Acta Universitatis Danubius. Communicatio, Vol 6, No 1 (2012)

Abstract

The article examines Pakistan’s press’ role in the development of democracy in the period of a military regime in 2002.  It does so by analyzing the newspapers’ coverage of civil society, which is the main factor in the nourishment of democracy in a country, by using content analysis technique. The article tries to find the direction of coverage given to civil society. In Pakistan, democracy is struggling because of bouts of military rule since its inception in 1947.  As a side effect, media has tended to follow the military   establishment and its political cohorts. Libertarian theorists say media should give space to every segment of society, whereas the proponents of Social Responsibility Model advocates that media should self-regulate with the aim to fulfill its responsibility towards society by laying emphasis on pluralism. Findings show that the press in the period under study gave supportive coverage to civil society, proving its movement towards pluralism and Social Responsibility, even under an authoritarian regime.