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Pakistan journalists sign petition against curbs on freedom of expression

The curbs included several articles being pulled off media websites in Pakistan, removal of online editions of published articles and one media house even asking its anchors to stop doing live shows.

Updated on: Apr 19, 2018, 15:48:16 IST
Indo Asian News Service, Lahore | By
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More than 50 journalists including editors, columnists, media persons and media freedom organisation representatives in Pakistan have signed a petition against the ongoing curbs on freedom of expression in the country.

An employee works at the control room of the Geo News television channel in Karachi, Pakistan April 11, 2018 (Representational image). (Reuters)
An employee works at the control room of the Geo News television channel in Karachi, Pakistan April 11, 2018 (Representational image). (Reuters)

Initiated by Pakistani journalist Beena Sarwar, the petition stated that there was a growing trend of news that was “given” or injected into organisations, rather than allowing coverage of real news -- incidents that were truly happening, but were either not covered or were taken off air, Dawn online reported on Thursday.

“All this is giving rise to an air of ‘self-censorship’ and resulting in violation of the citizens’ right to information,” according to the petition.

The curbs included several articles being pulled off media websites in Pakistan, removal of online editions of published articles and one media house even asking its anchors to stop doing live shows.

Some of the signatories were Saleem Asmi, Farah Zia, Hamid Mir, Imtiaz Alam, I.A. Rehman, Husain Naqi, Zahid Hussain, Kiran Nazish and Nusrat Javeed.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)

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