Press laws to be submitted to Cabinet for approval: Memon
ISLAMABAD- Federal Minister for Information and Media Development Nisar A. Memon disclosed in a meeting with All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) and Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) that Press laws will be submitted soon to the Cabinet for approval and asked the participants to give their views on the proposed Defamation and Freedom of Information Act to be promulgated in due course of time.
The Ministry provided the copies of the proposed laws to the office-bearers of the APNS and CPNE who promised to give, their views and suggestions within 10 days’ time after having gone through each provision of the laws.
The Minister said that the interaction between the Ministry and the representatives of the Press is always helpful in improving Government-Press relations.
The representatives of APNS, and CPNE appreciated the open environment in which the discussion took place and the positive role played by the Ministry in improving the Press-government relations under the leadership of Information Minister Nisar A. Memon.
The Minister assured the meeting that the government of President Pervez Musharraf was committed to the cause of the freedom of the Press and will continue to stand by its policy in this regard in spite of sometimes undue and unwarranted criticism of the media.
The representatives of APNS and CPNE agreed with the Minister that the freedom of Press enjoyed by the newspapers at present is unprecedented and is far better in qualitative terms than ever exercised by it in the history of Pakistan.
Hameed Haroon, President of APNS and Mujeeb-ur-Rehman Shami, President CPNE, appreciated the direct contact between the government and the newspapers representatives organizations which will go a long way in addressing the media related matters on the rational basis.
The meeting agreed with the Minister that today what the country needs is the peaceful congenial environment for the transition to the elected government in October 2002 and the Minister is willing to play a role to bring all the stakeholders i.e. government, Press publishers and journalists together on one table to openly discuss the problems faced by the media towards finding mutually acceptable solutions.
The meeting was also attended by Zia Shahid, Senior Vice President APNS, Jamil Athar SVP CPNE, Qazi Asad Abid, Secretary General APNS, and Mahmoodul Aziz, Secretary CPNE, and Syed Fasih Iqbal.
Federal Secretary Information Syed Anwar Mahmood, PIO Akram Shaheedi, and DG-IP Fazalur Rehman Malik were also present in the meeting.
Source: The Nation
Date:7/25/2002
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