KARACHI, Nov 15: Three leading associations representing the print media in Pakistan, the All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS), the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) and the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) met Minister for Information and Broadcasting Mohammad Ali Durrani in Islamabad on Thursday and urged him to persuade the government to withdraw the amendments to a critical law governing the print media.

They emphasised that the amendments imposed after the promulgation of the state of emergency were draconian in intent, but meaningless in effect. They stated that all recent provisions added to the Press, Newspapers, News Agencies and Books Registration Ordinance provided excessive remedies to low-intensity problems in certain areas of the print media, which were already available for prosecution under the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), the Maintenance of Public Order Act (MPO) and the Defamation Ordinance 2002.

The amendments to the law had damaged perceptions about the sustainability and viability of democracy in the country, they said.

The meeting represented the highest-level contact after a gap of several years between the APNS and the CPNE on the one hand and the PFUJ on the other. It was sought as a way out of the crisis resulting from the recently-promulgated amendments.

The contention of the print media associations could be summed up as:

— The so-called problems the amendments attempt to address are already covered under the PPC just as the power to suspend newspapers likely to provoke public disorder is covered under the Maintenance of Public Order.

— If the government wishes to convey the impression that the emergency has been imposed for a limited time and limited objectives, and that the country is being governed “as nearly as possible” in accordance with the Constitution, the efficacy of imposing the recent amendments to the Press, Newspapers, News Agencies and Books Registration Ordinance should be removed.

— There will be a better response to the imposition of emergency in Pakistan as a limited and short-term exercise if the amendments to the Press, Newspapers, News Agencies and Books Registration Ordinance are reviewed and withdrawn in full.