ISLAMABAD: Violent attacks on members of religious minorities rose significantly in 2014 as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government failed to ensure protection of religious freedoms, says a report of the Human Rights Watch (HRW). In a statement attached to the report, Phelim Kine, the deputy Asia director at the New York-based HRW, regretted that “the […]
ISLAMABAD: There is currently no law that allows the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to ban websites, even pornographic ones, and the actions of the Inter-Ministerial Committee for the Evaluation of Websites (IMCEW) are completely unconstitutional, a lawyer who has been fighting a legal battle for the restoration of popular video-sharing website YouTube, said on Tuesday. […]
We come into this world crying, and by that we are marked as healthy. We leave it with our last words imparting whatever final wisdom they can to those who matter to us. In those moments, expression is free and fearless. All our lives, the desire to express what we feel even if — sometimes […]
KARACHI: In the wake of the recent scourge of terrorism in Paris, which left 12 people dead, including the editor and prominent cartoonists of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, netizens have harked back to the debate of what constitutes ‘free’ and ‘hate’ speech. Actor Hamza Ali Abbasi is among those who took to Facebook to […]
CEO and Founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg on Monday said his social network’s removal of actor Hamza Ali Abbasi’s status regarding the Charlie Hebdo attack and freedom of expression may have been a mistake. When asked by one profile Angelic Munni what Zuckerberg has to say about his network’s deletion of Hamza’s post, Mark Zuckerberg […]
ISLAMABAD: Journalists covering Senate proceedings on Wednesday walked out of its press gallery against a proposed law described as a move to curb freedom of speech while reporting the proceedings of parliament. The bill titled Members of the Parliament (Power, Immunities and Privileges) Bill, 2014, was tabled in the Senate by PPP’s Senator Farhatullah Babar […]
A few days ago, the BBC Urdu website carried an interesting news report that gave details of the number of exclusive interviews of various front-line politicians carried by Pakistan’s 24/7 private news channels over nearly a 10-month period – prior to the August 14 ‘revolutionary’ and ‘freedom’ marches and sit-ins by PTI and the PAT […]
THERE is no denying the fact that the free media has made a valuable contribution to society by creating political awareness among the masses, empowering them to use their freedom of speech. I feel, there should be proper legislation to protect this freedom of speech and a remedy available if someone abuses this freedom. Pakistan’s […]
LAHORE: With the country celebrating Independence Day, Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif during his address to the nation requested the media houses for self-regulation and reviewing their role in the present political scenario. The PM’s request should be taken seriously for the sake of a healthy state of mind and promotion of democracy in Pakistan. […]
“There are laws to protect the freedom of the press’s speech, but none that are worth anything to protect the people from the press” — Mark Twain. In the context of today’s online media, the above 18th century author would be bewildered to find out that everyone now holds the power of information by just […]
In the United States, everyone — from a school girl to Lady Gaga, from a young boy to President Barack Obama — posts stories from their lives on social media outlets. Even the Central Intelligence Agency, one of the world’s top spy agencies, got itself a Twitter account recently. But Pakistanis can only dream about […]
Seriously, how can someone claim to conduct a ‘neutral’ political talk show when he is an active member of a political party? It is like having an umpire in cricket who plays for the opposing team. Surprised by this notion of neutrality, if you raise an objection, do you know what they are going to […]
ISLAMABAD: Despite continuous rain in many cities of the country, journalists on Wednesday continued their protest sit-ins in front of press clubs across the country, vowing not to stop their movement unless the government takes steps to eliminate the no-go areas for news channels and rectify the affairs of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority […]
It is never a good sign for freedom of speech when those meant to uphold and defend it consciously campaign in favour of arbitrary censorship for the sake of business interests and petty enmity. Media houses have only themselves to blame for the position they now find themselves in; vulnerable in the face of a […]
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