Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said on Tuesday that journalist Azam Chaudhry — who is reported to have claimed he was “taken off air” from the PTV for asking a question related to press freedom from the PM — was never an employee of the state-run broadcaster.
“He is and has only been a member of an issues-based analyst pool for PTV. He has not been removed from this pool and has not been asked to leave. Nothing of the sort has been communicated to him,” the minister said.
Aurangzeb’s clarification comes after several local media outlets reported that Chaudhry, who is also president of Lahore Press Club, was “told he was no longer with PTV”.
According to a report published in an English daily, the journalist received the message after he attended a press conference in Lahore, where he had asked a question from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif regarding “diminishing space for freedom of speech” in the country.
