Zubair Qureshi
Journalists and politicians need to adopt a thick skin to counter criticism, particularly online trolling and harassment.
This suggestion came from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) parliamentarian and Parliamentary Secretary for Law & Justice Barrister Maleeka Bokhari at a panel discussion after screening of a documentary ‘A Dark Place’ on Sunday.
The documentary screening held on the occasion of the launch of “Human Rights Reel Film Festival-2019” at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA).
The event is organized by the European Union and attended by a large number of diplomats, human rights activists, youths, students and media persons.
The panel discussion that was moderated by the BBC correspondent for Pakistan and Afghanistan Secunder Kermani was participated by two eminent journalists Asma Shirazi and Fahad Hussain and a digital rights activist Nighat Dad.
Being the sole government spokesperson, Maleeka Bokhari had to face tricky questions from both the audience and the moderator of the discussion and she agreed online harassment must come to an end and her government condemned all its forms.
In his opening remarks, Kermani revealed Pakistan’s rating with regard to a safe country for journalists was going down and it was 142 out of 180 in the year 2019 that is worse than the last year.
Fahad Hussain while taking part in the discussion said online harassment was always organized and with specific purpose. He said the case of Pakistan was unique and different from other countries of the world as no one knew what reaction one could face as a result of a TV show or write up. “Often when I write a piece that is critical and exposing the government’s loopholes, my friends call me and ask me to be prepared for the reaction.”
Nighat Dad called for strong and transparent laws, cyber crime laws and their enforcement to prevent online harassment. The participants of the panel discussion paid tributes to Aasma Shirazi for courageously facing the online trolling and standing tall and strong in the face of harassment.
Earlier, European Union Ambassador Mrs Androulla Kaminara in her welcome address expressed her delight at seeing such a big number of audiences turning up to attend the opening of 5th edition of Human Rights Film Festival. In the next ten days (from Dec 1 to Dec 10) we are going to screen documentaries to highlight human rights issues around the world in various cities of Pakistan, she said.
About the documentary “A Dark Place” Mrs Androulla said it is story of female journalists who worked in challenging circumstances and refused to be cowed down in the face of online harassment.
Women journalists, said the EU ambassador, are making their mark and their number is huge as one in every five journalists is a woman journalist. She said online harassment was a form of gender violence and EU was strongly opposed to it.
Women rights activist Dr Fouzia Saeed congratulated the EU Ambassador for beginning the HR Film Festival from Islamabad.
We are celebrating sixteen days of women activism and HR film festival is quite reassuring for our efforts to highlight women rights in the country and legislate on them. She also counted a number of achievements women rights organizations have made yet she said still there was a long journey to
go.
