Consultations On 'Journalists Protection Bill' In Progress: Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan

Terming 2020 a good year for journalists and media workers, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan Wednesday assured the Senate's Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting that consultation with the stakeholders on the 'Journalists Protection Bill' were progress

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Jan, 2020 ) :Terming 2020 a good year for journalists and media workers, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan Wednesday assured the Senate's Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting that consultation with the stakeholders on the 'Journalists Protection Bill' were progress.

The bill envisaging jobs protection, health insurance and registration with the Employees Old Age Benefit Institute (EOBI) for the media persons would be presented in the Parliament after completion of the consultation process, she told the committee, which met here with Senator Faisal Javed in the chair.

Dr Firdous said as per the prime minister's clear directives, the journalists' issues of timely payment of salaries, jobs protection, and provision of health facilities would be resolved on permanent basis. A comprehensive strategy would be made in that regard in light of the committee's recommendations, she added.

She said the ministry, standing committees and parliamentarians were striving to resolve the serious problems being faced by the media persons.

She said it was the mission of Prime Minister Imran Khan to ensure protection of the rights of deprived segments of the society.

He ministry stood by the media persons and it was making all-out efforts to resolve the issue of their outstanding dues once for all.

She said it was imperative that the legislation should be done after consultations with both the media employers and the employees so that the matter was resolved amicably. The prime minister was fully aware of the problems of working journalists and media workers and on his directives, the consultation was being held with all the stakeholders to settle their issues, she added.

Dr Firdous said as per the prime minister's directives, reforms were being introduced in the Press Information Department (PID), whose digitalization was in progress. In future newspapers would be given advertisements on the basis of their circulation whose details would be available on the PID's website to ensure transparency, she added.

The SAPM said so far the government had paid dues of Rs 873,154,814 to the media outlets, while around Rs 1 billion were outstanding.

The meeting was attended by Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority Chairman Muhammad Salim Baig, Principal Information Officer Tahir Hassan, Pakistan Television Managing Director Amer Manzoor, and senior officials from the ministry and attached departments.