Day: September 13, 2021

LONDON: Pakistani journalists in Britain condemned the Pakistan government’s plans seeking unchecked powers to punish journalists and news organization’s to further implement the draconian censorship.

At a huge protest held outside the Pakistan High Commission premises here in solidarity with the journalist community in Pakistan, dozens of journalists gathered for a protest to condemn the dangerous plans being pushed forward by Information Minister Fawad Chaudhary in the shape of Pakistan Media Development Authority (PMDA) ordinance.

The protest was convened by Journalists Joint Action Committee (UK) to show support for Pakistan’s media workers who are in uproar against the current information minister who is determined to go ahead with the controversial law to enforce control of media, bypassing courts and the system.

Journalists Joint Action Committee members Azhar Javed, Wajahat Ali Khan, Shaukat Dar, Ghulam Hussain Awan, Asad Malik, Farid Qureshi, Sahira Khan and Kousar Kazmi addressed the protest. Representatives of PPP, PMLN, ANP and civil society members also addressed the protest and condemned the PMDA ordinance.

Journalist leaders condemned attempts made by Pakistan High Commission officials to stop the protest. They said that officials of Pakistan High Commission called journalists individually and asked them not to hold the protest outside the High Commission premises and also issued threats of serious consequences for organizing the protest. The journalists called on Pakistan High Commission to desist from such practices and not become part of the media crackdown.

The speakers said that the ill-conceived and dictatorial PMDA concept has been unanimously rejected by all media and journalists’ bodies as well as the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Pakistan Bar council, Supreme Court Bar Association Pakistan, political parties and international media. They said that the government is saying that it will set up tribunals for rights of workers, when such tribunals already exist, but its actual objective is to bypass high courts and create NAB and anti-terrorism like courts to fix journalists and their stories and pressure media houses to control free and objective flow of information.

The journalists said that the government is so hell bent on bringing the new ordinance that through tribunals it will be end the right to appeal against punishments unless the case is taken to the Supreme Court which is costly and already there is a huge backlog of cases and it could take years before a case is heard.

The journalists particularly singled out the current information minister for first playing his role in the economic murder of journalists and now pushing through a black law to completely finish the private media which provides thousands of jobs to media workers.

Journalists said that media tribunals are the most dangerous part of the PMDA because the government will sanction the journalists it doesn’t like and will make it impossible for the objective journalists to operate.

They said that the controversial law is ill conceived and whilst it makes lofty promises its actual objective is only to bring Pakistani media under a draconian body which will be like a ‘state above the state” and which will only exist to abuse its powers to support the sitting government.

Journalists and community leaders called on British Pakistani MPs to break their silence and stand by Pakistani journalist community and support free media in Pakistan. The speakers said that PMDA proposes penalties on media houses and journalists up to Rs250 million and prison sentences up to five years or more and the purpose of these unfair laws is to instill fear in media not to question actions of the government or hold them accountable.

They said this law would penalize only those journalists and media whom the sitting government doesn’t like. Journalists called on the government to scrap the ordinance and focus on strengthening the existing laws and the relevant institutions.

Source: The News

ISLAMABAD: Protesting against the government’s plan to bulldoze the Pakis­tan Media Development Autho­rity (PMDA) legislation through a joint sitting of parliament, the journalist fraternity began a sit-in outside the Parliament House here on Sunday evening.

The protesting journalists marched from the National Press Club and reached outside the Parliament House where they planned to stay overnight, as they said the sit-in would continue till President Dr Arif Alvi’s address to the joint session of parliament, which is scheduled to assemble at 4pm on Monday (today).

Addressing the protesters, senior journalists representing various associations of media workers vowed to resist the government move to enforce the PMDA, terming it an effort to gag the press.

The protest call was given by various journalist bodies, headed by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ).

Fraternity members continue to hold sit-in outside Parliament House overnight

PFUJ general secretary Nasir Zaidi in his speech said the journalist community had rejected the proposed PMDA because it was meant to stifle the voice of media.

Senior journalist Afzal Butt said many attempts had been made in the past too to silence the media by dictators, but journalists successfully fought for their rights and this time too, the journalist community would protect freedom of the press.

The government through the PMDA was trying to impose ‘media martial law’, said senior journalist Imtiaz Alam. He reminded the relevant authorities that in digital age one could not stop fake news until journalists were allowed to work independently and speak the truth.

The protesting journalists were of the opinion that the government through the proposed media authority was attempting to abolish the Newspapers Employees Act as well.

Solidarity with journalists

Several politicians, including former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, PML-N information sec­retary Marriyum Aurangzeb and MNA Mohsin Dawar, visited the protesting camp and expressed solidarity with journalists.

Just a day ago, the Parlia­mentary Reporters Association had announced that reporters would boycott the presidential address in protest against the proposed media authority.

Also, the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) had recently announced its support for journalists in their fight against the proposed media authority. SCBA president Latif Afridi was of the opinion that ‘power brokers’ were striving to enslave the media and judiciary in Pakistan and the proposed PMDA was one of the channels to achieve this nefarious design.

Similarly, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has expressed serious concern over the proposed authority.

