editor and not from the participants of the meeting or any government officials.
Top legal experts say that in case of any attempt of getting a statement from any official against some top government functionary on this count, strong documentary evidence would be required to substantiate the claim and a mere statement would not be sufficient.
On the other hand, the story is being declared as ‘planted’ without completion of investigations, which will make the process of the inquiry prejudiced. Without taking the viewpoint of the reporter, who is currently covering the US elections, or his editors, terming the story planted is unjustified and makes the whole process of inquiry biased. A careful analysis shows that not a single section out of the total 16 sections of the Official Secrets Act has been violated in any way through this story.
Any wrongdoing might have been committed, but, if something never happened was told to somebody, it doesn’t constitute leakage of any secret information regarding any defence-related information, planning or strategy. Experts agree if the issue is not concluded at the earliest, it will only result in huge embarrassment for the country as no one will be able to explain as to how the national security was breached.
One of the top legal brains in the country, Justice Mian Allah Nawaz, while talking to The News, said that a news story carrying a statement could not be termed a national security breach. “Whether the statement was given in the story is even true or not needs comprehensive investigations and for that we will have to wait for more facts,” Justice Allah Nawaz said.
Senior and respected legal expert, Abid Hasan Minto, told The News that the allegation of ‘national security breach in consequence of publication of a news story is political’. Minto said that investigation officers could not be asked to initiate investigations from a certain point but the Dawn management and editors would certainly be questioned. He said that journalists had protection of their sources.
Abid Hasan Minto said that mere statement of any person against any public office holder would carry no weight if it was not proved with evidence.
Ikraam Chaudhry, advocate of the Supreme Court, while talking to The News, said that the issue should have been concluded till now. “Something which never happened during a meeting, according to both the sides of participants, was told to a journalist and the published report was of dire consequences, so I would say it was a security breach,” Ikraam Chaudhry said. Ikraam said that secrets of the meeting must have been kept secret. He said that important part of investigation would be the statement coming from the publisher or editor of the newspaper. Ikram maintained that statement of any person would have to be substantiated with strong evidence.
Ikraam Chaudhry said that only a judicial commission comprising a very respected and impartial judge could find out the real facts about this issue and any committee comprising members of the government or the executive would not be able to reach some conclusion.
M Ziauddin, one of the senior-most journalists in the country, while talking to The News, said that the basic responsibility of the news lay on the publisher and the editor of Dawn. “Any investigation, if necessary at all, can only be initiated from the Dawn team, especially its editor,” Ziauddin said. He said that a journalist had discretion to protect and not to disclose his source of information but he could be asked to prove certain contents of his story.
Ziauddin said that in fact the story was not at all a ‘national security breach’. He said that according to a sentence in the story, the Punjab chief minister made statement about a role of an agency. “This statement of the chief minister can be true or false but it could not constitute a case of breach of national security in any way,” Ziauddin said adding, “Facts regarding whatever was written in the story on this count are already in public knowledge and by pressing that it is a national security breach, we are making mockery of ourselves.”
Ziauddin pressed that the issue must be closed as early as possible to avoid embarrassment at international level as nothing could justify that the said story or its contents were national security breach. “We should not ridicule ourselves by ourselves,” Ziauddin added.
Senior journalist and former secretary general of Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) Mazhar Abbas, while talking to The News, said that it was not an issue of breach of national security. “I think it can be an issue of breach of trust that something discussed in a sensitive meeting was shared or was ‘fabricated and shared’ with some media person,” Mazhar said. He said that the investigation process would be started from the Dawn people, the reporter and the editor. “Dawn reporter as well as the editor cannot be asked to tell about their source but they can be asked to prove their story,” Mazhar said adding, “If anyone is not satisfied and feels aggrieved, he can approach any court for action against the media persons.”
The Section 5, 6, 7, 8 and 19 of Press, Newspaper, News Agencies and Books Registration Ordinance discuss responsibilities of publisher and possible consequences in case of violations. Considering that the reporter or the editor of the newspaper may claim their right of not disclosing the name of the source of information or any trial or investigation of journalists may result in embarrassment at international level, the names of journalists and newspaper are not being taken now and it is being repeatedly pressed that action be taken against participants of the meeting and that too without any evidence.
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar, during one of his initial press conferences, said that informant of the journalist could be from any side. “So far there is no evidence whatsoever as to who informed the journalist about details of the said meeting.” The journalist contacted different government officials, including information minister, for their version. Message of the journalist to information minister Pervaiz Rashid was that he had some story about Nawaz Sharif/Shahbaz Sharif and wanted to meet him. According to initial inquiry, during the meeting, Pervaiz Rashid denied most of the points of information available with the journalist and later published these denials in his story without naming the minister. Now Pervaiz Rashid had been stopped from working as information minister on account of lapse that despite coming to know that a journalist was doing a story against the national security, he failed to inform the prime minister and the army about the story. The same stance of some circles is not rational as information minister has to respond to many stories every day and majority of such stories are against the government or are about the wrongdoings or bad performance of the institutions. There has been no such practice of informing the prime minister or the institution in case a journalist contacts the information minister for obtaining a version on any story.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/161061-Inquiry-rendered-biased-by-terming-story-planted-experts
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