July 14, 2002	Sunday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 3, 1423

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KARACHI, July 13: The president of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS), Hameed Haroon, has criticized the coercive measures being taken by the government to curb press freedoms through a series of anti-press laws and actions by the state machinery, a press release issued by the society said on Saturday.

It said the government had not only initiated a major four-pronged attack on press rights through draft laws on the Press Council, Defamation Ordinance, Freedom of Information Act and Press Registration Ordinance but had also started issuing arrest warrants against newspaper establishments to implement personal attendance at coercive Wage Board hearings through Implementation Tribunal for Newspaper Employees — all this at a time when the controversial decision of the board were in the process of being challenged in superior courts throughout the country.

It said the situation suggested that the government had embarked on the path of increased hostility towards the press, and added that this was dangerous for the future of a free press and a democratic dispensation in the country.

The APNS president, the press release said, had announced that a final decision was expected within the executive committee about contacting international bodies to apprise them of major developments as regards the freedom of press and freedom of information in the country.

He had convened an emergency meeting of the APNS executive committee at the society’s office here on July 16 to discuss the government repression of the press through draft black press laws and the ITNE.