LAHORE: The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) on Wednesday expressed strong reservations “over the dubbing of some senior journalists as ‘anti-state elements’” by the ISPR DG Major General Asif Ghafoor on the charges of merely sharing some tweets.
On Monday, the ISPR chief displayed a chart on how certain individuals re-tweet ‘anti-Pakistan’ content. The list includes a number of renowned journalists and certain unnamed political figures.
The union termed such charges levelled against journalists as baseless and uncalled for, asking the ISPR to withdraw the remark which was an “unprecedented gesture on the part of a national security wing”.
“Such type of blaming in the past had deepened the crisis and barred the flow of information and caused irreparable damage to the national interest and national unity,” the journalist union reasoned.
The body showed resentment over the remarks, arguing that one has the right to disagree with a particular statement, remark, opinion and views. The statement adds, “[Dissent] cannot be painted as ‘unpatriotic business’.”