ISLAMABAD (Parliament Times) : Council of Pakistan Newspapers Editors) (CPNE) has decided to continue the struggle against bans and restrictions on the media, declaring the freedom of the press and freedom of expression as its motto. Harassment of journalists and media organizations under anti-media black laws is extremely alarming and intolerable. Even in the era of modern transformation, there is no better Muslim journalism than print media. To save print media from closure, the government immediately should open LCs for paper import and subsidy on newsprint costs. This demand was made in the Standing Committee meeting held yesterday under the chairmanship of CPNE President Kazim Khan. Editors of newspapers and journals from across the country participated in the meeting. In the meeting, there was a detailed discussion of the problems faced by print media and newspaper organizations including freedom of the press and freedom of expression. It was said in the meeting that freedom of expression is their motto, from which they will never back down, but along with freedom of expression, the media should also follow the code of conduct, if any organization does not follow it, then the legal scope only would be punished. In the meeting, the implementation of the common code of conduct for the media was declared necessary and it was said that every organization had the right to make its code of conduct. In the meeting, serious concern was expressed over the increase in the cost of newsprint, and was said that newspaper organizations were being severely affected economically, due to which many newspapers and journals were not able to buy newsprint. In the meeting, it was also proposed to set up a recycling plant for newsprint from the platform of CPNE, and the government was requested to provide financial support in this regard so that paper would be supplied as per the demand of local newspaper organizations would be ensured. At the meeting, on the demand of CPNE, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, proposed to implement CPNE’s proposals in one week to remove the oppressive provisions of the PICA Act and to increase the advertisement rates by 35 percent. The Prime Minister of Pakistan was thanked for issuing orders to the Minister of Information while discussing the payment of dues for government advertisements in the meeting, due to the efforts of CPNE, the dues of advertisements issued by the Punjab government through advertising agencies were cleared. The provincial governments were thanked for issuing the notification to make direct payments to the newspapers and the Balochistan government for paying all the dues of the newspapers till January 2023, while in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the payment of the dues of newspapers and journals was delayed for a long time. Expressing concern over the complaints, the Information Department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was demanded to take steps for immediate payment of dues of local newspapers and journals.PIO Mubasher Hassan and ITNE Chairman, Shahid Mehmood Khokhar also specially participated in the meeting. He was informed about the problems faced by the newspapers and journals and that the delay in the payment of advertisements by the federal and provincial governments was the cause of the delay in the wages of the journalists. The mechanism is being made so that the newspapers will be paid promptly and all the journalists would be paid their wages on time, the meeting praised the initiative of ITNE Chairman Shahid Mahmood Khokhar and called it a commendable initiative. PIO Mubasher Hassan also assured the meeting that all the suggestions of CPNE were very important and will be implemented, the meeting thanked him for his assurance.Senior Vice President Ayaz Khan, Secretary General Aamir Mehmood, Deputy Secretary General Yousaf Nizami, Vice Presidents Dr. Jabbar Khattak, Irshad Ahmad Arif, Tahir Farooq, Arif Baloch, Finance Secretary Ghulam Nabi Chandio, Information Secretary Dr. Zubair Mehmood, Joint Secretaries Maqsood Yousafi, Zia Tanoli, Mumtaz Ahmad Sadiq, Yahya Khan Sadouzai, Senior Members Ejazul Haq, Sardar Khan Niazi, Hamid Hussain Abidi, Muhammad Haider Amin, Khalilur Rehman, Abdul Khaliq Ali, Zulfiqar Ahmad Rahat, Muhammad Awais Razi, Tanveer Shawkat, Sher Muhammad Khawar, Waqas Tariq Farooq, Shakeel Turabi, Tazain Akhtar, Sajjad Abbasi, Muhammad Akmal Chauhan, Aitzaz Hussain Shah, Mahmood Alam Khalid, Muhammad Tahir, Fazal Haq, Syed Sefeer Hussain Shah, Kasur Jameel Rouhani, Abdul Salam Bath, Manza Saham, and Bilqis Jaha participated.
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