(Disclaimer: this is a work of fiction. Learn to take a joke; you’ll live longer.)
ISLAMABAD – Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry on Thursday announced a broad outline of the newly proposed Pakistan Media Removal Authority (PMRA) to oversee censoring, abducting and killing of journalists.
Following the announcement stakeholders, including journalists, complained that they had not been consulted on the issue as to whether there was a need for such a body.
During a media briefing, Chaudhry said the PTI government would remove all media until “no one is able to defame anyone under the new law”.
Amid uneasy gestures by journalists, he told the media that the government was working on a proposal to bring all media removal bodies under the proposed PMRA. This would be done by merging all existing bodies responsible for censoring, abducting and killing journalists from print, TV and digital media.
“We are presenting a one-window operation to address complaints and other removal aspects of the controlling the media,” Chaudhry said.
“So that instead of different people being tasked with censoring, abducting and killing journalists, it would be centralised into one body that would be doing all the censoring, abducting and killing,” he added.
The information minister said the draft had been forwarded to Pemra, PCP and other media bodies including Council of Pakistan Newspapers Editors, All Pakistan Newspapers Society and the Pakistan Broadcasting Association.
