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Remove all curbs: Pakistan journalists

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s journalistic community, which met on Friday in a large conference to discuss media freedom in the country, adopted a charter of demands aimed at removal of all restrictions on the freedom of expression and the right to information and a roll-back of the repressive ordinances and codes introduced since November 3.

Signalling that their freedoms are linked to other crucial issues facing Pakistan, the journalists, who met under the aegis of the South Asia Free Media Association, also weighed in on the side of the sacked judges, demanding the restoration of the pre-November 3 judiciary and the holding of free and fair elections.

The conference also asked for the confinement of the Pakistan armed forces to their job of guarding the frontiers, and for the lifting of recent amendments that affect the registration of lawyers and their affiliation to Bar Councils.

The Charter of Media Freedom was adopted at the end of day-long deliberations on the state of Pakistani media. It included a critical self-appraisal, discussion on laws governing the media and the security and safety of journalists. Among the participants at the well-attended conference were journalists from print and electronic media and representatives of several media organisations including the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists and other journalists’ unions and press clubs.

U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson also looked in briefly. She spoke of the vibrant Pakistani media, and said the U.S. too wanted President Musharraf to lift all restrictions.

The journalists pledged to struggle for the withdrawal of the recently amended Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority ordinances and the code of conduct imposed on the media, restoration of all news channels without restrictions on live coverage or a ban on particular programmes, an end to harassment and victimisation of individual media outlets and journalists and revoking ban on dish antenna import.

The charter demanded that all restrictions on issuing of licences to private televisions and radios must be lifted, while the state-run Pakistan Television, Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation and Associated Press of Pakistan must be made independent of a sitting government and the executive, and instead turned into public corporations along the line of the BBC.

The charter also committed journalists and the ownership of media outlets to undertake the formulation of a voluntary code of ethics. The conference is to continue on Saturday.

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