ISLAMABAD: Chairman Press Council of Pakistan Raja Shafqat Abbasi Thursday said the Council had been taking up the matter with Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments assuring to pass the bills in the next session of respective assemblies.
He stated this while addressing a national media conference on ‘Dissecting Pakistan’s Media from a Free, Independent and Responsible Media’ perspective. The two-day conference was organized by Individual and Pakistan in collaboration with Friedrich Naumann Foundation.
Shafqat Abbasi said both the provincial governments have informed to draft the bill that would follow its passage by the assemblies. He said media had been playing positive role in establishment of democracy in the country and now was striving to strengthen the democratic institutions. “However, sometime the newsmen become a mouthpiece of a certain party or individual that puts their impartiality at stake,” he said adding the low-salary structure also makes difficult for the regional journalists to follow the code of conduct and maintain their impartiality.
To a point, he said the journalists were the custodians of the pen; however they should sensibly avoid sensationalism and should neither act as judge nor referee. Dr Thomas Ditt, Head of Press and Cultural Section of German Embassy admitted media’ role in the society and said a lot is yet to be done for the society.
He said being fourth pillar, media supports other pillars of the state but who would control this pillar is a question. Olaf Kellerhoff, Resident Representative Friedrich Naumann Foundation said everywhere in the country takes time to get mature.
Shahzad Ahmed from Bytes for All said the social media has enabled two-way communication that was being used for various purposes including debates, responses as well as electioneering. Sadaf Baig from Intermedia Pakistan said with the advent of information technology, the financial models of newspapers have changed as their online versions are easily available to readers without any cost.
