July 24, 2002	Wednesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 13,1423

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ISLAMABAD, July 23: The president of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society, Hameed Haroon, has said the first round of talks with the representatives of the ministry of information and media development, the labour and the law ministry are “proving to be successful”, and “we hope that talks over the next 24 hours will achieve the kind of results that we have been waiting for the past several months”.

According to a press release issued on Tuesday, the APNS president said that “despite the castigation visible in our previous statements last week,” the ministry of information and media development and minister Nisar Memon had “responded positively and courageously to the gauntlet that we threw before him.

“Although several major points need to be reconciled, (some possible within the next few hours), we were insistent that matters pertaining to public interest, particularly with respect to the issuance of press ordinances, receive our priority.

“We will continue the pursuit of all other avenues for the attainment of other objectives, but eliminating the dangers presented before us, particularly with respect to the draft defamation and draft freedom of information ordinances will continue to receive our foremost attention in the next 48 hours”

“I particularly look forward to meeting with the federal minister for information and media development, Mr Nisar Memon, who despite our harsh resolutions, has kept his cool over the last weeks. He has responded positively, in a spirit of fairness to the challenge on the debate on press laws that the APNS has initiated.

“We hope that when we meet him tomorrow along with the Council of Pakistan Newspapers Editors, due safeguards in the draft of such ordinances will be adopted in order to protect constitutional freedoms and effect the necessary changes in the body of press laws,” the APNS president concluded.