Govt authoring legislation for safety and security of journalists’

State Information minister speaks in Karachi

KARACHI: Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Maryam Aurangzeb has said the present government has commenced the process for authoring legislation for safety and security of journalists and a bill in this regard will be presented in parliament by the start of next year after consulting all the concerned stakeholders.

The minister stated so on Friday as she met office-bearers and members of the Council of Pakistan Newspapers’ Editors (CPNE) here at the head office of the council.

She said there were laws present in other countries for security of journalists as the present government here had also been working to adopt such a law for Pakistan. She said all the concerned stakeholders, including CPNE, would be consulted on the issue of authoring a law for safety and security of journalists working in Pakistan before introducing the legislation to this effect in parliament.

She said the present government believed in giving independence to the media butresponsible journalism was also the need of the hour. She said that everyone had to work together for a democratic and strong Pakistan.

She said the present govt would also provide services for training of journalists as for this cause the academy of Federal Ministry of Information and Broadcasting was being activated. She said the first module was being designed for training of journalists.

She said the government would provide assistance for strengthening the press clubs across the country while a number of projects were being considered for providing training to women journalists.

She said the media in the country had played an important role for the promotion of democracy and democratic norms. She said the present government had launched operations on a countrywide basis for countering the menace of terrorism and also for curbing lawlessness in Karachi as these operations had reaped positive results.

She said that development work was in progress for building the Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway as the present govt would also complete the motorway sections between Hyderabad to Sukkur from Sukkur to Multan.

The state minister said the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had been taking steps for development and progress of the people of Pakistan. She said the government of Nawaz Sharif had been getting stronger due to the prime minister’s good intentions and his complete reliance on Allah.

She said Nawaz Sharif had launched initiatives to eliminate the menace of terrorism from Pakistan, was building motorways, launching energy projects, building public transport schemes, introducing health insurance scheme, and also bringing reforms in the education system.