KARACHI: Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has said that dangers to the freedom of press are mounting in the third world countries as the new tools and tactics are being tested to gag the media in developing democracies.
In his message on the World Press Freedom Day, the PPP chairman said that policy of carrot and stick by the government powers has been let loose at different tiers of media houses and professionals in these countries adding that Pakistan is no exception.
Bilawal said that a vibrant and free media was necessary for a progressive democracy adding that his Party together with bona fide journalists and media persons would resist every kind of intimidation against the freedom of press and media in the country.
The PPP chairman further said that his Party had thrown away the draconian press and publication laws imposed by dictatorial regimes and would continue to act as an umbrella for press freedoms in the country despite facing worst kind of victimisation under different pretexts.
Bilawal pointed out that journalists and the PPP leaders and workers had fought shoulder to shoulder against the dictators and anti-democratic forces during last five decades. Dictators unleashed one of the world’s most expensive media trial against our leadership but they could not break the bond between the journalist fraternity and the Jiyalas, he added.
PPP chairman pledged that being the truly representative of every nook and corner and every segment of the society, his party would continue to join hands with newsmen for protecting and promoting freedom of press in Pakistan.
