Reporters not to cover court proceedings
Reporters covering court stories have decided that they would not cover court proceedings and hearings unless the Karachi Bar Association (KBA) assures that they would be provided protection from intimidations from the quarter concerned.
This was decided at a meeting of the court reporters held at the Karachi Press Club on Saturday.
The meeting, expressing concern over mishandling of reporters by the lawyers, said that the journalists were consistently receiving ëthreatening calls’ from the city lawyers which is condemnable in each term.
It was demanded in the meeting that a stern action be taken against those involved in the beating of journalists on Friday during a protest rally by the lawyers. They also condemned the smashing of footage devices of cameramen by the lawyers.
The meting said that during the hearing of the chief justice of Pakistan’s case by the Supreme Judicial Council, lawyers and journalists should maintain close coordination to avoid recurrence of such incidents.
It was demanded that KBA should direct the lawyers against misbehaving journalists covering the ongoing protests of lawyers. It was also demanded that membership of those found involved in beating journalists be cancelled.
Meanwhile, the lawyers observed an unannounced complete strike and there were no court proceedings in both the city courts and Malir courts.
Nine lawyers also observed a token hunger strike.
When contacted KBA Secretary General Naeem Qureshi to seek his comments about the unannounced full-day strike, he did not attend his cell phone to respond to.
Source: The News
Date:4/15/2007
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