CPNE body to handle press-related complaints
KARACHI, Nov 17: The standing committee of the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE), in its meeting held on Saturday under the chairmanship of the CPNE President Mir Shakilur Rehman, has decided to set up a Press Complaints Commission, with prominent citizens as its members, besides editors, to deal with complaints against newspapers and those pertaining to press freedom.
The details of the composition and functions of the commission will be worked out by special CPNE committees, which will prepare a report at the next meeting of the council’s standing committee to be held soon, after which the commission will be formally launched.
The CPNE meeting observed that there was a general demand from the press, government and the public that there should be some forum to handle the complaints and grievances relating to the newspapers and press freedom. The meeting was of the view that the government was hesitant in constituting the Press Council of Pakistan, for which there was a consensus between the government and the CPNE.
Therefore, in order to consolidate free and fair press, the CPNE had no alternative but to decide on its own to set up a body working as “ombudsman” to deal with the complaints by public and the government against newspapers and those of newspapers against the government and various pressure groups, the meeting observed.
The meeting decided that the commission would comprise persons of eminence in their respective fields, besides editors. The CPNE standing committee also discussed in detail the government-press relationship, and took serious notice of certain departments for ignoring the CPNE, the sole representative body of editors, and instead promoting, what the council called a ‘dummy’ organization.
The meeting also regretted the tendency, on the part of the Federal Information Ministry and the secretariats of the prime minister and the president, to select newsmen from the newspapers of their choice for foreign tours, bypassing the newspaper editors.
Source: Dawn
Date:11/18/2003
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