PFUJ evolving new strategy to cope with anti-journalist measures

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published: 23 November 2018

The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists is crafting a strategy to combat layoffs and censorship affecting the media. The union is coordinating nationwide protests to advocate for journalists' rights.

Summary

ISLAMABAD – The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) is evolving a new strategy to cope with the prevailing situation that has seen massive layoffs of staff by news organizations, pay cuts, and unseen censorship.

Afzal Butt, the union president announced this during a protest organized by the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Union of Journalist (RIUJ) outside the National Press Club on Friday.

The RIUJ has held such protests regularly for several weeks now.

Butt said that the recent series of layoffs have a direct link with unseen censorship.

He said PFUJ will soon launch a countrywide protest to press the government for accepting journalists’ demands.

RIUJ President Mubarak Zeb Khan said that journalists would not let the powers that be succeed in their anti-media designs. He pointed out that there was a pattern to what the media and journalists face today.

“It all started with unseen censorship followed by disruptions in the circulation of newspapers,” Khan pointed out. “Then the government ads to media houses were stopped that led to retrenchments by the owners, who also slapped pay cuts.”

He said that now the government planned to come with one media regulatory authority, which was another attempt to suppress the media. “We fought and protested all the previous measures and will stand up to any move that threatens press freedom,” Khan said.