ISLAMABAD: The
Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) has decided to launch the second
phase of “Save the Journalist Movement” from Sunday (today) to mark the Press
Freedom Day.
A sit-in would be staged outside Parliament House in Islamabad
on Sunday, announced the leadership of the PFUJ and the Rawalpindi Islamabad
Union of Journalists (RIUJ) in a statement. They said that sit-ins would
continue till their demands were met.
They said that “unannounced censorship” and “use of advertisements
as a weapon against freedom of the press” should be stopped.
They called for withdrawal of the recently introduced
centralised media policy as it was in conflict with the Pakistan
Tehreek-i-Insaf manifesto and press freedom.
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They emphasised the need for regional newspapers to save
thousands of journalists and media workers from becoming unemployed.
They said that the media industry was on the brink of
collapse even before the coronavirus crisis due to the government’s failure to
pay dues of billions of rupees of TV channels and newspapers. “Now owners of TV
channels and newspapers have started resorting to sacking journalists and
workers and pay cuts and several media houses have not paid salaries to
employees for 10 months. So immediate payments should be made to media houses
and these payments should be made conditional on payment of salaries to
journalists and media workers.”
The PFUJ/RIUJ leaders said in view of the coronavirus
pandemic, the government should announce a special bailout package to protect
journalists and media workers from financial hardships and offer an
interest-free loan of Rs1 million to those journalists and media workers who
were suffering from economic crisis.
The income of press clubs across the country depended on
news conferences and government grants, they said. People have stopped holding
press conferences after the outbreak of coronavirus. So in view of the dire
financial situation, special grants should be provided to press clubs and until
the epidemic was over, electricity and gas bills of press clubs should be
waived, they demanded.
Newspaper: Dawn