Tag: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting

  • ‘Army chief agrees fake news, disinformation a threat to national security’: Fawad

    ‘Army chief agrees fake news, disinformation a threat to national security’: Fawad

    Federal Minister for information and Broadcasting, Fawad Chaudhry took to Twitter and said, “Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa, while addressing the Defence Day function, said fake news and disinformation were a threat to national security.”

    Fawad wrote, “This analysis is based on the truth, and therefore the Pakistan Media Development Authority (PMDA) is being brought to deal with these threats, as yellow journalism happens to be the biggest threat to freedom of media.”

    Representatives of media organisations rejected the proposed PMDA and termed the concept as an unconstitutional and draconian law against the freedom of press and expression and a step toward imposing state control to regulate all segments of media under over-centralised body.

    The Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a statement said that as part of its crackdown on freedom of expression, the government of Pakistan is seeking broad new powers in the garb of the proposed PMDA.

    Information Minister faced a hard time as members of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting demanded to see the draft law of PMDA.

    Spokesperson of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Marriyum Aurangzeb, demanded that the draft of the law should be presented for the establishment of the authority instead of a verbal briefing by the minister.

    Adding to her point, Aurangzeb said, “The attitude of the information minister was dictatorial.”

    However, Fawad Chaudhry said that some people did not want to have any regulations in the media industry, adding that Pakistan cannot turn a blind eye to conspiracies being formulated against it.

  • Fawad Chaudhry condemned for saying Dawn is part of international conspiracy against Pak

    Fawad Chaudhry condemned for saying Dawn is part of international conspiracy against Pak

    Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry accused Dawn media group of being part of an international conspiracy against Pakistan.

    When anchorperson Absa Komal asked Fawad about media freedom in Pakistan and for an update on the investigation related to recent attacks on journalists in Islamabad, Fawad dodged the question and said, “Your institution [Dawn] is an active participant of an international conspiracy theory which works against Pakistan.” Fawad appeared on ‘News Eye with Absa Komal’ on Dawn News.

    “Your institution propagates an environment that works against the country, trying to take things out of context.”

    “Human Rights Watch (HRW) has written an entire article on PMDA and it says that there is five-year prosecution. When we inquired about it from HRW, they said it was entirely based on [Dawn’s] editorial,” said Fawad.

    Twitter reacted to the minister’s statement against Dawn.

    Journalist Benazir Shah tweeted, “The Info. Minister accuses Dawn of being part of an ‘international conspiracy’ to defame Pakistan, without presenting a shred of evidence to support his claim. On the other hand, there is enough evidence of increasing censorship against media.”

    Lawyer Aftab Alam questioned, “If govt is serious about media regulatory reforms, why is it keeping the process secret? Why not putting ‘Bill’ on the official page of @GovtofPakistan and sharing with stakeholders?”

    Another Twitter user wrote, “A journalist has a genuine concern? – Instead of addressing it just accuse them of being anti-state and dodge the question. This way you save yourself the embarrassment of giving a proper clarification which you clearly don’t have.”