May 7, 2005	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 27, 1426

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RAWALPINDI, May 6: Several people’s movements, student groups, intellectuals and political activists have expressed solidarity with the journalist community and condemned the use of force against them in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. Asha Amirali of People’s Rights Movement (PRM), Liaquat Ali of Anjuman-i-Mazarain Punjab (AMP), Zahid Anjum of the All- Pakistan Alliance of Katchi Abadis, Mohammad Ali Shah of Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF), Mian Hekmat Shah of Hashtanagar Peasants Movement and others said the role of journalists in supporting the struggles of working-class groups, particularly after the military coup of October 1999, had been exemplary.

They said in this time of tribulation for journalists, working class movements would rally behind them and resist state repression at all levels.

The movement leaders said the decision of the journalists in Islamabad to temporarily suspend their protest until the National Assembly session on Tuesday was based on the commitment of the PML leadership to ascertain responsibility for the incidents on World Press Freedom Day and to punish those responsible for the attacks on journalists.

They said if this commitment was upheld then the protest would be called off entirely but if this commitment was not fulfilled then working class movements would also join the protest of journalists.

In this case, the state will be opening up more fronts than it can possibly handle.

The movement leaders said military dictatorship over the past five-and-a-half years had further weakened the already stuttering trend towards long-term democratization of state and society.

The fact that the state has responded so violently to these very basic demands indicates that the military junta does not truly believe in democratic principles including freedom of press and the rights of workers, which is the category that journalists fall into. In the past, journalists such as Sarwar Mujahid in Okara had been victimized for simply reporting objective facts.

In general the response of the state to journalists, lawyers, working class movements and all other groups committed to democratic transformation had been repressive and the movement leaders stressed their belief that all of these groups must come together to resist repression and push for long-term change.