Moot rejects all black laws, including PECA

KARACHI: The Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) on Thursday organised a moot on Thursday, in which the participants showed serious concerns over the amen­dments in the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) and jointly announced to reject the ‘black’ law aimed at curbing expression of freedom at all levels.

The CPNE organised “Media Freedom Round Table Conference” to discuss the media freedom and challenges faced by it in Pakistan. The CPNE has also released a report “Pakistan Media Freedom Report – 2021” to highlight how press freedom deteriorated in 2021 as compared to the previous two years.

A large number of editors of newspapers, managing directors and directors news of TV channels, office-bearers of journalist bodies, such as Association of Electronic Media Editors and News Directors (AEMEND) and Karachi Press Club, senior journalists, human rights activists, and academics attended the meeting. The participants said that it was not the first time that the government was trying to suppress freedom of the press, freedom of expression, and access to information, adding the media organisations, journalists’ bodies, civil society and legal fraternity will jointly struggle to thwart any tactic of restricting the freedom of expression.

Azhar Abbas, AEMEND’s president, said that the government has been forced to withdraw the black laws, such as PMDA and PECA, mainly because of unity among the journalist bodies and timely action of the CPNE and the Joint Action Committee.

He also urged the media to take care of the accuracy of the news. “In principle, no news is fake news. One has to understand the difference between disinformation and misinformation in a real sense,” he said.

CPNE’s secretary-general Amir Mahmood said that the participants of the CPNE media conference jointly rejected the PECA ordinance and agreed to fight jointly for the right to freedom, freedom of the media, and the right of the people to know.

Veteran journalist Mazhar Abbas said that anti-media measures before the elections reflect the government’s intentions. “Legislation in collaboration with the media stakeholders and technology experts is needed to curb fake news circulating on the social media,” he said.

Qazi Khizer, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan’s vice-chairman, said that the rights body stands shoulder to shoulder with the media against the government’s efforts to restrict the media freedom and rejects unconstitutional laws, such as the PECA.

Shahab Sarki, the Sindh High Court Bar Association’s president, termed the amendments to the PECA law as a violation of Articles 19 and 19A, and said that enacting legislation or amending for personal gain is tantamount to violating justice

Ahmad Shah, Arts Council of Pakistan’s president, said that the government was taking irrational steps to divert attention from the real issues so that the truth could not reach the people.

Owais Aslam Ali, Pakistan Press Foundation’s chairman, Karachi Press Club’s President Fazil Jamili, intellectual Noorul Huda Shah, senior journalists Tariq Mahmood, Najia Ashar, Faisal Aziz Khan, Masood Raza, G M Jamali, Sohail Afzal, Rizwan Bhatti, Ejaz Ahmed, Fahim Siddiqui, Hassan Abbas, Dr Tauseef Ahmed Khan, Aslam Khan, Ghulam Nabi Chandio, Ejaz ul Haq, Hamid Hussain Abidi, Anwar Sajidi, Dr Jabbar Khattak, Maqsood Yousufi, Saeed Khawar, Abdul Khaliq Ali, Arif Baloch and others also attended the meeting.