In South Asia, the public relations departments of the Indian and Pakistani
governments have been playing a critical role in the making of broadcast regulation
policies and enactment of media laws, which helped successive governments and
bureaucracies intervene in the business and functioning of the companies
providing electronic media services to millions of people in the region. The
regulatory processes and enactment of laws governing electronic media help public
relations departments of various regional governments maintain their control
over the content and routine operations of media organizations. This article
examines why and how bureaucratic powers have hampered the process of
broadcast regulation in India and Pakistan. The comparison is heuristically
significant despite social and political differences between Pakistan and India,
as both countries have inherited similar laws governing broadcasting from the
British colonial rule and most of the pre-partition regulations are still in place.
The article concludes that a great deal of political effort is required to establish
independent regulatory authorities in both countries due to the overarching control
of bureaucracies in both societies.