Media community have agreed to formulate national protocols and guidelines for media safety which will envisage self-regulation charter having three main safety mechanisms defined as global standards i.e. prevention, protection and prosecution
Karachi (Pakistan Point News / Online - 14th November, 2019) Media community have agreed to formulate national protocols and guidelines for media safety which will envisage self-regulation charter having three main safety mechanisms defined as global standards i.e. prevention, protection and prosecution. This will be a milestone for safety of media houses and media practitioners.This consensus was made at a multi-stakeholders meeting organized by the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) in collaboration with Freedom Network (FN) at CPNE Secretariat here.
It was attended by Dr. Jabbar Khattak, Secretary General CPNE, Iqbal Khattak, Executive Director Freedom Network, Adnan Rehmat from International Media Support (IMS) - Islamabad, Azhar Abbas (Geo News) from Association of Digital news Editors & Directors, Imtiaz Khan Faran, President Karachi Press Club, AamerMehmood, Head of CPNE Media Safety Committee, Maqsood Yousufi, senior editor, Sheher Bano, senior media practitioner.Iqbal Khattak said that lives of journalists can be saved easily if there is proper insight about media safety and those media professionals might confront grave consequences who had no or less apprehensions about the possible dangers or threats.
"Response from Sindh Information Minister Saeed Ghani at our last day event was very encouraging beside active support from CPNE. We are very hopeful that Sindh will be the first province to lead in legislations regarding media safety," he hoped."Threat to media cannot be fully eliminated in any part of world but it can be minimized by taking appropriate measures. Self-regulations for media safety are desperately needed in Pakistan for which Freedom Network and CPNE are striving," he told.
Delivering his presentation, Adnan Rehmat told that media houses and media practitioners are facing multi-dimensional threats which warrant a compact national response including atleast annual monitoring of such cases. "In Pakistan, 133 media practitioners have been killed in last 19 years, however we were successful to save lives of 92 journalists by taking various measures including relocating them. This year 83 journalists are murdered in the world until this week, he shared figures.
Sharing proposed points with participants, Adnan Rehmat said that purpose of self -regulation charter is to keep safe entire media in Pakistan including media houses, editors, journalists and other media practitioners through standardized self-regulated safety policies. CPNE and other media associations must campaign for enabling national environment for media safety."We will help to formulate, charter, strategy, tools and methodology. Global standard of media safety mechanism is in 3Ps of safety i.
e. prevention, protection and prosecution and for which media practitioners will have to fight a long battle. CPNE as a leading partner should engage more media associations for facilitation and to implement mechanism," he proposed.Azhar Abbas said that no one can disagree on issue of media safety and freedom of speech. Every move beneficial for media community must be supported. It is very important to include operational and practical issues in such charter for safety so all forms of media outlets might meet their specific needs, he added.
Dr. Jabbar Khattak said that scope of proposed charter should be broad based to make it highly effective. "Our arms must be opened for all media associations for the sake of result oriented efforts.Aamer Mehmood told that with the help of media safety committee of CPNE, we have extended offer to media houses for security audit on no cost basis.
