“Urges Govt to help stop ‘economic slaughter’ of media workers”
Islamabad: (Parliament Times) The Rawalpindi-Islamabad Bureaus Journalist Association (RIBJA) on Monday made a passionate appeal to Prime Minister, Chief Justice of Pakistan and federal information minister to take immediate and effective notice of what they called the economic slaughter of media workers associated with different regional print and electronic media outlets of the country including AJK and Gilgit Baltistan.
The journalist body (RIBJA) while urging the government to implement already approved centralized media policy said “as per the legal frame work 25% total media budget goes to regional publications”. A timely response from the government and enactment of the policy it said could save thousands of media workers from becoming jobless.
Addressing general body meeting here at National Press Club the RIBJA chief Sardar Shoukat Mehmood said that the crisis in the media industry was posing a serious threat to the survival of media workers. “The severe crisis in the media industry on one hand will render thousands of journalists jobless while on the other the joblessness will further aggravate their problems besides contributing to surging crime rate in the country”, he said. Mehmood urged the government and the influential institutions of the country to come forward in a big way and play their much needed role to take struggling media industry out of the crisis besides ceasing the terminations of media workers. He said that low paid media workers who have already been facing multiple challenges were being terminated from jobs, which he said was against the essence of the constitution of Pakistan. Reiterating his resolve to defend the rights of journalist fraternity he said that media Industry could not be left at the mercy of larger groups. He also praised the journalist fraternity for their positive role in highlighting the national issues.
Others who spoke on the occasion included, Malike Siddique Khan, Sardar Hameed Khan, Ch. Qurban, Ejaz Abbasi, Nisar Tabbasum and Malik Murtaza and several others.
During the meeting a seven member committee has been constituted which will be led by senior member Ejaz Abbasi. The committee has been tasked to undertake scrutiny of old and new members of the body. The committee has been asked to submit its report within seven days. The committee will also finalize the list of members once the scrutiny process is completed. The meeting also offered fateh for the departed soul of veteran Kashmiri leader Sardar Khalid Ibraheem and brother in-law of Afazal Butt.
