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The journalist community in Pakistan's Balochistan has urged the government to take immediate measures to ensure their safety, uphold press freedom, address financial hardships and reinstate sacked media professionals, the Dawn reported.
Addressing a gathering at the Quetta Metropolitan Corporation on World Press Freedom Day, leaders of the journalist community, including Balochistan Union of Journalists (BUJ) President Khalil Ahmed and Quetta Press Club President Irfan Saeed, said media in Balochistan has been facing strict censorship and is not allowed to report news regarding opposition parties. The journalist community demanded repealing amendments to the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca), 2016, and called it unacceptable to the journalist community in Pakistan. They mentioned that cases were lodged against some media persons in the province under the Peca. The journalist leaders said Article 19 of the Constitution guarantees the right to speak and freedom of the press and accused the government of denying media personnel and the people of their constitutional rights, according to Dawn report. They slammed the newspapers and TV channels for sacking workers and shutting their offices in Quetta and other parts of Pakistan, emphasising the number of journalists and workers who have lost their jobs in the past few months. Mentioning the current working conditions of the media workers in Balochistan, they said newspaper owners were earning millions of rupees monthly from advertisements but are unwilling to pay salaries as per the wage award and the minimum salary fixed by the government for non-skilled workers. To mark World Press Freedom Day, the BUJ held a rally in which a large number of media workers and journalists participated, Dawn reported. The rally began from the Quetta Press Club and marched through various roads of the provincial capital. The participants in the rally carried placards and banners mentioning their demands. They also shouted slogans in favour of their demands and against the Peca Act. Meanwhile, Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti has assured that the provincial government will make every effort to protect journalists' rights. He called responsible journalism the most essential aspect of press freedom. He added that the government has the responsibility to uphold free media, while the media personnel have a duty to promote responsible journalism. (ANI)
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