Pakistan, Bangladesh and India continue to rank low on global press freedom indexes. From your perspective, what are the biggest constraints on journalism today—state pressure, market pressure, or fear?
Zaffar Abbas: Probably a combination of all three. Fear is the least of all things. For many media houses, it’s market pressure, for many it’s government pressure. Every government whether it’s in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh they want so called positive coverage of their development, they want media ignore their shortcoming. Whenever there is criticism in media, they come heavily down on that media house, on that editor or the reporter. That is why people do become scared. In many cases they have started to indulge in self-censorship and there are mainstream legacy media losing its credibility. That’s how the indexes are falling.
Every government whether it’s in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh they want so called positive coverage of their development, they want media ignore their shortcoming.
Journalism in Pakistan faces unique pressures. Can I ask you to give some examples you recently faced?
Zaffar Abbas: You see my example is a bad example. I don’t succumb to pressures. There are many other media houses that have given up because of the pressure and they started to toe the official line. There was time people from the official side used to call, used to request or order that certain stories should not be covered, certain stories should not be covered. They have given up on that as I don’t receive any calls. But I am aware of the pressures. I also know how other media houses are being handled or managed. Some are being awarded because they toe the official line. But this is the reality of South Asia. This will continue to happen.
The whole thing is unless the editors and journalist unions are united, every government will continue to use pressure tactics to get favorable reporting, journalism, coverage and to block criticism on tv and newspapers. This is how politics works in South Asia.
Is there any invisible redlines you are not allowed to cross or you don’t dare cross?
Zaffar Abbas: There are always invisible redlines. Because, they are invisible, we don’t talk about them. We have to be realistic about journalism also. In societies you have to be mindful of who is saying what and what is being said should not be said. I am going to give you an example of war. If there is a war between two countries, what do you expect media to do? Mostly because nationalism is so strong , national fervor is so high, the media automatically starts to toe the official line.
The other reason there is no other way to get information without contacting the official channel. Redlines are there, redlines will be there. Editors of newspapers and television channel have to decide which are the redlines that needs to be ignored and which are the redlines that are in the so called of national interest and they should be adhered to or should be followed.
The whole thing is unless the editors and journalist unions are united. Every government will continue to use pressure tactics to get favorable reporting, journalism, coverage and to block criticism on tv and newspaper. This is how politics work in South Asia.
The shift from print to digital is no longer a "future" problem—it’s the current reality. What about Pakistan?
Zaffar Abbas: Pakistan is also faced with the same kind of challenge. Obviously and gradually, the importance of newspapers will come down and the internet channel or internet newspapers will become far more important, if they have not already become important. This is the reality. It will happen. It is gradually happening.
I still believe newspapers which have got teams of very experienced journalists like Dawn has, correspondents who have put an many years in the art of collecting information, doing the verification and making authentic news and send to newsroom, will still remain relevant for many years. At best their role may change, they may become the main content provider for their web edition. They are not going to disappear or vanish.
How is the publication addressing the monetization challenge in an age where traditional ad revenue is migrating to Big Tech platforms?
Zaffar Abbas: Newspapers are definitely losing the revenue because of the new reality. Advertisers are turning to social media platforms, internet based newspapers. This trend will continue. The thing is as I said the role of these newspapers will change. They will become more of content providers. To say that they (newspapers) will disappear, it is not going to happen so fast. Because of the falling revenues, financial constraints, they may not have the same kind of leverage they used to have in the past.
In the international market when the price of the newsprint goes up, the price of the Dawn goes up. So is the case with other newspaper in Pakistan. This will continue to happen. This is also the reality.
Did you raise the price of the papers or start a subscription model?
Zaffar Abbas: I am not doing the business of the newspaper. I just deal with the editorial content of the newspaper. But I am aware of the fact that newspaper is losing revenue. At times management decides to raise the price of the newspaper mainly because we import newsprint unlike in many other countries. In the international market when the price of the news print goes up, the price of the Dawn goes up. So is the case with other newspaper in Pakistan. This will continue to happen. This is also the reality.
The readership of newspapers is falling to an alarming level. What mechanism Dawn has in place to engage readers in their story?
Zaffar Abbas: The readership is actually not falling, they are switching from the hard copy of the newspaper to its digital version. The readership has gone up in fact in many ways. Dawn has a limited circulation but its digital platform is huge that you can’t even imagine. It has got millions of page views every week. That is a success story.
How to bring a financial model that can make it a very profitable system is something for management to do. It is not my job to look into that aspect. The reality is that tomorrow if they are able to find a financial model to monetize our website, it will be a huge success.
Are you using AI in your newsroom or in publication? What is your stance on the integration of Generative AI in the newsroom? Do you see it as a threat to journalistic jobs or a tool for efficiency?
Zaffar Abbas: That is a work in progress. At the moment, we discourage the copy editors to use AI for editing copies. AI is mostly used for fact-checking and for gathering information. But not writing stories , or not doing analysis or not providing context to stories. It is only for providing certain information and that is also needs to be checked and double checked. If a reporter is using AI for such matter, he or she needs to inform the desk that AI has been used for carrying out search and to gather information. It is again a kind of evolving situation. AI is constantly changing.
There are so many tools that journalists can use or media house can use like graphs, chart, map. So far it is being used in a very limited way. But the way people are fast learning how to use various AI platforms, I am pretty sure that journalist and media houses will benefit from AI in a very positive way. Dawn has a team which constantly working on AI and how to use it. So far we have discouraged copy editors from using AI.
The readership is actually not falling, they are switching from the hard copy of the newspaper to its digital version. The readership has gone up in fact in many ways. Dawn has a limited circulation but its digital platform is huge that you can’t even imagine. It has got millions of page views every week. That is a success story.
What worries you most about the future of journalism in Pakistan and what gives you hope?
Zaffar Abbas: It does not worry me at all. Because I am pretty hopeful the role of journalism will continue to grow in Pakistan. It has evolved in many ways. There was time that there were only a handful of newspapers in the country. Now Pakistan has more than 40 24/7 channels and numerous internet based news platforms. The numbers of newspapers have grown in Pakistan. When you compare it with the kind of restrictions that are there, those are passing phases. There have been military rules, there have been marshal laws, and there have been autocratic civilian rulers in the country. There have been good democrats also. So, there have been phases where media has been speaking comparatively free, there have been phases of complete censorship.
There have been phases where journalists were forced to indulge in self-censorship. But we have always come out of those situations. We have revived press freedom till such time that a new ruler comes in and that ruler brings in more laws and imposes restrictions. If the journalists are aware of such restrictions and they unite and editors unite, it becomes very difficult for any government to continue with those restrictions and I hope it will happen in Pakistan soon.