ISLAMABAD:
PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar has warned that if today some media houses
thoughtlessly support banning a media group in the name of national
security and patriotism, the same forces will come back to haunt them
tomorrow but then there may be no one to defend them.
Speaking at a seminar on Press Freedom Day organised by the Press Council of Pakistan here on Saturday, Farhatullah Babar said that defining national security and patriotism cannot be the monopoly of any individual or a single national institution and called for an informed national debate on what constituted national security.
He said that a particular channel may be accused of editorial indiscretion but such indiscretion should in no way be equated as an assault on national security or a deliberate unpatriotic act.
He said that Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto was also once dubbed by a section of the establishment as ‘security risk’ and the PPP knew too well how national security has often been flaunted to advance vested interests and hide uncomfortable truths.
He said that the PPP also protested against a section of the media for taking freedom and right to information too far and refusing to adopt a code of conduct but it will not favour clamping curbs on the media for real or imagined transgressions.
He said that former President Asif Ali Zardari had also stated that while it is important to have a code of conduct, it would be wrong to clamp down on the media house because of real or imagined excesses and deviations.
Later, talking to the media, the PPP leader said that rightly or wrongly, state agencies have been accused of acting beyond the confines of law, kidnapping and enforced disappearances of citizens, dumping of bodies in Balochisan, disappearance of 35 prisoners from a Malakand jail and assault on some journalists to name only a few of the instances. “The Supreme Court, the Commission on Enforced Disappearances and the Senate of Pakistan has repeatedly called for a legislative framework to regulate the functioning of these agencies,” he added.
He said the involvement of agencies in political engineering and manipulation of political parties has even been established in the Asghar Khan case and in such a situation it is in the interest of the agencies to seek to allay serious misgivings about them instead of seeking to clamp on the media.
Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the sudden resurgence of banned militant outfits and the midnight sprouting of posters and billboards supporting agencies against a section of the media in the name of patriotism and national security has raised questions.
He said that it was time for a national debate on media freedom and a code of conduct on the one hand and defining national security and who should authoritatively define the term on the other.
Speaking at a seminar on Press Freedom Day organised by the Press Council of Pakistan here on Saturday, Farhatullah Babar said that defining national security and patriotism cannot be the monopoly of any individual or a single national institution and called for an informed national debate on what constituted national security.
He said that a particular channel may be accused of editorial indiscretion but such indiscretion should in no way be equated as an assault on national security or a deliberate unpatriotic act.
He said that Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto was also once dubbed by a section of the establishment as ‘security risk’ and the PPP knew too well how national security has often been flaunted to advance vested interests and hide uncomfortable truths.
He said that the PPP also protested against a section of the media for taking freedom and right to information too far and refusing to adopt a code of conduct but it will not favour clamping curbs on the media for real or imagined transgressions.
He said that former President Asif Ali Zardari had also stated that while it is important to have a code of conduct, it would be wrong to clamp down on the media house because of real or imagined excesses and deviations.
Later, talking to the media, the PPP leader said that rightly or wrongly, state agencies have been accused of acting beyond the confines of law, kidnapping and enforced disappearances of citizens, dumping of bodies in Balochisan, disappearance of 35 prisoners from a Malakand jail and assault on some journalists to name only a few of the instances. “The Supreme Court, the Commission on Enforced Disappearances and the Senate of Pakistan has repeatedly called for a legislative framework to regulate the functioning of these agencies,” he added.
He said the involvement of agencies in political engineering and manipulation of political parties has even been established in the Asghar Khan case and in such a situation it is in the interest of the agencies to seek to allay serious misgivings about them instead of seeking to clamp on the media.
Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the sudden resurgence of banned militant outfits and the midnight sprouting of posters and billboards supporting agencies against a section of the media in the name of patriotism and national security has raised questions.
He said that it was time for a national debate on media freedom and a code of conduct on the one hand and defining national security and who should authoritatively define the term on the other.
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