KARACHI, June 1: The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and All Pakistan Newspaper Employees Confederation (Apnec) have urged President Pervez Musharraf to take notice of the proposed new anti-journalists defamation law which, if introduced, is bound to estrange the government’s relations with working journalists.

In a joint telegram to the president, the leaders of the two organizations have noted with indignation that at a time when the legislature has been put in cold storage the government’s intention to introduce a new defamation law would render the fourth pillar of the state decrepit and paralyzed.

They said that the proposed law carries penalties ranging in fines upto Rs.1 million, or an apology, or both.

The most unjust and draconian aspect of the law is that under it, no journalist will be within his right to produce any official document, summary, or other relevant papers in his defence to substantiate his stories.

The accused journalist will simply be required to satisfy the prosecution in the form of an apology or fine, or both. This is just a crude attempt to foist guilt on an innocent person, pretty much the same way as our police extort ‘confessions’ of crime from innocent persons by using savage third degree methods.

This is tantamount to most savagely wrenching away the right of an accused to defend himself, making utter mockery of the process of justice. It is tantamount to saying, “You are guilty because the state says so. Never mind your actual innocence. If the state says yellow is green, well then it’s green, never mind the reality. If the state feels that an elephant has six legs, well then it has six legs, never mind they reality,” they argued.

Even in the most vicious and totalitarian of regimes, it is deemed the natural right of an accused to produce whatever documents he feels relevant to his defence.

In short, the present regime, breaking all records of intolerance, has made it clear that it is utterly inimical to something as civilized and as vital to the welfare of society as freedom of thought, expression and speech.

The PFUJ-Apnec leaders said: we regret to say that over the last three years, there has been no attempt to conceal this pernicious tendency of terrorizing those segments of society which are most vital to its well-being, the judiciary through the PCO; the press through the impending defamation law and the impending new laws to regulate newspapers; and the general public through the impending police ordinance which will make the masses totally hostage to the quirks and whims of an unscrupulous, extortionist police force.

They said “the level of Press freedom in Pakistan today is almost as much as in the UK. We would request the government of Pakistan not to dispense with this very happy distinction the country enjoys.”