Staff Reporter
A special desk to handle the none-payment of salaries and continues lay off of journalists from newspapers and television channels has been set up at the National Press Club in Islamabad, according to a press release issues by a Joint Action Committee on Media Crisis here on Tuesday.
An extra-ordinary meeting of the Joint Action Committee on Media Crisis was held at National Press Club in Islamabad on Monday evening to discuss the present crisis of media workers. The meeting was chaired by senior journalist and anchor Shehzad Anwar Farooqi, which was attended by a large number of journalists associated with different newspapers and news channels and representing different journalists’ groups.
The committee in its meeting condemned the none-payment of salaries and continuous lay off of journalists from different media houses and criticizes the owners of newspapers and television channels for their inhumane attitude. The journalists’ community also flayed the federal government for their apathy towards the problems of the media workers, who played pivotal role in democracy.
The Joint Action Committee has asked the government in Islamabad to take immediate action of the current situation and make sure to protect the rights of journalists’ community, said in the press release.
Chairman of the committee CR Shamsi on the occasion called upon the journalists’ fraternity to be united on this one-point agenda and warned that the divide in the community would be in the advantage of the owners of media houses.
Those journalists who had issues related to delay or none-payment of their salaries and axed by the media outlets in recent months should provide details to the special desk set up for them, said CR Shamsi.
To expedite the struggle for journalists’ protection, the committee has also decided to approach the members of parliaments, higher judiciary, media owners and other stakeholders to handle the crisis-like situation.
The meeting was attended by Siddique Sajid, Anwar Raza, Shehryar Khan, Fauzia Shahid, Ilyas Chaudhry, Imrana Komal, Anila Kausar, Javed Ghaffari, Atif Butt, Arif Malik, Manzoor Ahmed Sulehria, Saeed Chaudhry, Mian Munir Ahmed, Shafiq Ahmad, Ikram Bukhari, Sharjeel Rao, Khawar Nawaz Raja, Farhat Turabi, Siddique Anzar, Abdullah Chitrali, Mohammad Arshad, Amir Siddique, Sudher Ahmed Kiyani, Mohammad Zahir, Chaudhry Ashar Raza, Rustam Satti, Saqib Saeed, Mohammad Jameel Malik, Sadia Kiyani, Shehzad, Shehzad Qureshi, Shafiq Qureshi, Raza Malik, Syed Zia Kiyani, Safdar Malik, AD Abbasi, Malik Babar Bisharat, Rana Imran, Raja Mansoor Ahmed, Ilyas Sikandar, Raheel Nawaz Swati, Muzaffar Bhatti, Asad Khan Jadoon, Mohammad Zahir and many others.
