LAHORE: Punjab Governor Sardar Saleem Haider on Sunday pledged additional session with all stakeholders on the Defamation Bill 2024, assuring a delegation of varied journalist our bodies that the invoice might be signed solely after the session.
“Although the federal government ought to have taken onboard all of the stakeholders earlier than introducing the brand new regulation, I’ll invite all events to the Defamation Invoice for growing a consensus on it earlier than signing the invoice into regulation,” the governor informed a delegation of the Joint Motion Committee (JAC) comprising totally different journalist organisations at Governor Home.
The delegation consisted of Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors president Irshad Ahmed Arif, Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists secretary and former CPNE president Kazim Khan, Affiliation of Digital
Ahsan Iqbal claims govt has no intent to ‘suffocate media’
Media Editors and Information Administrators vice-president Muhammad Usman, and representatives of Pakistan Broadcasters Affiliation, and All-Pakistan Newspapers Society.
PPP Central Punjab normal secretary Syed Hassan Murtaza, former minister Makhdoom Murtaza Mehmood, and knowledge secretary Shahzad Saeed Cheema had been additionally current on this event.
The Punjab Meeting had handed the Defamation Invoice, 2024, final Monday, inviting nationwide protests by journalists.
The invoice proposes a particular tribunal to attempt the accused concerned in drafting, publishing and/or airing ‘pretend information’. The tribunal shall determine the case inside six months and will impose a effective as much as Rs3 million.
The delegation knowledgeable the governor in regards to the issues relating to the Defamation Invoice. They stated the invoice was an “try and suppress freedom of expression”.
Responding to those concerns, Governor Haider stated that mutual session was essential on all issues and all stakeholders would collect at Governor Home throughout the subsequent few days for a session on the controversial clauses of the invoice.
Mr Murtaza informed the delegation that the PPP stood with the journalist neighborhood on the problem and didn’t help the present invoice on this state of affairs.
The celebration had distanced itself from the invoice after journalists started to protest in opposition to the enactment. PPP leaders claimed that its MPAs weren’t current in the home when the invoice was handed by the Punjab Meeting.
Nevertheless, the meeting file belied the declare.
‘Media suffocation’
In the meantime, PML-N stalwart and Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal has claimed the federal government isn’t inclined in direction of suffocating the media, asserting that there are not any such makes an attempt from their facet, provides APP.
Speaking to a non-public information channel, the federal minister stated that whereas social media platforms supplied huge advantages, it additionally carried dangers, notably in spreading misinformation that might sow chaos in society.
He stated authorities’s goal to mitigate these dangers and be sure that social media was used responsibly.
He additional famous the significance of consulting stakeholders to formulate legal guidelines geared toward addressing the challenges posed by social media. He harassed that such legal guidelines should be within the curiosity of all to safeguard the nation from the dangers related to misinformation.
Revealed in Daybreak, Might twenty seventh, 2024