HYDERABAD: Journalists along with other media personnel held various events in different cities and towns of Sindh on Friday to observed the World Press Freedom Day.

In Hyderabad, newsmen, photojournalists and news channels’ cameramen staged a protest rally outside the local press club under the aegis of the Hyderabad Union of Journalists (Rana Azeem group) in the lead of PFUJ leaders Junaid Khanzada and Hamid Shaikh, HUJ President Aftab Memon and General Secretary Ali Naeem, and others.

Speaking to the participants, they said that journalists were being punished for reporting facts. They said the newsmen would never accept curbs on press freedom and demanded that all press freedom laws should be implemented.

They also condemned the latest blast in Khuzdar in which journalist Siddique Mengal was killed on Friday.

They said conditions had become difficult for journalists in Pakistan for reporting the truth. Over 90 journalists in Gaza had laid down their lives since Oct 7, 2023, they said.

They also demanded adequate salaries for media workers.

NAWABSHAH: Journalists community of Naushahro Feroze held a protest demonstration on Friday to mark the World Press Freedom Day.

Addressing the protesters Maula Bux Mashori, Atiqur Rehman, Majid Tagar, Shahid Khokhar and others said that the media was not free and media workers were under severe pressure.

They said journalists were not safe whereas the media houses were forcibly sacking their employees. Many media houses did not pay salaries to reporters, they said.

A number of working journalists were killed in the line of duty, but their killers were still at large, they lamented.

They demanded a safe working environment to journalists and arrest of the culprits involved in the killing of newsmen.

Meanwhile, the Nawabshah Union of Journalists (NUJ) strongly condemned the attack on the Khuzdar Press Club president in which he lost his life.

In a press statement issued on Friday, NUJ president Akram Shahzad and secretary Ismail Domki flayed the cowardly attack and said that killing of Maulana Siddique Mengal was highly condemnable.

They further said that the press freedom day was being observed throughout the world and on the day senior journalist Maulana Mengal was killed in a terrorist attack.

MIRPURKHAS: A big protest rally was taken out by civil society, religious and social organisations, journalists, lawyers and citizens in Kunri town on Friday in protest against non-arrest of the culprits involved in the murder of newsman Jan Muhammad Maher. He was killed about nine months ago.

Carrying banners and placards, the protesters marched through main roads and raised slogans demanding the Sindh government to arrest his killers without any further delay.

Later, they arrived at the local press club where speaking to the protesters, the protest leaders alleged that the government was not sincere in arresting the culprits of Maher despite the fact that the accused had already been identified.

Meanwhile, local journalists and representatives of civil society took out rallies in Digri and Jhuddo town, demanding protection to newsmen across the country.

A meeting of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalist (PFUJ) Mirpurkhas Unit held here on Friday demanded the government to arrest killers of senior journalists Zubair Ahmed Mujahid, Mehmood Sultan Chandio and Jan Mohammad Maher. They urged the government to provide grant or aid to their bereaved families.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2024