Newsmen to observe hunger strike
KARACHI, Feb 5: The Action Committee of the Karachi Union of journalists (KUJ) has condemned the high-handed and arbitrary stance of the government towards the Jang Group and other newspapers and announced the launching of a token hunger strike campaign.
The first batch of journalists will go on hunger strike on Monday at 6pm at Karachi Press Club (KPC), preceded by a protest meeting at 2:30pm. This decision was taken by the committee, which met with Ahfaz-ur-Rehman in the chair at KPC on Friday.
The meeting claimed that the government was creating insurmountable obstacles in the path of dispensation of democratic values.
“On the one hand the government had a total stranglehold over the electronic media, and on the other the ministry of information was hell-bent on making the newspapers subservient to it,” it said.
“In this vindictiveness, the government has clamped the MPO, sedition law and the sea customs act of 1878, the official secret act, and a host of other laws to muzzle the press it added.
“In order to keep the flag of press freedom aloft, the committee has decided to launch a hunger strike campaign till such time as the government’s intimidating tactics against the Jang group and other papers come to an end,”
Source: Dawn
Date:2/6/1999
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