Free media vs government funded media

Participated in a debate on free media.Following are the arguments

The proponents said:

1) Private media competes for viewer ship .Viewers are looking for truth and so the competition promotes search for truth.

2) Private media is free from the pressure of government and has greater funding than the government run media.

3) Government funded media cannot speak against it and is less likely to speak the truth when it comes to revealing inequities of the government . It is more likely to promote government’s propaganda and facts that go against it.

My arguments for the sake of opposition

1)Although public is in search for truth but it likes drama because it intrigues them. So private T.V channel have sensationalizing and dramatization as their priority. So instead of truth they compete for breaking sensational news, certification is not in their priority. They forget the issue after it has cashed the money and start looking for more entertaining news.Take for example the issue of floods.

Truth needs time and commitment to search which only a fund stable media can afford. BBC is a perfect example. It is funded by government and is considered as a foremost authority in broadcasting.

2) Private media is more profit oriented so although it can say anything but governments can bribe them and also they cannot propagate an agenda that goes against its stakeholders and sponsors. The funding it gets has ropes tied with to it leaving the greater amount with no advantage

3) This argument seems valid if you talk about a country like Pakistan. But in country which is democratic and institutions of the state are firmly established and media is just funded rather than being operated by the state, these things are less likely to happen.

But the truth is:

Freedom is a thing that has no parallel. Truth is always relative to the observer. Killing the private media will kill the diversity and many facets of the truth will remain out of the sight of people. We will have an unchallengeable version of truth. Private media breaks this monopoly. If government is able to terrorize or bribe a few journalists there will be many who will say what they see and feel and will take stand on it.

No matter how just a government is or how powerful the institutions may become, state run media always has potential of being exploited. BBC might be the foremost authority but I have never heard it saying anything against the royal family or actively campaigning against the British government. But this deficiency is fulfilled by the private media of Britain. And its also true that BBC presents one of the best education and research programs.

Both private and government funded media are complementary to each other and fulfil the deficiencies left by each other. It also illustrates the philosophical stance that there is no black and white forms of morality.

 On various occasions examples of responsibilities of Pakistani media were quoted by opposition which I think are inappropriate in th  Pakistan highly normal things have tendencies to go awry.

 Our media has got freedom for which it wasn’t prepared. It is just a reflection of our society, which also couldn’t learn to use the freedom it got in a productive manner.