Journalists sign petition against curbs on freedom of expression

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published: 19 April 2018

A coalition of over 50 journalists has condemned curbs on freedom of expression in Pakistan through a signed petition. The initiative aims to address the issue of self-censorship in media.

Summary

More than 50 journalists including editors, columnists, media persons and media freedom organization representatives have signed a petition against the ongoing curbs on freedom of expression in the country. Initiated by journalist Beena Sarwar (pictured), the petition stated that there was a growing trend of news that was “given” or injected into organizations, rather than allowing coverage of real news - incidents that were truly happening, but were either not covered or were taken off the air, Dawn.com reported on Thursday. “All this is giving rise to an air of ‘self-censorship’ and resulting in violation of the citizens’ right to information,” according to the petition. The curbs included several articles being pulled off media websites in Pakistan, removal of online editions of published articles and one media house even asking its anchors to stop doing live shows.

Photo: Twitter (@beenasarwar Some of the signatories were Saleem Asmi, Farah Zia, Hamid Mir, Imtiaz Alam, I.A. Rehman, Husain Naqi, Zahid Hussain, Kiran Nazish and Nusrat Javeed. - IANS