Govt to take more steps to ensure media freedom: Sherry
By Bushra Makhdoom

ISLAMABAD—Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Ms. Sherry Rehman Wednesday said the government has already tabled a Bill in the National Assembly to remove black media laws and it would adopt more measures to ensure freedom of media. She was talking to a delegation of Cable Operators Association of Pakistan that called on the Minister under the leadership of Chairman of the Association, Khalid Sheikh here.
“The cable operators are the main source to disseminate information to the public and the new democratic government would not allow any one to block the cable TV operations in the country,” she said.
The Minister reiterated that the government believes in the freedom of information and public access to information, therefore, no one will be allowed to disrupt the free flow of information.
“A hotline service would be set up at Ministry of Information where cable operators would register their complaints of any external pressure for blocking their system or a particular TV channel,” the Minister said and added this would help ensure smooth running of the cable TV network in the country.
The members of the delegation appreciated the vision of the government for freedom of media and apprised the Minister of their problems.
The Minister assured the delegation to look into their problems.
With a view to providing a balanced coverage to the opposition’s point of view as well as the treasury benches in the parliament, Sherry Rehman directed the PTV management to ensure that the state television acts as a prime source of information to the electorate that have sent their representatives to the parliament.
“There must be no-black out of opposition as was the case during the previous regime,” the Minister said and added free clean feed of the coverage of the parliament session will be provided to the private TV channels by PTV.
Sherry Rehman also reiterated the democratic government’s resolve that media would be given access to the meetings of the parliament’s standing committees and arrangements will be made for live coverage of these meetings.