Pakistan: Media bodies opposes proposed PMDA Ordinance

The representative media bodies including All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS), Pakistan Broadcasters Association (PBA), Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE), Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ, Barna Group), PFUJ (Dastoor Group) and Association of Electronic Media Editors and News Directors (AEMEND) in a joint meeting were of the unanimous opinion that the proposed PMDA was intended to hinder media freedoms and take control over the media by the top information bureaucracy, Dawn News reported.

“The concept is an attempt to tighten federal government hold over the media through one draconian authority ignoring the fact that print, digital and electronic media are separate entities each with their own defined features and respective regulatory laws.

"The move appears as an extension of now defunct Press and Publications Ordinance 1963 (PPO) of Ayub Khan-era to all media platforms with regimental provisions to take over the independent and free media. This has no place in a democratically-elected dispensation,” stated the joint declaration according to a press release issued by APNS executive director Dr Tanvir A. Tahir here on Tuesday as quoted by the newspaper.

It was decided at the meeting that the PMDA establishment would be resisted at all levels including legal recourse, protest measures and advertising campaigns to educate the public against this blatant attempt to subjugate and control the media and curtail peoples’ right to know, reports Dawn News.