KARACHI: The President of Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) Arif Nizami, Senior Vice President Imtinan Shahid and Secretary General Dr Jabbar Khattak expressed grave concern over the upheaval of establishing treason cases and putting journalists’ names on ECL in Pakistan on the basis of performing professional journalistic duties.
In a joint statement, they emphasized the need for respecting media freedom by all State and non-state institutions. They added that CPNE being a sole representative organization of editors’ community of Pakistan, understands that freedom of expression has been guaranteed in Constitution of Pakistan and it is not a proper move to prosecute any journalist for interviewing former Prime Minister, whereas it is not a crime to perform journalistic duty.
CPNE leaders commented that one sided action and cases against any journalist due to the process of conducting journalistic duties negate the basic human rights and media freedoms guaranteed to citizens by the Constitution of Pakistan. Such actions tantamount to eliminating media freedom.
They said that accepting the responsibility of the publication according to its research, is in line with professional journalistic principles. Therefore, they further added, it is expected that the name of Cyril Almeida will be removed from the ECL in respect of constitution and law.—PR