NA body calls for boycotting anti-Pakistan media houses

Standing Committee of the National Assembly on Information and Broadcasting on Tuesday asked the nation to boycott media houses which highlight anti-Pakistan and anti-Two-Nation Theory material.
Committee chairperson Belum Hasnain requested TV channel viewers and newspaper readers to boycott those media houses, which gave coverage to statements by people, who speak against the country and the Two-Nation Theory. She said that anti-Pakistan propaganda could not be tolerated and through boycott, those newspapers and channels could be forced to avoid this tendency.
Bushra Rehman, while raising the issue, said that nowhere in the world was media coverage given to people who speak against the nation. “Even in United States, media does not give space to those, who talk of dismembering the union, but unfortunately in Pakistan, news against national interest is propagated by some media outlets, and no action is taken against them,” she added.
Chairman Press Council of Pakistan Raja Shafqat Abbasi said that no newspaper or channel in the world published or telecast material against national interest.
While clarifying a remark by an MNA regarding a secret fund, Secretary
Information Rashid Ahmed informed the committee that his ministry had not spent a single penny that had not been approved in the Finance Bill.
Regarding the matter of providing security to media professionals, he said that media owners were primarily responsible for the security of their staff during their duty hours. However, the Federal Government remains in touch with provincial governments over the provision of security to media persons, as this basically is a provincial matter.
He said if a journalist became a victim of robbery in a city, his ministry could not directly help him. It could only write to the provincial government to take appropriate action.
He added that his ministry provided financial assistance to widows of several journalists and bore expenses of journalists injured during the performance of their duty.
Pir Aftab Jilani appreciated the performance of PCP and hoped that it would succeed in creating a consensus over the implementation of a code of conduct in the near future.
Shafqat said that PCP had written letters to departments concerned where journalists had come under attack.
PML-N MNAs Shirin Arshad and Shakil Awan expressed dissatisfaction over the performance of PCP, saying that it had failed to take any concrete steps for providing security to journalists.
Earlier, the PCP Chairman briefed the committee about the working and ambit of the council. He said that PCP, as an autonomous and independent apex body, monitored good standards of media practices. He said that the main ambit of the Council included receiving complaints about the violation of Ethical Code of Practice regarding newspapers, news agencies, editors and journalists.
Revision, updating, enforcement and implementation of the Ethical
Code of Practice for newspapers, news agencies, editors, journalists and publishers, as laid down in the Schedule to this Ordinance, was also include in its ambit, he added.
The meeting was attended by the following members of the National Assembly: Pir Aftab Jilani, Syed Amir Ali Shah, Mehboobullah Jan, Samina Mushtaq, Shamshad Sattar Bachani, Shakil Awan, Bushra Rehman, Istaqbal Khan and Shirin Arshad.
Senior officials from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the Press Council were also present at the meeting.