KARACHI:
Sindh Information and Local Government Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon on
Saturday said that the Pakistan People’s Party’s government in the
province would never accept the shutting down of the publication of
Daily Jang or the closure of the transmission of Geo TV as it would be
in sheer violation of principles of freedom of the media.
Speaking
at a function to mark the World Press Freedom Day being commemorated
globally on May 3, organised by the Council of Pakistan Newspaper
Editors (CPNE) here at a local hotel, he said that the Geo-Jang Group is
a big organisation and we are proud of it, adding that the PPP always
supported the cause of freedom of press.
Memon said the
PPP government would always be tolerant to criticism, due or undue,
being propagated by Geo News but it would never accept the complete
shutting down of transmission of the channel. He said the all television
channels and outlets of the media should be at complete freedom to
criticise governments but they should never be penalised in the form of
shutting down their transmission.
The Sindh information
minister said the present situation in the country, where different
institutions and sections of the society had become highly polarised in
the aftermath of the attack on Hamid Mir, had been going highly in
favour of enemies of the country. He regretted that nobody was available
on the current scenario to defuse the situation in an amicable manner
through talks and negotiations. Rather every other person is found
active on the scene trying to add fuel to the fire.
Memon
said that he would never support the latest stance of Pakistan
Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan for boycotting the Daily Jang and
Geo TV as such a decision would be completely against the spirit of
freedom of the media and the principles of democracy.
He
said the media and journalistic fraternity in the country should observe
complete freedom and solidarity among their ranks to give support and
uphold the cause of freedom of the press. He said the ensuring freedom
of press was a compulsory condition for the continuity of democracy in
the country.
He said that media institutions, TV channels
and newspapers should not be subjected to censorship or restrictions as
the media should embark upon the course of self-regulation, self-reform,
and self-discipline as has always been the norm in a democratic regime.
On
the demand made by another speaker of the forum Owais Aslam Ali,
chairman of the Pakistan Press Foundation, Sharjeel Memon said the trial
court proceedings related to the murder case of slain media person
Munir Sangi, belonging to Larkana, would be shifted to any other town of
the province in accordance with the demands of heirs in the family of
the deceased media person. The demand for shifting the venue of trial
court proceedings of the case of slain media person was made in the
context of the case of slain Geo News TV journalist Wali Khan Babar as
recently convictions were secured against the killers of Wali Babar by
shifting his trial court case to a town in interior Sindh.
Other
speakers at the forum said the media and journalists’ fraternity would
never accept shutting down any newspaper or television channel by the
establishment as such an act would create serious repercussions for the
independence of the press and for the existence and future of other
media institutions in the country too.
They also eulogised
the journalistic services of injured Geo News senior anchorperson Hamid
Mir, saying that the armed attack on his life on the evening of April
19, 2014 could only be perceived as the attack on the freedom of press
in the country. They said the only crime committed by Hamid Mir, owing
to which he was attacked, was that he had become the representative
voice of downtrodden Pakistanis especially because he had upheld the
cause of the people of Balochistan struggling for their long-denied
rights.
They said that the military-led establishment in
the country had no right to award certificates of loyalty and patriotism
to different sections and people of society neither could the same
establishment compel the media regulator to rescind licence of any
particular TV channel while branding it disloyal to the state.
They
said the journalists’ fraternity, regardless of the conflicting
business interests of media houses, had complete unity in their ranks
for the cause of freedom of press and in no way were they ready to
accept any propaganda being aired regarding the attack on the life of
Hamid Mir.
Also speaking on the occasion, Editor of Daily
Jang Nazir Leghari said the establishment, which at present had been
trying to brand Jang and Geo TV as disloyal to the state in the past had
declared the leaders of East Pakistan A K Fazlul Haq and Huseyn Shaheed
Suhrawardy, who in fact had been at the forefront in the struggle for
the creation of Pakistan, as traitors. He said the same tyrannical
fashion of the state for unduly awarding certificates of disloyalty had
dated back to the times of Socrates as the famous Greek philosopher had
been sentenced to death while declaring him an enemy of the state.
He
said the 180 million population of the country would never be affected
by the propaganda of the establishment as it would always hold Hamid Mir
in high esteem as the torchbearer of the struggle for securing the
rights of the people of Pakistan.
He said the dissenting
voice of the media had not been stifled during the draconian and
repressive military and martial law rule of the 1980s in the country and
in the present modern-day, no state authority would be able to shut
down publication of newspapers or transmission of TV channels through
the coercive means.
He said it was high time that the
owners of media houses and publishers of newspapers sort out their
mutual and conflicting interests for the greater cause of freedom of
media.
Tahir Najmi, Editor of Daily Express, said the
journalistic fraternity had only one consensus opinion about the attack
on the life of Hamid Mir that the incident was highly condemnable,
tantamount to curbing the freedom of press, while the criminal elements
and conspirators behind the attack, regardless of their influence or
status, should be brought to justice without any undue delay.
He
said the business interests of owners of media houses had been behind
the present situation of division and polarisation persisting on the
national media scene following the attack on Hamid Mir.
He
said the working journalists and their representative associations like
Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists had always been in the forefront
in the struggle against censorship and curbs on the media and press but
associations of editors and newspaper publishers had never played their
due role in securing the freedom of press.
Saeed Khawar,
Resident Editor of Daily Nawa-e-Waqat Karachi, said the media
institutions should show harmony in their relationship with each other
so that there should be no damage to the cause of freedom of the media.
He
said the shutting down of any TV channel or newspaper in the country
would be perceived as an act of the state in total disrespect of
morality and ethical norms being considered necessary for freedom of the
media in the country.
Owais Aslam Ali said the armed
attack on the life of Hamid Mir had massively damaged the cause of
freedom of the press and also compromised the cause of safety and
security of media institutions, which was required for their independent
functioning.
Dr Jabbar Khattak, secretary-general of
CPNE, said the democratically elected governments had always been
tolerant to criticism of the media and press against their policies
while military regimes in the country had always tried to stifle the
voice of the dissenting media.
Aamir Mahmood of CPNE also
said the CPNE as the representative forum of working and publisher
editors in the country would never accept the present form of Pakistan
Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra), and its repressive laws,
mainly due to abnormal constitution of the electronic media regulator.
He said Pemra in the present form was not in a position to consider any
application forwarded to it for revoking the license of any TV channel.
Vice-president
CPNE and chairman of its Sindh Committee Shaheen Qureshi said that
World Press Freedom Day in the country should be observed from next year
as the day to commemorate Shuhuda (martyrs) of journalism in the
country as over 100 journalists in the country had so far laid down
their lives for upholding the cause of freedom of the press.
