KARACHI:\u00a0On the eve of World Press Freedom Day, I wish to assure the media workers of Pakistan that the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) will end impunity of crimes against journalists as a manifesto pledge.<\/p>\n

This was stated on Wednesday by PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in a message on World Press Freedom Day, which is celebrated worldwide today (Thursday).<\/p>\n

It is a sad thought that scores of journalists in Pakistan have been killed or harmed during the last decade and in almost all cases, the perpetrators have escaped prosecution, Bilawal said, adding that this impunity of crimes must end and it will.<\/p>\n

The PPP will appoint an independent special public prosecutor to pursue cases of crimes against journalists and create a journalists\u2019 protection fund to assist victim journalists and their families, he said.<\/p>\n

Those who attack journalists or commit crimes against them are those who fear freedom of expression and articulation of pluralistic ideas, he believed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will expose these elements and bring them to justice,\u201d he said, adding that the PPP will reverse the tide of systematic erosion of freedom of expression in the name of ideology and national security.<\/p>\n

He said that the free flow of information and ideas empowers citizens and this requires that media persons must be able to perform their duties without fear.<\/p>\n

Bilawal urged organs of the state to bring to justice the perpetrators of crimes against journalists.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also wish to pay tribute to all those journalists who have braved odds while performing their duties under difficult and dangerous conditions,\u201d Bilawal concluded.<\/p>\n

The Express Tribune<\/a><\/p>\n

Related stories<\/p>\n

The Nation: Bilawal promises to end impunity of crimes against media persons<\/a><\/p>\n

Daily Times: Bilawal promises to end curbs on speech in the name of security, ideology<\/a><\/p>\n

Pakistan Today: Zardari promises to end crimes against media personnel<\/a><\/p>\n

The News:\u00a0Bilawal to set up fund for journalists<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KARACHI: On the eve of World Press Freedom Day, I wish to assure the media workers of Pakistan that the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) will end impunity of crimes against journalists as a manifesto pledge. This was stated on Wednesday by PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in a message on World Press Freedom Day, which is […]<\/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],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6710"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6710\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}