IDLAMABAD; President Dr Arif Alvi, on Wednesday signed the journalist protection bill 2021 to enact it into an Act and transform into a law.
The new Act has been enacted after thorough consultations with the journalists representative bodies.
Addressing the signing ceremony held at Presidency here, Dr Arif Alvi, said with translating the bill into a law to protect the journalists the Pakistan -Tehreek- e Insaf (PTI) government has made an historic leap forward to ensure protection of the working journalists.
Under the new law, he added, the owners of the media houses will be responsible of imparting necessary training to the journalists before assigning them any duty for coverage of any event.
The president said the PTi wanted to provide a conducive environment to the journalists to perform their professional duties without any fear and pressure.
“I can recall the pressure that the working journalists face in crisis like situation and the new law will equipe them woth necessary protactive equipments”. He said under the new law, it would be legal responsibility of the media house owners to have insurance of their equipments and lives of their workers.
He noted that Pakistani journalists had been facing serious risk while exposing themselves to different risks and now from today onward the new law will provide long awaited protection to them The new law will also ensure insurance of the media workers so that their families do not suffer (God forbid) in the case of any tragedy. The president said journalists will have complete protection from all kinds of threats during their professional duties. He read some of the provisions of the new Act to convey the real spirit of the law meant to protect the journalists from any unseen happenings.
The president asked the journalists to verify their information to avoid its negative fallout. He said modern technology has brought in many challenges and its responsibility of the joutnalists to overcome these challenges without cpmpromisimg on their work. He said India has unleashed an unending campaign against Pakistan through fake news.
Earlier, Information minister, Fawad Hussain Chaudhary, spoke on the journalist protection bill 2021. He said PTI government will always stand behind the professional journalists and the new law was a step in the same direction. He said the new law will address majority of the issues comfronted with the journalist community of Pakistan. He said the government was going to introduce another bill before the parliament to consider forced disappearance as a criminal act. Fawad Chaudhary said the journalists in Pakistan do enjoy full freedom to carry out professional duties.
Minister for Human Rights , Mrs Shireen Mizari, presented detailed over view of the bill and hoped its translation into a law was a big step to provide the journalists a harassment free environment. She said her ministry took all journalists bodies into confidence before presenting it to the parliament for approval.
