KARACHI: An emergency meeting of the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE), held on Monday strongly deplored the government action of stoppage of advertising to the Nawa-i-Waqt and Nation group of newspapers and called upon the government to immediately withdraw this extremely detrimental action which violates guarantee on press freedom enshrined in Article 19 of the Pakistan Constitution.

The emergent CPNE Standing Committee meeting declared that the use of advertising as a lever to pressure newspapers and their editorial policies has been consistently resisted by the CPNE over the years and the latest action of stoppage of advertising of the government, at both the federal and provincial levels, was the worst attack on press freedom in recent years and the newspapers in the country strongly deplore and reject this draconian measure.

The Standing Committee of the CPNE adopted a unanimous resolution strongly condemning the blatant action of denying advertisements to the Nawa-i-Waqt and Nation for the freedom exercised by the newspaper group in its editorial policies.

The meeting declared its complete solidarity with Nawa-i-Waqt and Nation and said that in the past also various governments have engaged in the exercise of pressuring newspapers through usage of government advertising as a lever and the CPNE has consistently rejected all such measures.

The meeting declared that the newspapers in the country have a united stand on rejection of all pressures including use of advertising, as a lever by the government.

The meeting declared that CPNE calls upon all its member publications to write editorials condemning this deplorable action against Nawa-i-Waqt and Nation and demanding from the government an immediate revocation of this uncalled for action.

The meeting declared that the right of dissent in a democratic society was a principle that has to be adhered to in Pakistan in the service of democracy and in strengthening democratic institutions.

It warned that similar draconian steps against newspapers by past regimes have totally failed because the newspapers, led by the CPNE, have taken the principled stand of refusing to bow to governmental pressures in respect of their editorial policies.

“Any effort to put back the clock in Pakistan in respect of press freedom will fail,” declared the meeting in its resolution.

The meeting directed the formation of a Joint Committee of the CPNE and the APNS, including the Presidents of the two organisations through mutual consultation, to pursue the matter through a dialogue with the government and seek an immediate meeting on the subject with Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali in the light of his statement in Sukkur on the subject given on Sunday.

The meeting declared that the CPNE members shall leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of their objective of defeating all measures of a draconian nature taken by the government against the newspapers to pressure their editorial policies.

The meeting recalled that such draconian measures taken in the regimes of General Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan Z.A. Bhutto, General Zia-ul-Haq, Mian Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto were defeated by the CPNE in co-operation with the APNS.

The same determination now was present with greater vigour among the members of the CPNE, who considered that these most deplorable steps by the government run contrary to the claims of press freedom in Pakistan.

The meeting called upon the President of Pakistan General Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali and the Information Minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmed to immediately withdraw all such actions by the government as militate against the provisions of the Pakistan Constitution on press freedom.

The meeting declared that the action taken against all other newspapers by the present government in respect of pressurising them through usage of government advertising as a lever must be withdrawn, failing which the newspapers would be compelled to adopt all legitimate and effective steps for maintaining their freedom and ability to serve democratic practice in the country.

The meeting declared that freedom of expression cannot be suppressed by any direct and indirect measure including usage of advertising as a lever.

It maintained that the government must ensure that press freedom is not undermined by draconian official measures while professing that complete press freedom prevails in the country.

The emergency meeting of the CPNE heard a resume of the various governmental detrimental actions taken against Nawa-i-Waqt and Nation due to the exercise of their editorial freedom.

Arif Nizami submitted that Nawa-i-Waqt and Nation have stood by their stand of saying the truth and refusing to succumb to any government pressures including the stoppage of government advertising.

The meeting unanimously declared its full support for the Nawa-i-Waqt and the Nation and called for the withdrawal of the governmental action against the two member publications of the CPNE.

All members present assured their full support to the Nawa-i-Waqt and Nation group and any action that the joint committee of the CPNE and the APNS takes in the matter.

The meeting also deplored the denial and curtailment of government (federal and provincial) advertisement to a number of publications including daily Ausaf (Islamabad), daily Balochistan Express (Quetta), daily Ummat (Karachi), daily Jasarat (Karachi), daily Azadi (Quetta), daily Financial Post (Karachi), Moon Digest, Intikhab Karachi, Intikhab Hub, Jasarat and monthly Shahrag-e-Pakistan (Lahore).

The meeting strongly condemned the violent attack on the office of daily Jang (Quetta).

The meeting presided over by CPNE Vice President Mahmudul Aziz and was attended by the prominent editors of the country including Inquilab Matri, Syed Faseeh Iqbal, Arif Nizami, Mujeebur Rehman, Wamiq Zubairi, Mehtab Khan, Dr Jabbar Khattak, Professor S.B. Hassan, Sajjad Hussain Shah, Sajjad Mir, Amir Mehmood, Javed Mehar Shamsi, Ms Nargis Baloch, Iqbal Sidhoo, Abdul Khaliq Marshal, Waqar Yousuf Azeemi, Mushtaq Ahmed Qureshi, Adeeb Jawaeedani, Ms Qudsia Khan, Owais Aslam Ali, Kazi Asad Abid, Muzaffar Ejaz, Naseer Hashmi, Ilyas Shakir, Muhammad Aslam, Mukhtar Aqil and Ms Fozia Shaheen.
Source: Business Recorder
Date:3/9/2004