ISLAMABAD: The government will take measures to provide protection to working journalists. This was stated by Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sherry Rahman on Thursday in the National Assembly after journalists in the Press Gallery staged a token walkout to protest the violent attacks on media persons, especially the electronic media cameramen in Karachi.

Sherry Rahman said the government would stand by the journalist community as in some areas of the country they were working in ‘conflict zones’. She appealed to the media to be patient and give some time to the new government.

She also announced that a proposal to form a Journalist Victim Fund would be taken up in the coming cabinet meeting. This fund, she added, would be managed by a committee to ensure transparency in its spending.

Sherry Rahman told the house that the government would soon arrange tripartite talks for finalising the new Wage Board Award. She promised that masked men who had snatched cameras of journalists in Karachi would be brought to book. She announced that a committee, comprising media and members of parliament would be formed to improve relations with the Press Gallery.

She urged the PFUJ to provide her a list of those who had either lost their lives or were injured while performing their duties. She said the bill to repeal discriminatory laws against the media had been tabled in the National Assembly.

Earlier, she visited the Press Gallery to talk with journalists who had staged the walkout. Secretary General PFUJ Mazhar Abbas said the journalists had staged the walkout to draw the attention of the National Assembly towards the professional hazards being faced by the media, especially the electronic media, in Karachi, some areas of Balochistan and Fata.

He referred to four incidents of camera snatchings in Karachi on Wednesday, where the hand of a camerawoman was also fractured. He appealed to the government to take effective measures to provide protection to journalists.
Source: The News
Date:4/11/2008