Pakistan Bar Council varieties 7-member committee to protect ...

through PTI

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) has constituted a seven-member committee to give protection to the rights of journalists amidst the perception of a fast-shrinking space for dissent in the country, a media document said on Thursday.

The Journalistic Defence Committee become installation on Tuesday by the PBC, which itself is a mom institution regulating the affairs of the criminal fraternity.

first light suggested that the committee became shaped in view of the alleged guidelines of the executive undermining the freedom of expression via a draconian cybercrime legislations, above all making it increasingly tricky for journalists to discharge and function their tasks independently in line with the demand of their expert tasks and journalistic practices.

The committee fashioned with the aid of PBC vice chairman Abid Saqi will provide felony information and features to journalists and their elected our bodies in the courts of legislations at Islamabad/Rawalpindi for shielding their rights.

Headed with the aid of Barrister Jahangir Jadoon, the committee includes advocates Mohammad Usman Warraich, retired Col Inam-ur-Raheem, Sajid Tanoli, Babar Hayat Samoor, Umer Gillani and Haider Imtiaz.

The PBC introduced that any aggrieved journalist in need of prison aid or services might strategy the committee.

The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists had at a fresh assembly in Quetta accused best Minister Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) govt of denying press freedom, and freedom of speech and expression within the nation.

Kidnapping of journalists, harassment of ladies journalists and the prolonged incarceration of Jang community editor-in-chief Mir Shakeelur Rehman caught in the accountability cycle have alarmed now not simplest the media however also the lawyers' neighborhood.

speaking at an oath-taking ceremony of the clicking association of the Supreme court docket on Monday, Justice Qazi Faez Isa also outlined the realm Press Freedom Index posted by means of the newshounds without Frontiers that evaluates a hundred and eighty countries and ranks them in line with the prevalence of press freedom.

in line with Justice Isa, it ranked Pakistan at a very low position of 139 when it comes to the freedom index in 2017-18, which then slipped to 142nd position in 2019 and then took the plunge to a shameful 145th.

The Supreme courtroom judge additionally pointed out that when citizens fight for press freedom, they battle for his or her own rights.

If people surrender their correct to free speech and expression or enable the censorship of the press, it are usually not lengthy earlier than other certain freedoms are taken away, he added.