Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) on Monday appealed to Pakistani journalists to hold protest demonstrations on December 1 against the alleged US plan to attack Al-Jazeera TV, and termed it as the worst attack on freedom of press Referring to the report appearing in a British newspaper.
PFUJ in a statement also condemned the British administration for trying to suppress the freedom of the press through "Official Secret Act, and demanded an independent probe into what actually transcribed in a meeting between US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair on April 16, 2004.
The PFUJ charged that this report had totally exposed the hollowness and inherent hypocrisy of the tall US claims about commitment to freedom of the press, thought, and expression.
PFUJ, which is affiliated with the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), asked all its affiliated unions to hold protest meetings and demonstrations in solidarity with the Al-Jazeera and against an attempt to suppress freedom of press on December 1.
PFUJ said that it believed that the United States' so-called claims of the "freedom of the press" had already been exposed in some other recent events, including the one in which a lady journalist, Judith Miller, was coerced by the US Administration into disclosing her sources of information, a flagrant violation of the US constitution.
"This way, the US is left with no justification to accuse her ideological adversaries of human rights violations or suppression," the statement added.
There had also been a big question mark how the American media in particular faced pressures over the coverage of events in Iraq and Afghanistan, the worst places for the foreign journalists, it added.
In 2003, PFUJ sent a memorandum after the attack on Al-Jazeera office in Baghdad in which its correspondent Tariq Ayub and a staff member Rashid Wali were killed. Earlier in 2001, Al-Jazeera cameraman Sami Al-Haj was arrested and shifted to Guantanamo Bay.
PFUJ supported Al-Jazeera's demand of the investigation into the news report published in daily Mirror, particularly in the light of some of the incidents.
PFUJ said that Pakistani journalists believed that if the news item was correct, it was a most serious matter as the US President was named in it and it should not go unnoticed.
PFUJ appealed to the United Nations to take notice of the situation and also urged the British government not to cover up the report under "Official Secret Act."
It also lamented the ethical degeneration whereby the United Kingdom, having always been the epitome of freedom of thoughts and expression, the government there had thrown its weight totally behind US President George Bush and it was threatening the local press with action in case any further disclosures were made in connection with the Al-Jazeera bombing plan.
PFUJ said that it would take up the issue at the international level, and urged the Pakistan government to communicate its concerns to the US government over this matter. It also urged the parliamentarians to raise the issue in the assemblies.
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