Press Release
Only Khilafah’s Media Policy Ensures Accountability Whilst Media is a Powerful Tool to Carry the Truth of Islam to the World

Pakistan’s journalists, media houses, lawyers, opposition parties and human rights organizations are up in arms over the Pakistan Media Development Bill, denouncing it as an attempt to stifle the media. In contrast, the government is claiming the need to prevent fake news and giving rights to media workers. Whilst having little sympathy for the opposition, the Muslims also see that the government is stifling all kinds of accountability, including the recent abduction of six activists of Hizb ut Tahrir from Karachi, merely for exposing the pro-American stance of the regime towards Afghanistan.

Similarly, the regime abducts journalists, pressurizing them to spread the narrative of the regime. The Ummah is seeing that a large section of the media has become a tool of colonialism, in the service of the government or foreign powers, misleading the Ummah through liberal, anti-Islam narratives. Thus, the mainstream media has lost credibility, whilst the Ummah is drawn towards unconventional media, as an uninterested spectator to the current crisis.

The media is a permanent branch of the state in the Khilafah state, whilst a vibrant private media will be encouraged. The media is inseparable part of the state policy to dominate Islamic ideology throughout the world. No license is required for any form of media, with it being sufficient to inform the state of its formation alone. Every media house is responsible for its printed or reported news, accountable before an independent Islamic judiciary in case of violation of the media policy. The basis of state accountability is the Islamic policy of enjoining good and forbidding evil, not freedom of expression, from the Western liberal civilization. No media house is authorized to establish independent relationships with foreign governments or institutions.

The media can neither release any non-Islamic materials nor undermine the foundation and basis of the state, as all Muslims and journalists have the constitutional right to hold rulers and government officials accountable on the basis of Islam, just as an Arab Bedouin asked Umar (ra) regarding two sheets in his possession, or a woman compelled Umar (ra) to change his edict over dowry. Every media house is responsible for its printed or reported news, accountable before an independent Islamic judiciary.

In democracy and dictatorship, laws are in accordance to the whims and desires of human beings, rather than derived from the Quran and Sunnah. So the rulers curb the media to secure personal and colonialist interests, whilst some powerful media houses do the same. It will be the media of the Khilafah which will work under the irrevocable policy of the Islamic Shariah, which cannot be ruined by the Khaleefah or Ummah Council. The media will launch a global campaign against the capitalist states, exposing their destructive colonialist policies and false creeds and ideologies, preparing the ground for the opening of their lands by Islam. Having won the hearts and minds of their masses to the justice of Islam, military force will be deployed to remove the rulers who remain as an obstacle. And it is such an Islamic media that will hold the ruler accountable, fearing none but Allah (swt), for the sake of Allah (swt). This will be the media setting the precedents in bravery, truthfulness and uprightness.

Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Wilayah Pakistan