APNS rejects draft Defamation Ordinance 2002
KARACHI- The All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) has unequivocally rejected both the motivation and the rationale contained within the proposed draft of the new Defamation Ordinance 2002. In a press release, President APNS Hameed Haroon has described the proposed ordinance as draconian and violative of Article 19 of the Constitution of Pakistan.
He has referred the mater to a panel of APNS constitutionalists and legal experts, as to whether a tinkering with those clauses, which govern the basic freedom of expression and the press in the constitution is in accordance with the three-year mandate provided to the present government by the Supreme Court. He has also requested the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) for its opinion, as to whether a negation of the constitutional clauses, governing freedom of expression is consistent with a respectable human rights record that the present government professes to have.
The press release states, “A new environment appears to be governing government — press relations in the wake of the referendum. Not only has the government attempted to attach new clauses to a Press Council law and to a revised text of a Registration of Newspapers and Periodicals ordinance, which had been decided on the basis of consensus of the Ministry of Information, almost 12 months ago, and not promulgated despite repeated promises. The government in general and the NRB in particular has also veiled its preparations behind a shroud of secrecy of the Freedom Information Act, for which a promised draft has not been received by the representatives since the last 18 months. Lt-Gen (retd) Tanvir Naqvi, the self-proclaimed czar of societal re-engineering, has not seen it fit to even reply to the letters of the APNS on this issue”. “Now with the introduction of a four pronged attack on press rights — a draft law on the Press Council, a draft law on the registration of newspapers and periodicals, a draft defamation ordinance against newspapers, and finally, an unseen freedom of info act that purports to accompany this defamation ordinance, the four corners of the prison cell in which the present government intends to display the Pakistani press, have now been duly erected.
“This is not the first time has attempted to pass an outrageous defamation law. This one intends to stop editors, journalists and publishers from using official government documents to prove the contention of their stories. We remember when Gen Zia-ul-Haq passed his regime’s version of the Defamation Laws (Section 499 of the Pakistan Panel Code (PPC). The law attempted to establish the contention that truth was no defence in a defamation case, that pleading public interest was no defence — and that an editor cud be sent to sent, even if he spoke the truth and that was in the public interest.
The new defamation laws that Ranjha’s ministry tries to pioneer, that Nisar Memon’s ministry will be expected to uphold, and that the soon to be outgoing cabinet of Gen Musharraf is expected to enthusiastically acquiesce in defiance of informed public opinion is unfortunately a trio of actors that appear to be hell bent upon destroying the respectable image of President Musharraf’s government on press freedom, both internationally and at home. A few bad laws and a few over enthusiastic proponents are designed to do both the country and the government harm during its eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation with neighbouring India.
The president must not only silence the dangerous proponents of this law in his own government, but he also needs to change the way his government is trying to do business with the press after the referendum. The APNS awaits the opinion of its legal experts and a response from the HRCP before calling an emergency general body meeting of all the newspapers in the country.
Source: The News
Date:6/5/2002
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