KARACHI, July 30: The Council of Pakistan Newspapers Editor’s Standing Committee at its meeting here Wednesday declared in a unanimous resolution its commitment to defend press freedom in Pakistan and total rejection of official pressure tactics including use of press advise and advertising as a pressure lever.

In a review of press freedom situation, the Standing Committee meeting, presided over by CPNE acting president Altaf Hassan Qureshi, heard very strong views from its members on the events of recent threats and pressure on member publications and decided that all such attempts by official quarters in the country should be resisted strongly.

The CPNE reiterated it’s longstanding position that it would never accept pressures including curtailment of advertisement quantum as a lever against the newspapers.

The meeting, in a strong worded resolution, declared that the government amazed the CPNE at claims that the press was free when in actual, every effort was being made to pressurize newspapers.

The CPNE, in its resolution, said how could govt-press relations be termed as fraternal, while the government was taking unilateral actions to pressurize the newspapers.

The meeting called for a meaningful dialogue between the CPNE and the government on all issues raised by the CPNE and resolve them without further delay, to demonstrate its sincerity in ensuring press freedom.

The meeting expressed solidarity with member publications who suffered uncalled for pressures and dislocation due to objectionable attitude of authorities.

It constituted a committee, headed by CPNE President Mir Shakeelur Rehman, to take up contentious issues as pointed out in the meeting with the government at the ministry of information, at the earliest.—PPI