Government urged to withdraw amendments: CPNE, APNS and PFUJ representatives meet Durrani

The three leading associations representing the print media in Pakistan - Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE), All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS), and Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ)- met Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Muhammad Ali Durrani Thursday at Islamabad and urged him to persuade the government to wholly withdraw the recent amendments to a critical law governing the print media.
They emphasised that the recent amendments imposed at the beginning of the Emergency were draconian in intent but meaningless in effect. They further 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 recent black amendments to the law provided a contrary image of Pakistan's free press and damaged international and domestic perceptions about the self-sustainability and viability of Pakistani democracy.
The CPNE was represented by its Secretary General Wamiq Zuberi, APNS by its President Hameed Haroon, Secretary General, Muhammad Aslam Kazi, while the PFUJ was represented by its President Huma Ali and Afzal Butt. Muhammad Ali Durrani was accompanied by Minister of State, Tariq Azeem and Secretary Ministry of Information, Anwar Mahmood.
The meeting represents the highest level joint contact after a lapse of several years between the APNS-CPNE on the one hand and the PFUJ on the other, and was sought as a way out of the heightened protests against the recently imposed black amendments to laws governing the operation of the print and electronic media.
The contention of the print media associations could be summed up thus;
1. The various problems of coverage in the print media, 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.
2. If the government wish 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.
3. There will be a better response to the imposition of Emergency in Pakistan as a limited and short term exercise if the amendments to Press, Newspapers, News Agencies and Books Registration Ordinance are reviewed and withdrawn in full.
In return, the print media associations have suggested that a three - stage package reflecting exchanges between the print media and government officials be effected.
The first stage calls for the withdrawal of the Press, Newspapers, News Agencies and Books Registration Ordinance amendments by the government. The second stage calls for the activation of the Press Council of Pakistan soon thereafter, so that the government complaints as well as private grievances against the print media can be arbitrated and disposed off judiciously.
Finally, in the third stage the amendments to the Pemra Ordinance made at the start of the Emergency be reviewed with the full restoration of all private channels on air. This stage of necessity would require the involvement and interaction of the print media associations, the Ministry of Information officials with members of Pakistan Broadcasters Association, representatives of channels taken off air and the Pemra officials.-PR