ISLAMABAD: Journalists from Rawalpindi and Islamabad called off their protest against the administration\u2019s Nov 25 move to take all television news channels off-air on Monday after the government, as well as the opposition, assured them that moves would be initiated to amend the Pemra Act.<\/p>\n

The Rawalpindi-Islamabad Union of Journalists (RIUJ) had called for the protest after news channels suddenly went off-air following the launch of an action to end the sit-in in the capital by members of some religious parties.<\/p>\n

The RIUJ also decided to wind up its protest camp set up eight days ago outside the National Press Club.<\/p>\n

The Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, Syed Khursheed Shah, visited the camp on Monday and criticised the government for ignoring the media.<\/p>\n

He was accompanied by PPP leaders Senator Rubina Khalid, Senator Aijaz Dhamra and Chaudhary Manzoor. \u201cThe PPP will stand by the media in its fight for freedom and democratic values.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, Maryam Aurangzeb, was also present at the camp. She said: \u201cI agree with whatever has been said about the Nov 25 incident in the camp,\u201d she said, adding: \u201cI also agree and support the demands of the RIUJ.\u201d She assured the protesters that the government would review all \u201cblack laws\u201d promulgated by military dictators.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government is already working to bring an amendment to the Pemra Act and we are ready to work jointly with the RIUJ to amend the law,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

After both the government and the opposition leaders agreed to amend the laws and abolish Section 5 of the Pemra Act, the President of RIUJ, Mubarak Zeb Khan, announced the closure of the camp.<\/p>\n

He expressed the hope that the government would set up a committee shortly in consultation with the RIUJ to amend the existing law.<\/p>\n

Afzal Butt, who heads his faction of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, praised the RIUJ for raising the issue in time.<\/p>\n

Dawn<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ISLAMABAD: Journalists from Rawalpindi and Islamabad called off their protest against the administration’s Nov 25 move to take all television news channels off-air on Monday after the government, as well as the opposition, assured them that moves would be initiated to amend the Pemra Act. The Rawalpindi-Islamabad Union of Journalists (RIUJ) had called for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[4,328,3038],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6270"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6270\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}