LAHORE, Dec 20: Federal Information Secretary Syed Anwar Mehmood assured the national media conference here on Friday that all five press laws enacted by the Musharraf government were not final and parliament might amend them in the light of its recommendations.

He was speaking at the concluding session of the two-day conference here at a local hotel. Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad was the chief guest but he could not attend because of pre-occupations in Islamabad.

The conference was organized by the Free Media Foundation under the auspices of the South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA) and was attended by leading journalists, editors and newspapers’ owners from all over the country.

Former HRCP chairperson Asma Jehangir, SAFMA’s new president M. Ziauddin and outgoing secretary-general Imtiaz Alam, and Najam Sethi also spoke at the concluding session of the conference that rejected through a declaration all press laws.

The declaration demanded that all laws must not be enforced and the constitution of new bodies be deferred till their (laws) perusal by elected representatives in the light of a consensus among media persons and people at large.

The secretary said he personally agreed with many recommendations of the conference regarding changes in the laws. But since he was not authorized to agree with them officially, he would convey the recommendations to the political authority.

He explained that the CPNE and the government had been consulting on the establishment of a press council since 1968. The law governing it had now been promulgated but it was not a final verdict.

The secretary said none of five laws were written on stone and could always be changed. Parliament had the right to amend them and it might do this in the light of the recommendations by the conference.

He said there had been no law on the registration of press for five years. The ordinance issued by the government was based on a draft by the APNS which was carried with some amendments. The draft of the Press Council Ordinance was received from the CPNE, he said.

The secretary said the Defamation Ordinance was made by the ministry of law. It contained many loopholes which would be removed.

He said the past governments had tried to introduce the Freedom of Information Ordinance which they could not due to various reasons. The Musharraf government talked with the stakeholders on the issue and recommendations were given to the cabinet division for improvement.

The secretary said that besides press, the law also applied on every citizen in the country but the information ministry had tried to facilitate the media.

He said he had studied similar laws in the other countries before giving his remarks on the law. He also asked the participants in the conference to go through these laws and then give their opinion on the one in Pakistan.

“We will try to improve this,” he said, hoping that the government would be better prepared to handle recommendations by SAFMA during its next meeting being held in near future.

Ms.Asma Jahangir urged the need for a vigorous struggle for the freedom of press in the region because of the prevailing conditions. The current campaign against terrorism was a burden on the press freedom, she said. She rejected the earlier speakers’ claim that press remained free during the past three years.

Ms.Aama said the past military rulers had never talked of freedom of press. They rather had tolerated press which attained freedom because of the working journalists. During the last three years, the HRCP had received reports of violence against journalists which never appeared in press. Many were picked up and kicked but they never liked it to be reported in press, she said.

She termed the new government NAB-ridden which she said had the dilemma of facing accountability on decisions to be taken by the army. But, she said, denial of press freedom would itself weaken the government. The five laws should be repealed and replaced by the ones that could strengthen media and working journalists.

Mr.Ziauddin said the elected government should discuss the ordinances in parliament and amend them in the light of the recommendations by the conference, making a room for access to information as much as possible.

Meanwhile, in its declaration the conference observed that the new media laws were extra-constitutional decrees and they lacked legitimate sanction. Some of them were issued after the general election and were liable to rejection on this ground alone.

It declared that the freedom of information ordinance instead of removing flaws and deficiencies in the earlier drafts had made access to information difficult. The press, newspapers, news agency and book registration ordinance was a rehash of the infamous PPO and retained the authoritarian regimes practice of treating a declaration as a licence.

It also declared that the defamation ordinance constituted an unnecessary innovation as it was a special law targeting media persons in the presence of the other related laws.

The Press Council of Pakistan Ordinance was an example of the executive misappropriating the idea of an autonomous self-regulating body within the media community. The Electronic Media Regulatory Authority Ordinance was also arbitrary, it declared.

The APP Corporation Ordinance constituted a blatant repudiation of the government’s pledge made at the time of its taking over, it declared.

The conference declared that its participants had not only dwelt on the flaws in the new laws but they also advanced alternative proposals which would be disseminated for an open discourse.