Karachi, 16th August 2021: A joint committee comprising of Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE), All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS), Pakistan Broadcasting Association (PBA), Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and Association of Electronic Media Editors and News Directors (AMEND) hs unanimously rejected government efforts to establish a converged media regulatory body Pakistan Media Development Authority.
A press release, published by CPNE refers to meeting minutes circulated by Ministry if Information of Broadcasting as holds that “minutes if meeting between ministry of information and broadcasting and these organisations are misleading and have been purposefully distorted to give the impression that there was no serious objection to PMDA”.
The press release stresses that all representatives from these bodies were “unanimous in rejecting the PMDA draft”.
The joint committee statement also states that the committee is “planning” to call all human rights groups, lawyers and other sections of civil society to join hands in stopping the outrageous move by the present government to put further curbs on media.
