• PFUJ’s ‘Islamabad Declaration’ assails govt for targeting critical media, like Dawn, by denying advertisements
• Union to initiate agitation after Ramazan

ISLAMABAD: The country’s main union of journalists plans to launch legal challenges and a protest drive after Ramazan — to defend media freedom and ensure journalist safety and workers’ rights — in the face of growing suppression of press freedom.

In the ‘Islamabad Declaration’, released by Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) Secretary General Arshad Ansari after its three-day Biennial Delegates Meeting (BDM), the union flayed the current government’s efforts to enact anti-media laws and target critical voices under the guise of stemming ‘fake news’.

“Pakistan is passing through one of the most difficult eras where democracy has seriously been under question since the induction of the so-called hybrid system,” a PFUJ statement said, adding that parliamentary supremacy had been compromised and attempts made to control the two strongest pillars of the state, i.e. the superior judiciary and media.

A policy of ‘carrot and stick’ is used to control the media, which has brought a few independent media houses to the brink of collapse, it said.

In the declaration, PFUJ said it had worked out a plan to take up the issue, not only in courts, but also on international fora, including rights organisations such as the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and global media watchdogs.

It also claimed to have a “different protest strategy” up its sleeve — one that may come as a surprise to many, including the government — which will be put into action after the holy month of Ramazan.

The union demanded the government immediately name members of the Journalists’ Safety Commission, so it can take up the cases of those killed in the line of duty.

It also condemned the unprecedented powers given to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), aimed at targeting the dissenting voices.

The Islamabad Declaration said that journalists in Pakistan had to fight on three fronts: against the state or government, against non-state actors who target them, and against media houses that deprive workers of their legitimate rights, but also terminate their employment if they raise their voice.

Targeting Dawn

For the last seven decades, PFUJ said, successive military and civilian governments have used government advertisements as a tool or bribe to promote their own fake news.

It quoted the example of Dawn, which has been denied government advertisements by the federal, Punjab and Sindh governments because of its professional approach to reporting and critical editorials.

Meanwhile, the government has declared official media such as Pakistan Television (PTV), Radio Pakistan and the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) ‘strategic institutions’, while these entities have been used for decades to promote pro-government ‘fake news’.

Rejecting the recent changes to the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca), PFUJ demanded its immediate withdrawal, along with other ‘black laws’ that have often been used against journalists. Even though Article 19 of the Constitution guarantees freedom of the press, successive governments have misused or misinterpreted the term ‘reasonable restrictions’ and imposed ‘unreasonable restrictions’ on the media, PFUJ said.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2025