KARACHI, Dec 26: The Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) on Monday condemned attacks on the press and demanded of the government to provide protection to newspapers.

An emergency meeting of the CPNE was held here with Arif Nizami in the chair. The meeting strongly condemned attack on the office of daily Khabroon in Sukkur, incidents of burning newspapers and attempts to manipulate editorial policies of newspapers through temptation and threats.

The meeting demanded of Sindh and federal governments to provide protection to newspapers and ensure that they were discharging their professional responsibilities in a free atmosphere.

The meeting condemned the threatening attitude of some political groups and urged them not to take the law into their hands.

The meeting decided that a delegation of the CPNE would call on the Sindh governor and chief minister and demand that newspapers be allowed to work freely and an assurance be given that such incidents would not be repeated in future.

In this regard, a special three-member committee was formed to meet with government officials to settle the issue at the earliest.—PPI