PESHAWAR, May 4: Speakers at a seminar on freedom of press have urged the government to withdraw all laws which curtail media freedom and rights of newspaper workers in Pakistan.
The seminar on 'Reporting and under-reporting: Who decides' was organized by the Peshawar Press Club in connection with the World Press Freedom Day on Tuesday to highlight the plight of newspaper workers and rising incidents of violence against them across the country.
Former chairman of the Human Right Commission of Pakistan Afrasiab Khattak said that working journalists and newspaper employees played a decisive role and their welfare and protection were closely linked to the development and progress of the industry.
He said the HRCP had opposed the Defamation Act and other similar laws which restricted disclosure of facts and objective reporting of events. Mr Khattak said: "Access to information is must for free press, but in our country a request for information is taken not in a good sense. Everything is considered classified, because we do not trust each other".
Owing to the indifferent attitude of successive governments and their puppet extremist organizations towards the free flow of the information, he said, the demand for freedom of press had become a cliche as no one was ready to give a serious thought to it. The press was considered an enemy by dictators, who used to define the so-called national interests in the light of their own 'individual interests', he added.
He said that dictatorial regimes all over the world had developed some new tactics of intimidation and harassment to create a docile breed of newsmen. "The embedded journalists are of the same breed, who cooperate with the invading forces in Iraq", he added.
New methods of temptation and coercion, he said, had given a new direction to the press. He said the BBC portrayed the wilful genocide of unarmed Palestinians as 'collateral damage'.
Awami National Party vice-president Haji Mohammad Adeel said a free press was necessary for dispensation of democratic order. He said press in Pakistan had braved spells of dictatorships and upheld its freedom as during the Zia regime newsmen had been given lashes and life-term imprisonments.
Mr Adeel said he had once moved a resolution, demanding rights of journalists, in the assembly, since then he had been giving a bad treatment in newspapers. He stressed that newspapers must give coverage to basic issues of the people and put an end to the 'statement journalism'.
The participants adopted a resolution demanding an end to all sort of interference in the press, implementation of the 7th wage award in newspapers and withdrawal of IR0 2000.
Peshawar Press Club president said that elimination of the institution 'working editors' in the industry had given birth to non-professional trends in newspapers.
