Asma Jahangir Conference: Journalists vow to report facts, resist attacks on press freedom.
LAHORE -- A session on 'Electronic and Print Media (Freedom of Expression) in Pakistan' on the first day of the Asma Jahangir Conference on Saturday started with a minute's silence for the denial of entry to Pakistan to Committee to Protect Journalists Asia Programme Coordinator Steve Butler.
Mr Butler, however joined the session he was supposed to speak in personally via Skype. Speaking from Washington, he said press freedom was enshrined in Pakistan's constitution and his expulsion will not affect his reporting of the country.
The session was moderated by Amber Rahim Shamsi and included journalists Owen Bennett-Jones, Christina Lamb, Shahidul Alam, Cyril Almeida and Hamid Mir.
Mr Alam from Bangladesh said it was time for journalists to self-examine, as private media in South Asia had become a mouthpiece for the government. 'There are staggering similarities across the subcontinent regarding attacks on press freedoms,' he said, adding that he was always in a state of resistance. 'When I got out on bail, the idea was to silence me, but I will not be silenced. We have a regime that is elected, but we cannot even question them. The best resistance is to practice solid, fact-based journalism.'
Mr Bennett-Jones said Pakistani journalists are a robust community and have refused to bow down in the most difficult of times.
Ms Lamb said there were many who did not want to believe facts, but the job of a journalist should always be to bring facts to the forefront no matter how inconvenient they were for others. Journalists are squeezed financially and in many other ways, including threats and intimidation.
Speaking about the business model of media organisations, she said so far no one knew how to make money through the digital model. Paywalls were a huge challenge because readers were limited. 'But, in today's world, good journalism is expensive, and facts are important,' she said, adding that the New York Times and Washington Post had risen to the challenge in this context.
Mr Mir condemned the denial of entry to Mr Butler and criticised the way JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman's press conference was banned on TV. He claimed a day earlier, Pemra officials were interrogated over this censorship and at first they denied issuing any instructions, but when probed further, they 'apologised' for it.
'Those behind restricting freedom of speech are the same people who did not let Mr Butler enter Pakistan. Frankly, it has only embarrassed Pakistan in the...
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