Home Latest News Media Bodies Walk Out of Government Meeting to Protest PECA Amendments

Media Bodies Walk Out of Government Meeting to Protest PECA Amendments

by Staff Report

File photo. Joel Saget—AFP

In statement, JAC accuses information minister of ‘toying’ with media fraternity in guise of engagement

The Joint Action Committee (JAC), comprising Pakistan’s media bodies, on Monday staged a walk-out of a meeting with the Information Ministry to protest the government’s “draconian” amendments to the country’s cybercrime laws through a presidential ordinance.

In a statement, the JAC—consisting of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society, the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors, Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, Pakistan Broadcasters Association, and the Association of Electronic Media Editors and News Directors—announced that all discussions were being suspended until the “draconian amendments to the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) are reversed.”

Accusing Information Minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain of “toying” with the media fraternity in the “guise of engagement,” it lamented that the government was continuing to issue ordinances targeting freedom of speech while pretending to show that it wanted to work with the media. The statement, in a strongly worded section, noted that there was a “a grave trail of examples where the ministry of information is tampering with freedom of speech, muzzling journalists’ right to report, and financially crippling the media to influence journalism.”

The JAC statement noted that its concerns had been conveyed to the government on several occasions, adding that the prime minister had also been appealed to not take enact legislations that created rifts between the government and the public, as well as media workers.

All media bodies, it stressed, were united in their defense of the freedom of expression and people’s right to information.

On Sunday, President Arif Alvi signed two ordinances into law to amend PECA and the Elections Act, 2017. Under the PECA amendments, the government has declared online defamation and the sharing of “fake news” into a criminal offense, and empowered police to arrest—without bail—any accused for up to six months until the trial concludes. Anyone found guilty would receive five years’ imprisonment, while the scope of the law has been expanded to allow any individual to become complainant on behalf of any other person, business, institution or entity.

In a statement issued after the ordinances were passed, the JAC had rejected them as “draconian” and described the PECA changes as a “blatant move to stifle media independence, freedom of speech, and dissenting voices.” The JAC had vowed that it would, if needed, oppose it with the “full might of its constituent bodies and individual members.”

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