ISLAMABAD: Around 200 journalists of the twin cities held a rally in front of the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Press Club to press the government to remove curbs on media on the occasion of the International Human Rights Day on Monday.
The rally was organised on the call of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ). Members of the civil society, lawyers and students also attended the rally to express solidarity with the journalists, who marched from the press club to the offices of banned GEO channel on Jinnah Avenue.
The protestors, carrying placards inscribed with their demands for reinstatement of sacked judges and lifting of the state of emergency, raised anti-state slogans and criticised the government for promulgating ordinances to discourage media from playing its constructive role.
They alleged the government had imposed ban on media, as it was afraid of the factual reports about the missing people and the “so-called war against terrorism”. It is unfair to curb media, as the freedom of expression is people’s fundamental right, they said.
Addressing the rally, PFUJ Secretary General Mazhar Abbass stressed the government and Pakistan Electronic Media and Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) to restore the freedom of press and lift ban from the electronic as well as print media.
He said the PFUJ had started its struggle for free media on August 2, 1950 and will continue to do so without bothering about any restrictions, he said.
He said no government had ever succeeded in squashing the freedom of media and no one would be allowed to do so. He said the journalist community was committed to fighting against the injustice done by the government.
Abbass said PEMRA had no right to introduce the code of conduct to the journalists as the authority itself lacked practicing journalists on its panel.
Rawalpindi-Islamabad Union of Journalists President Afzal Butt urged the journalists to participate actively in the ongoing movement. “It is a wrong perception of the government that it can handicap the media,” he said.
Butt criticised the political parties for trying to squash the media for their own purposes in the past. He said the legal fraternity and civil society activists were backing the journalists, who were also striving to restore the constitution. A heavy contingent of police was also deployed there to deal with any untoward incident.
Source: Daily Times
Date:12/11/2007
