管制名义下的兼并:巴基斯坦传媒所有权集中化

Consolidation in the Name of Regulation:The Concentration of Media Ownership in Pakistan

巴基斯坦政界认为该国电子媒体管理局催生了国内媒介产业的前所未有的演变,促使传媒所有权日渐集中化,并使得传媒机构所有者享受不受约束的政治影响力。事实上,历届巴基斯坦政府都试图重新审视其以往在媒体管制和电子媒体执照批准方面的政策,过去效率低下的电子媒体管理局受政府指示,重新考虑一些有关跨媒体所有权和新办电视频道批准程序的政策举措。本文将从传媒政治经济学的视角探究巴基斯坦媒体管制和传媒所有权集中化之间的关系,并得出结论,即巴基斯坦电子媒介管理部门因其利于媒体所有者的政策及其低下的效率和执行力,导致传媒所有权的集中化,从而推动几家大公司进行交叉扩张,控制了该国传媒产业的命脉。

Pakistani government circles consider policies of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority(PEMRA)to be responsible for the unprecedented progression of the media industry in the country,which paved the way for the concentration of ownership and the unbridled political influence enjoyed by the owners of media organizations.In fact,successive Pakistanigovernments have endeavored to revisit their previous policy vis-à-vis media regulation and licensing of electronic media in the country,and an erstwhile inefficient PEMRA has recently been instructed by the government to reconsider a few policy initiatives relatedto the cross-media ownership and licensing of new television channels.In this article,we explore the relationship between media regulation and concentration of ownership in Pakistan through the lens of the political economy of communication and conclude that owner-friendly policies of PEMRA and its inefficiency in implementing its mandate have resulted in the concentration of ownership,which facilitated diagonal growth of a handful of companies that control the airwaves in the Pakistani media industry.