JI opposes proposed ban on social media

LAHORE: Ameer, Jamaat e Islami, Pakistan, Senator Sirajul Haq, has  opposed the proposed ban on the social media and said the government wanted to  take away the peoples right of expression.

In a statement here on Saturday, he said that devising a code of ethics was necessary but clamping a ban on the social media and resorting to harsh steps on the basis of difference of opinion was not desirable.

He said that various steps adopted by the government against the print and the electronic media had already rendered hundreds of newsmen jobless. However, he said that depriving the people of their democratic right to criticize the government and register their protest was a dictatorial approach.

Sirajul Haq said that the laws of cyber crime control should not be misused. He said that if the government itself did not follow the laws, accepting the same from the general public was only self-deception. He said that if the masses demanded a ban on the tweets of the ministers, the government would not have any answer. He said that freedom of the media was a requirement of the democratic system.

The JI chief also impressed upon the journalists and their organizations to keep in mind the interest of the country and the nation as also the moral and social limitations. He said that the journalists organizations should by themselves frame a code of ethics for the media and abide by it. He said that violating moral limitations in the name of the freedom of the media was totally unjustified.