Senate human rights panel to take up media censorship issue tomorrow – Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights, headed by an opposition legislator, will deal with the crucial issues of media censorship and denial of facilities to prisoners under trial by the National Office of Responsibility (NAB ) at your meeting on Friday.

The five-point agenda issued by the Senate Secretariat for the meeting shows that committee members, headed by Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar of the People's Party of Pakistan (PPP), will receive reports from government officials and the Electronic Media Regulatory Authority from Pakistan (Pemra). ) on issues related to the freedom of the media in the country.

According to the agenda, the committee members will first receive an information session from the secretary of the human rights ministry on media freedom in Pakistan in the light of reports from international media and human rights organizations and then be informed. by the president of Pemra on "Legality of censorship of the coverage of interviews and press conferences of opposition members".

After deliberating on the issue of media, the committee members will receive an information session from the secretaries of home and general inspectors of the four provinces' prisons on "discrimination against NAB prosecuted prisoners and denial of facilities for them. ".

Opposition parties and media organizations have been expressing concern and raising their voice against the government's policy of curbing the media over the past few months.

Opposition parties and the media have expressed concern about restrictions.

Opposition parties and representative bodies of journalists and media organizations also oppose the government's decision to establish media courts in the country. Before raising the idea of ​​establishing media courts, the government had initiated a plan to establish a new media regulatory authority to replace Pemra and the Pakistan Press Council (PCP) to regulate electronic, print and social media. The government had to file the project after all interested parties bitterly opposed and claimed that the measures were intended to control the media.

Speaking with Dawn on Wednesday, the committee chairman, Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, said the committee had decided to address the issue of media restrictions due to concerns shown by various local and international organizations about the state of media freedom. in Pakistan in the recent past. He said that even recently, the president of the Supreme Court of Pakistan had spoken about the "reduction of political space" in the country.

In addition, he said, including the President of the Supreme Court of the Supreme Court of Islamanad, Athar Minullah, during the hearing of the case of & # 39; Azadi March & # 39; of JUI-F, had made an observation that there was freedom of protest and freedom of expression in the country and that this could not be stopped

"Therefore, it is time for the problem to be addressed and addressed properly," he said.

Khokhar, who is also the official spokesman for the PPP president, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, said he wanted to hear the views of Human Rights Minister Dr. Shireen Mazari about recent reports from several important organizations such as the Commission on Human Rights from Pakistan, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the International Committee of Journalists on the state of media freedom in Pakistan.

He said the committee had called the president of Pemra due to recent "illegal and unconstitutional acts" to ban several television programs by the authority. He alleged that Pemra had ordered news channels not to broadcast press conferences from opposition leaders.

"If the government is holding back freedom of expression and Pemra is being used as a tool, then Pemra responds to parliament," he added.

Khokhar categorically stated that they would no longer leave this problem unattended and that they could go to any extent. He said that even if they had to address the issue in the Senate Plenary Committee, they would.

"We want to take the matter to the next phase where the government needs to be told in clear terms that it should go back and that the media should have the space they had or the space the media needs in a functional democracy," he said. .

Responding to a question, he said that the committee meeting had nothing to do with the next "Azadi March" of the JUI-F. He said that even today the government blocked the coverage of the Maulana Fazlur Rehman press conference. Earlier, he said, Pemra had banned the broadcast of a television interview with former President Asif Ali Zardari.

“You may accept or disagree with Azadi March. The point is that you can't stop broadcasting press conferences, ”he said, recalling that there was a time when Prime Minister Imran Khan used to talk about media freedom in the country.

Posted on Dawn, October 17, 2019