Media delegation calls on information minister: Journalists in tribal areas will get govt protection: Durrani
Media delegation calls on information minister: Journalists in tribal areas will get govt protection: Durrani
* ‘Wage board award issue to be resolved within weeks’
ISLAMABAD: “The government is ready to provide protection to journalists if they want to travel to the tribal areas,” said Federal Information Minister Muhamamd Ali Durrani on Saturday.
He said this while talking to a media delegation, consisting of International Federation of Journalists (IFP) President Christopher Warren, National Union of Journalists (NUJ) President Chris Morley and Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists President Pervez Shaukat.
He said that the issue of wage board award for journalists will be resolved within a few days or weeks. The minister said that implementation of the wage award tops the priorities of the information ministry. “We have consulted all parties concerned and negotiations are in the final stage. I am sure that the matter will be resolved within days or weeks,” he said, adding that all options were open to the government. “We have alternate options to resolve the issue. In my opinion, all concerned parties also want an amicable solution and hopefully the matter will be resolved through dialogue,” he said, adding that the government was ready to facilitate the owners of media organisations if the issue were resolved. Durrani said that the country’s media had unparalleled freedom and its active role was assisting the government in ensuring good governance.
“Criticism by media either specifies inefficient elements or assists the government in correcting them,” the minister said. To a question regarding information laws, Senator Durrani said that under the Freedom of Information Law, any journalist could access the required information. He said that the Pakistan Electronic Media Regularity Authority (PEMRA) had issued a number of new FM radio licences. “Besides entertainment programmes, community-based radio channels also transmit news in national and local languages,” he said.
He said that the government was working to set up more media offices to facilitate journalists to enable them to access information in emergency situations. Durrani said that the government was developing infrastructure in the tribal areas to ensure to control them.
Responding to a question regarding public sector advertisements to media organisations, he said, “The Information Ministry is only a link between the media and the public sector departments.” “The concerned departments have the prerogative to name newspapers for giving advertisements and the ministry is a bridge between the two,” said State Information Minister Senator Tariq Azeem, on the occasion
Source: Daily Times
Date:2/25/2007
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