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| May 18, 2005 | Wednesday | Rabi-us-Sani 9, 1426 |
Govt accused of curbing press freedom
ISLAMABAD, May 17: The opposition parties and media watchdogs on Tuesday accused the government of attempting to curb media freedoms through the Pemra Amendment Bill 2005 which contains provisions empowering police to arrest broadcasters and licensees. Moreover, MNA Liaquat Baloch, whose name was mentioned as being among the committee members, said he was not present in the meeting when the National Assembly standing committee on information and broadcasting took up the bill for review on March 15.
He said the bill was bulldozed through the National Assembly despite MMA’s reservations on certain clauses which gave coercive powers to the police of arrest.
Information collated from different sources showed that certain members who were shown to have attended the meeting were not present during the committee deliberations.
The National Assembly was informed that Mr Baloch had attended the committee deliberations besides some other MNAs who were not present in the meeting on March 15.
Chairperson of the Committee Rehana Mashadi and a committee member, Gul-i-Farkhanda, told Dawn that Mr Baloch was not present in the meeting.
Ms Mashadi said certain recommendations of the committee about Pemra’s composition were not incorporated in the bill.
When asked about reservations of certain public representatives about section 234, she said the section would be applicable on cable operators and not on the news or information contents of TV and radio channels.
Media law and policy adviser of Internews, a global media watchdog with presence in 40 countries, Matiullah Jan, said the bill as presented before the National Assembly on Monday was passed through a faulty process and contained factual inaccuracies which amounted to misleading the house. He said the factual inaccuracy was writ large on the front page of the bill which falsely stated the consideration of the bill by the National Assembly standing committee on information and broadcasting on March 3.
The assertion was supported by chairperson of the committee and other members who said the bill was considered on March 15.
When contacted for views on the Peoples Party Parliamentarians’ approach to the bill in the upper house, Senator Farhatullah Babar said, “We will oppose the bill when it comes before the Senate.”
He said the government had tried to cover the coercive powers given to the police to curb media freedoms by projecting to the world that it was allowing cross-media ownership.
The original bill as introduced in the National Assembly did not contain Section 34A. However, when the bill was presented before the National Assembly standing committee on information, the section was introduced by giving the police the powers to arrest the broadcasters and seize the equipment without any warrants.
In Section 27B, the Pemra law has placed an ambiguous restriction on cross-media ownership with reverberating effects on the print media and newspaper owners.
The law in its Section 21 infringes on the provincial autonomy by restricting the role of provinces as previously stipulated in the Pemra Ordinance 2002.
The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) has also expressed its concern over the amendments to broadcasting laws through the Pemra amendment bill which threatened freedom of the press and basic fundamental right of the citizen and urged the government not to pass the bill without holding negotiations with PFUJ.
The PFUJ demanded that some of the portions of the amendments needed serious debate among the journalist bodies and Pemra should have circulated the same.
It said under the amended ordinance, the licensees/broadcasters’ right to be heard had also been withdrawn and the government representation in Pemra had been increased which now also included the CBR chairman as ex-officio member.
The PFUJ believed that arrest of any citizen of Pakistan without warrant was a gross violation of fundamental rights.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), representing over 500,000 journalists worldwide, had also expressed concerns about the amendment bill which it said could seriously threaten freedom of the press.
“It is a matter of immense concern that the bill has already been passed by the standing committee without much debate,” said the IFJ.
It said in gross violation of fundamental rights, the proposed amendments empowered police to arrest without warrant any radio or TV broadcaster, accusing him/her of “repeat violation” under the Pemra ordinance.
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