Amid government measures reinforcing censorship of television and telecommunications, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has appealed to President Pervez Musharraf to heed the appeals of Pakistan's journalists, the public and the international community to respect press freedom.
"Gen Musharraf, it is not yet too late to rescind the new electronic media ordinance and to put an end to the arbitrary censorship of TV stations," RSF said. "The prime minister's announced withdrawal today of complaints against 200 journalists shows that it is possible to defuse tension and defend freedom of expression."
RSF added: "We extend our support to all the media workers who plan to participate in tomorrow's protest against the return of censorship, which has been called by the main journalists' union. There is now a greater need than ever to defend the press freedom that is guaranteed by article 19 of Pakistan's constitution."
President Musharraf promulgated an ordinance on June 4 reinforcing the powers of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) to censor and control TV stations and cable operators. It gave PEMRA the power to seize the equipment of TV stations and cancel broadcast licences, in complete violation of the laws in force, and increased maximum fines. Furthermore, PEMRA no longer needs to refer to a complaints council before taking action, as it was required to do under the previous legislation.
According to some reports, the new regulations are going to extended to the Internet and mobile phones, and the authorities also plan to increase their monitoring of the activities of the foreign news media.
The national assembly had already increased the PEMRA's powers last year, allowing it to seize equipment and arrest broadcast media journalists. And an amendment to article 29 of the PEMRA's statutes in February of this year increased the size of the fines it could impose. At the same time, this amendment provided for the creation of a complaints board for settling disputes. But the government never went ahead with the creation of this body.
Lawyers have filed petitions before the supreme court in an attempt to block the new ordinance.
On June 2, PEMRA ordered TV stations to suspend live broadcasts of events linked to the political crisis that has been shaking the country since the dismissal of supreme court president Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhary on March 9. At the same time as the PEMRA issued this order, the information ministry banned the press from criticising the army and the judicial authorities.
Under government pressure, cable TV operators stopped carrying two of the leading privately-owned TV stations, ARY TV and Aaj TV, on June 1. At the same time, Geo TV was censored for nearly two days starting on June 3, with the authorities pressuring the station's management to suspend its news programme "Meray Mutabiq."
The only good news, RSF said, is Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz's announcement Wednesday that he has ordered the withdrawal of complaints brought against 200 journalists, including leaders of the journalists' union, for defying a protest ban. Hundreds of journalists took part in a demonstration in Islamabad on June 4 at which participants chanted slogans hostile to the president and information minister. The government last week issued a ban on any demonstration involving more than five people.
Gen Musharraf has been on the RSF list of press freedom predators since 2003.
