Govt upholds right to free speech as sacred cause: Marriyum

ISLAMABAD    -    Minister for Informa­tion and Broadcast­ing Marriyum Aurang­zeb has said that the government has al­ways upheld the right to free speech as a sa­cred cause and fought against attempts to cur­tail this fight.

In her tweets on Wednesday, she said we are committed to this principle. However, she said the enforcement of eth­ics of coverage involving acts of terrorism is a global code. It is part of the national law. She said it is what we owe to the people who are victims of ter­rorism, and it is what respon­sible journalism is. The In­formation Minister said some concerns have been expressed regarding a recent PEMRA or­der about coverage ethics of violent scenes involving acts of terrorism. She said the order prohibits broadcasting gory scenes, dead bodies, wreck­age and live images from the spot only to avoid spread­ing fear and panic among the masses, which is always the real aim and design of the ter­rorists. The minister said this boundary is set all over the world and every responsible media body and organization adheres to them across the board without exception. She said live coverage of terrorism incident spots amplifies ter­rorism impact and divulges sensitive post operation infor­mation to miscreants.

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