Journalists stage protest against PECA

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: The journalist community on Monday staged a protest against the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), saying that it was a draconian law that needed a serious rethink from the government.

Addressing the protest rally held here, Dera Press Club president Ahmad Khan Kamrani, general secretary Muhammad Fazlur Rahman and others said that the controversial presidential ordinance amending the cybercrime law had drawn severe criticism from all quarters.

It may be mentioned that the protest was staged on the call of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists against the PECA, which the media persons termed a black law and against basic human rights.

The Islamabad and Balochistan high courts are hearing the petitions filed by the journalists’ representative bodies, and political parties, including the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Pakistan People’s Party.

The speakers said that PECA was a bid of the government to gag the free media and trample the democratic norms. They said that if the amendments became a law, it would adversely affect the media in the country at all levels - from electronic and print to social media.