Media bodies demand measures for journalists’ safety
LAHORE: The Media Commission Pakistan (MCP) and South Asian Free Media Association-Pakistan (SAFMA) demanded implementation of the recommendations of a judicial commission on journalist Saleem Shahzad’s murder, to ensure safety of journalists.
In a statement issued ahead of the World Press Freedom Day, today (Thursday), MCP President M Ziauddin and SAFMA Pakistan President Nusrat Javeed supported the commission in its call to parliament and the armed forces for implementing remedial measures by both the intelligence agencies and parliament to help smoothen relations between the media-persons, citizens and security agencies.
The commission had recommended that the press be made more law-abiding and accountable through the strengthening of institutions mandated by the law to deal with legitimate grievances against it; that the balance between secrecy and accountability in the conduct of intelligence gathering be appropriately re-adjusted, with the aim of restoring public confidence in all institutions of the state; that the more important agencies (ISI and IB) be made more law-abiding through a statutory framework carefully outlining their respective mandates and role; that their interaction with the media be carefully institutionally streamlined and regularly documented; that all the agencies be made more accountable through effective and suitably tailored mechanisms of internal administrative review, parliamentary oversight, and judicial redress of citizens’ grievances against them.
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