The Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) on Friday expressed its concerns over escalating violence against journalists and increasing attempts to stifle the press freedom in the country.
The council also criticized the federal and provincial governments for delaying the release of dues of advertisements to the newspapers, which has resulted in non-payment of salaries to the working journalists.
In a statement, the council said that Pakistan did not see a thaw in calculated restrictions on freedom of expression and violence against journalists from January 2023 to April 2024 since State and non-state actors continued their attempts to stifle the freedom of expression during this period in line with the previous years.
The media in Pakistan has been working in extreme fear and oppression.
However, the Article 19 of the Constitution, provides freedom of expression and opinion, but, in contrary, when a journalist is abducted or arrested on the basis of his expression or news, no one take action to recover him/her. The government has failed to provide protection to journalists.
“Although, Pakistan has improved its ranking to 150- in the 2023 global list of countries with most freedom of expression, there is no lull in coordinated attacks on journalists and attempts to gag freedom of expression in the country,” it added.
