KARACHI, March 9: An emergency meeting of the standing committee of the Council of Pakistan Newspapers Editors (CPNE) on Monday strongly deplored the government's action in stopping advertising to the Nawa-i-Waqt and Nation group of newspapers
and called for immediate withdrawal of the "extremely detrimental action", which violated the press freedom guaranteed in Article 19 of the Constitution.
The meeting declared that the use of advertising as a lever to pressurize newspapers to change their editorial policies has been consistently resisted by the CPNE over the years.
The latest action of stopping government advertising, at both the federal and provincial levels, was the "worst attack" on press freedom in recent years, the meeting said, according to a press release.
The standing committee adopted a unanimous resolution strongly condemning the government move and declared its solidarity with the Nawa-i-Waqt and Nation. It declared that newspapers have a united stand on rejection of all pressure, including use of advertising as a lever by the government.
The CPNE called upon all its member publications to write editorials condemning the action against the Nawa-i-Waqt and Nation and demanding immediate revocation of the government's decision.
The meeting directed formation of a joint committee of the CPNE and the APNS, including the presidents of the two organizations through mutual consultation, to pursue the matter through a dialogue with the government and seek an immediate meeting on the subject with Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali.
The meeting said freedom of expression cannot be suppressed by any direct or indirect measure, including the use of advertising as a pressure tactic. It maintained that the government must ensure that press freedom was not undermined by draconian official measures while it was proclaimed that complete press freedom prevailed in the country.
It also deplored denial and curtailment of government (federal and provincial) advertisements to a number of publications including the daily Ausaf, the daily Balochistan Express (Quetta), the daily Ummat, Jasart, the daily Azadi, the Financial Post, Moon Digest, Intikhab (Karachi), and Intikhab (Hub), and the monthly Shahrag-i-Pakistan (Lahore).
The meeting strongly condemned the violent attack on the office of the daily Jang (Quetta). The meeting was presided over by CPNE vice-president Mahmudul Aziz. -PPI