Former information minister Marriyum Aurangzeb in a series of tweets said Imran Khan had abused the state machinery to block democratic and peaceful protest by journalists across the country against the PMDA black law. She reminded the nation that the same PTI had staged a 120-day sit-in at D-Chowk, attacked, battered and wounded policemen, hung dirty laundry on the august building of the Supreme Court, cursed parliament, attacked the Prime Minister House, gave a call for civil disobedience and asked people to reject formal banking channels and conduct financial transactions through hundi to sabotage national economy.

However, she added, the same PTI did not allow journalists their right to peaceful protest and deployed scores of security personnel and put up barricades to prevent protests against the tyrannical media development authority legislation that seeks to gag news media and silence the truth.

Source: Dawn

LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami announced rejecting the controversial Pakistan Media Development Authority Bill (PMDA), terming it undemocratic and contrary to the requirements of Constitution guaranteeing freedom of expression, and advised the PTI government to shun its ambitions to take control of media.

Government’s obstinacy to proceed with the controversial legislation when journalists unions, human rights organization’s and all opposition parties fully opposed it was inexplicable, said JI Information Secretary Qaiser Sharif, in a statement from Mansoora Sunday. He said JI believes in complete freedom of the press, fully backs the stance of media organization’s and supports their protests and sit-in calls.

He said Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry should tell the nation why his government felt the compelling need to constitute PMDA in the presence of various high level institutions to check misuse of freedom of expression and cybercrimes like Pemra, FIA etc.

He asked how can the PTI government fully control print, social, digital media and film with the help of the new body and why it was bent upon making a black law which was never made in the past.

He asked the minister that if he (minister) said the draft law on social media was fake then he should have brought out the original draft instead of condemning his critics.

Sharif said the JI was standing with the media persons and believed freedom of press was the basic pillar of a democratic society. Rejecting the information minister claims regarding so-called benefits of the proposed authority, Sharif said it was the usual rhetoric of the PTI government which from the day one was making plots to curb free speech. He said it seemed instead of wiping its own face, the PTI government wanted to break the mirror instead. He said such a knee jerk response to silence the critics was a bad practice on the part of government.

He said the country had already a poor record with media censorships, suppression and victimizing journalists and curbing the freedom of expression, in which the country ranked 145th in the world.

He lamented that media censorship and violence against journalists increased after the PTI came to power.

He said there was a need for the existing institutions to work effectively and government should improve its performance while enduring criticism from the media.

Source: The News

The government and its ministers, notably Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, have been on a mission to promote the Pakistan Media Development Authority (PMDA). They are doing this despite the fact that every credible media organization, union, rights network, progressive association in the country – ranging from the PFUJ to the APNS to the CPNE to the AEMEND, the PBA, HRCP, Pakistan Bar Council, SCBA – has rejected this black law. Journalists have protested – and are protesting today as well. And, yet, the information minister has been insisting that the law has been supported by journalists. With respect, that is patently untrue. The media in Pakistan stands united against a law that is regressive, authoritarian and dangerous for media freedom in the country.

There are bad laws, very bad laws and draconian laws. The PMDA falls in the last category, the sort of step only authoritarian regimes make to keep the press muzzled. The PMDA in fact is a throwback to the kind of media restrictions Pakistan has seen during its worst dictatorships – proposing to merge the host of media laws in force in the country, and bringing print, television, radio, films, social media and digital platforms under one ‘regulatory’ body. Apart from the glaringly obvious fact that one body can’t possibly deal with such differing mediums, the proposed regulator will also be conveniently under state control. The Ministry of Information has also been cloaking the PMDA under a faux-concern for journalists’ rights and ‘fake news’. Linking the PMDA to journalists’ salaries and job security is a cynical attempt to set a dangerous precedent of the PMDA-proposed ‘media tribunals’ which would have the power to hand down punishments of up to three years in jail and millions in fines. There also has to be a diversity of opinion within the media and safeguards as to fair play regarding authentic news is essentially carried out by the media itself. So, even when ‘fake’ news appears in the media or on social media, either the media itself corrects this or there is recourse to the defamation laws already in place, which can always be further strengthened. The balance should not be tilted by government-imposed authorities.

Attempts to control the media always lead to more problems than they solve. The PMDA and the Media Complaints Commission are essentially an attempt to silence what little Pakistan’s journalism has left in terms of the ability to speak out and represent all the people of the country, including dissenting voices. Every person who has worked in journalism, except perhaps the most reactionary journalists, would agree with this view. The PTI government should remember the extremely negative impact attempts to stifle media have had in the past and how they have adversely affected the professionalism of the media, and the right of people to access information as enshrined within the constitution. The government would also do well to heed the words of the prime minister himself – before coming into power – regarding the necessity to have a press that is free to speak truth to power. For a government that is concerned – and rightly so – about the ‘image’ of the country in global corridors, it is strange that it has not thought of the consequences of such a controversial law, given that Pakistan already stands low in press freedom rankings.

Is there room for improvement in Pakistani media? Yes, as there is around the world. Should there be a state-controlled punitive body to ‘regulate’ all of the media, without input or participation from any of the stakeholders and by running roughshod over journalists’ concerns? Absolutely not. Regulation must never cross over into censorship or curbing dissent. Instead of continuously obfuscating the issue and gas lighting the valid concerns raised by a whole spectrum of journalists in the country, the Ministry of Information must review this proposed media martial law. Perhaps Prime Minister Imran Khan could prevail upon his own government and remember his own words regarding media freedom and the role of ‘regulation’.

Source: The News (Editorial)