KARCHI: The Council of Pakistan Newspapers Editors (CPNE) on Tuesday expressed concern over prevailing situation of media freedom in Pakistan.
An informal meeting of the Karachi-based CPNE members held here with its president Arif Nizami in the chair. The meeting reviewed different administrative matters of the CPNE and discussed in details the prevailing situation regarding press freedom in both print and electronic media.
The meeting passed a resolution in which it expressed deep concern on present situation of media freedom in the country. It said despite of lifting the state of emergency, the curbs on print and electronic media are still imposed.
It said the Geo TV has been banned since last 46 days and the government advertisements to the Jang group have been stopped. The meeting observed that the curbs imposed on the media on November 03 have not been lifted.
It said the Pemra has asked the private TV channels not to show live programmes or take live calls and threatened these channels of cancellation of licenses if they failed to comply. The resolution said all these steps showed that Pakistani press is being pressurized.
It said in the absence of free media the credibility of upcoming elections would be a big question mark. The resolution condemned police torture on journalists and civil society members in Islamabad.
The meeting discussed in detail the recent talks of media organisations with the information minister and observed that until the government takes steps to ensure media freedom, lifts ban on advertisements of Jang group and restores transmission of Geo TV, revokes the steps taken regarding the media on November 3, the talks with it on press laws would be a futile exercise.
The meeting demanded that all ordinances aimed at amending press laws be cancelled and the advertisements of Jang group restored besides allowing Geo TV channels on cable network, so that a suitable atmosphere could be created for government-press amicable relations.
The meeting was attended by CPNE President Arif Nizami (Nawa-e-Waqt), Senior Vice President Dr Jabbar Khattak (Awami Awaz),Vice President Islamabad Mehtab Khan (Ausaf), Vice President SindhShaheen Qureshi (Jang), Finance Secretary Amir Mehmood (Kiran), Wamiq Zuberi (Business Recorder), Najamuddin Shaikh (Dayanat), Kazi Asad Abid (Ibert), Ali Akhtar Rizvi (Janbaz), Javed Mehar Shamsi (Kaleem),Muhammad Aslam Kazi (Kawish), Inqilab Matri (Millat), Ghulam Nabi Chandio (Pak), Saeed Khawar (Nawa-e-Waqt), Dr Waqar Yousuf Azeemi(Roohani Digest), Naseer Hashmi (Ummat), Yonous Riaz (Byopar) Javed Mehmood (The Nation), Muhammad Yousuf Qureshi (Roshan Pakistan),Abdul Khaliq (Online) and Prof. S B Hassan (Investment and Marketing)
Source: The News
Date:12/19/2007
