KARACHI: The Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) has welcomed the constitution of a high-level judicial commission to probe into the deadly attack on prominent anchorperson Hamid Mir in Karachi on Saturday and announced its full cooperation to the judicial commission to find out the facts about the incident.
The highest journalistic body also vowed to continue its struggle for freedom of expression and other democratic values in the country.At a hurriedly-called protest meeting on Monday, the CPNE unanimously passed a resolution paying tribute to Pakistani media and said over 100 Pakistani journalists have sacrificed their lives for freedom of press and democracy in the country and due to their sacrifices, suppressing the voice of media and democratic institutions has become near to impossible.
The resolution further said Pakistani media does not require any certificate of patriotism from any quarters as Pakistani media is loyal to Pakistan while those raising fingers against its loyalty are themselves enemies of freedom of expression and democratic values in the country.
Speaking at the hurriedly-called meeting, CPNE Vice President Shaheen Qureshi said following the attack on Hamid Mir in Karachi, publishing news based on opinion of Hamid Mir’s family and their accusations was in accordance with journalistic principles and added that such news items could not be declared as opinion of Pakistani media.
He maintained that journalistic community could not be left at the mercy of enemies of freedom of expression.CPNE General Secretary Jabbar Khattak stressed on joint and collective struggle by all the journalistic organisations for the protection of freedom of expression as well as violence and terrorism against media and media persons.
This is only possible when attack on any media outlet or journalist is considered as attack on entire media and all the journalists in the country, he stressed.The meeting was also addressed by Dr Waqar Yousuf Azeemi, Mushtaq Ahmed Qureshi, Amir Mehmood, Ghulam Nabi Chandio, Hamid Hussain Abidi, Younous Mahar, Durdana Shahab, Zahida Abbassi, Sher Muhammad Khawar, Faisal Zahid Malik, Haseena Jatoi, Usman Arab Saati, Qazi Mustafa Abid, Waheed Jamal, Owais Aslam Ali, Imtiaz Ali Phulpoto, Dr. Fauzia Khan, Arif Baloch, Javed Meher Shamsi, abdul Khaliq Marshal, Syed Kamran Rizvi, Abdul Qayyum Khan, Muhammad Iqbal, Salman Qureshi and Tahir Iqbal as well as other editors of various newspapers and magasines.