NA body directs concrete steps to ensure safety of journalists

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting directed concrete steps to ensure safety of journalists.

In this regard, the National Assembly and the Senate Standing Committee on Information decided to set up a six-member sub-committee.

A meeting of the NA Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting was held under the chairmanship of Chairman Mian Javed Latif, in which it expressed concern over the fact that the investigation report of those responsible for the abduction of senior journalist Matiullah Jan had not come to light yet.

“Attacks on journalists are a deliberate plan to stifle freedom of the press. I have been the victim of several such attacks since 2017, but no one has been held accountable so far and I hope no one will come forward. And to get to the reasons, set up a sub-committee that would compile details of similar incidents involving journalists across the country every week and present them in the House,” the journalist said.

Senior journalist Matiullah gave a deadline of three weeks to submit the report of the kidnapping case. Behzad Saleemi, president of the Parliamentary Reporters Association (PRA) demanded early approval of the Journalists Protection Bill to expedite the investigation into Matiullah Jan's abduction and ensure the safety of journalists.

It was emphasised the Joint Sub-Committee on Information of the National Assembly and the Senate Standing Committee should also be tasked with paving the way for the passage of the Journalist Protection Bill. Saleemi said that an emergency button was installed by the Islamabad Police to protect the media offices. It is no longer active, it should be reactivated. Journalists were asked to launch an app for emergency help in their mobile phones.

DIG Operations Waqaruddin told the committee that Nadra could not identify Matiullah Jan from the footage of the abductors and now it has been sent to the Punjab Forensic Laboratory. He requested the committee to bind all these institutions as well. On the suggestion of journalists, Mian Javed Latif, while deciding to form a joint sub-committee of the Standing Committee on Information of both the houses on issues related to journalists, said that he will talk to Senator Faisal Javed and get three names for the sub-committee.

He has nominated three members, Rana Iradat Hussain, Naz Baloch and Aftab Jahangir Siddiqui from the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Information for the sub-committee. The six-member joint committee will work on the problems of journalists and their solutions.

Meanwhile, the Senate Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting in its meeting, said the film policy will be implemented soon and the committee will extend full cooperation in this regard. A meeting of the Senate body was held under the chairmanship of Senator Faisal Javed at the Parliament House. In the meeting of the standing committee, the issue of delay in payment of advertisement dues of private channels, payment of salaries of media workers and journalists from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting was reviewed in detail.

Secretary Ministry of Information Akbar Hussain Durrani while briefing the committee about the details said that the matter was also taken up in the Cabinet. The committee was informed that the relevant advertising agencies pay 85 percent to the concerned media houses after 15 percent deduction. Payments to media workers have also been reviewed in detail in the cabinet meeting.

He said that there were complaints from the media workers regarding the salaries and an agreement has been reached with all the advertising agencies to pay the salaries of the workers. He said that a concession was also given by the prime minister of Pakistan that the State Bank of Pakistan would provide loans in easy installments, loans had been taken and we had also sent letters to all media houses.

It has been written that the salaries of the workers should be paid and a warning has also been given that if the workers have not been paid their salaries then no further advertisement will be given.

Senator Anwarul Haq Kakar said that the legal loopholes in this regard should be removed and an effective mechanism should be set up for the payment of salaries of media workers and workers should not be appointed without contract.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting should take steps in this regard with the FBR. The matter was reviewed in detail in the committee meeting regarding the working method and structure of the digital media wing. Faisal Javed said that the neighbouring country is far ahead in terms of digital. This is the digital age. News about Pakistan should be disseminated all over the world.

Senator Rubina Khalid said that the committee should be informed about the digitisation of the system of the organisation. On which the Secretary Information and Broadcasting said that digitisation is the job of the Ministry of IT.

The committee will be briefed by the concerned technical persons in the meeting. The chairman of the committee said that the information provided was not sufficient and adjourned the matter till the next meeting briefed the committee about the structure, rules and working procedure.

The issue was raised in detail in the committee meeting regarding the misrepresentation of the issue of public importance for Pakistan, which was raised in the Senate session on June 8, 2020 by Senator Musadik Masood Malik. Senator Masood Malik said that state run TV is a national institution and some things were broadcast on this channel which were disturbing. He noted that two programmes of national TV aired wrong maps of Pakistan in which some areas of Azad Kashmir were covered. He said that the state run TV had aired these programmes on seven different dates and the issue was not raised due to strong protests on social media, nor did Pemra take any action in this regard.

Senator Pervez Rashid said that when did national TV take notice against the negligence of the concerned persons, details must be provided. On which MD state run TV Amir Mansoor, while informing the standing committee about the details, said that in one programme a child was informing about the usefulness of the map and the wrong map was shown in the context of population. The producer did not implement the SOPs and aired it on state run Home TV on October 28. The programme aired on State run ‘News’ on June 5, then aired late at night. The next day, a notice was taken and a review committee was formed. In the light of its recommendations, two persons were dismissed and warning letters were issued to three persons.

The members of the committee expressed their indignation over this: That when the crime is the same and the negligence was committed, the punishment should have been the same, why discrimination has been adopted. Those who made the programme were warned and those who re-telecast were fired. The members of the committee said that the inquiry report provided to the cabinet should be provided to the standing committee and all the officers concerned of both the programmes should be included in the inquiry. The chairman of the committee said that in the next meeting of the committee a detailed answer and a briefing on the monitoring system of the national TV programme should be given.