Pakistan forces newspaper to print rebuttal.

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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Alhamdulilallah. Good to see PEMRA is not needed for such actions of irresponsible media. The media should be careful what they write from now on. :slight_smile:

**Pakistan forces newspaper to print rebuttal

**

Islamabad, April 27 (IANS) The information ministry has forwarded letters from two Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) supporters to an English newspaper and asked it to print them to rebut an article criticising party leader Asif Ali Zardari.

‘In what is really unheard of, the press officer of the information ministry forwarded two letters of unknown PPP supporters to The News and asked for their publication as ‘rebuttal’ of my story ‘Zardari exposed as Nawaz walks a tightrope’ published in The News Saturday,’ author

Ansar Abbasi wrote Sunday in an article headlined ‘A dubious defence’.

Both the letters are in defence of Zardari, who is not part of the government, and his stance on reinstating the Supreme Court and high court judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf after he declared an emergency in November.

While the PPP has a brigade of media managers and spokespersons, ‘still the party chose to use the information ministry and depended on unfamiliar commoners (if they really do exist) to rebut the story’, Abbasi wrote.

One of the ‘rebuttals’, authored by Muhammad Umar of Rawalpindi, said: ‘The contents of the news item are wild, scurrilous and aimed at maligning the person of Zardari.’

The other ‘rebuttal’, authored by Zara Shaukat of Karachi, said: 'There is a general opinion that Abbasi and many other respected journalists, in their bid to simplify a complex issue, have been making attempts to present a black and white picture assigning the PPP the role of the villain that is acting as the biggest obstacle in the restoration of pre-Nov 3 judiciary.

‘This is most unfortunate, more so because it ends up creating unrest in the public,’ Shaukat wrote, adding: ‘It is no point creating unrest in the public by sensationalizing this subject merely for the purpose of selling copies and increasing viewer ship.’

According to Abbasi, it was ‘really unfortunate’ that the PPP, which claims to be a champion of democracy and press freedom in Pakistan, had charged him, some other unidentified journalists, the media and indirectly the management of The News with the kind of allegations that former military ruler Musharraf did towards the end of his rule.

Around March, Musharraf’s media managers had been depicting a selected group of journalists as ‘negative’. Some media houses were also charged with conspiring against the general’s rule, Abbasi said. 'However, the PPP has started agitating against the media within the initial weeks of its government and that too through some strange sympathisers of Zardari and by using the influence of the information ministry.

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Re: Pakistan forces newspaper to print rebuttal.

The PPP leaders are getting pretty angry about the irresponsible, biased, inflammatory and provocative reports emanating from the Jang/News/Geo group. Even Zardari on Geo’s Meray Mutabiq programme almost advised “Dr” Shahid Masood that media should avoid getting political or setting agenda’s, otherwise ‘problems’ could emerge between them.

Media gets on Taj Haider’s nerves

A stalwart of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Taj Haider, has accused ‘The News’ of being biased against PPP while saying that there are no person-specific amendments being proposed by his party regarding solution to the ongoing judicial crisis and these are merely speculations spread by this newspaper. He said there existed no condition to extend the retirement age of chief justice from sixty-five year to sixty-six. In this regard he rejected that the PPP wanted to facilitate Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar to become chief justice in return of giving Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry one year in office. He maintained that there was no suggestion under consideration to curtail the tenure of the chief justice. “All these things are person-specific, and PPP, being a democratic party, does not believe in such petty things. All these things are spread by you people for attaining certain objectives. This is not positive journalism,” Taj Haider said. When asked if the PPP had set strict condition to allow present PCO judges to continue for the restoration of deposed judges, Taj Haider said it was also a “speculation”.

He said media people started condemning and criticising the PPP leadership before any final decision was announced. “PPP does not believe in personalities and it will never bring an amendment which is person-specific, either to remove some person or to bring some person,” Taj said. Taj Haider was approached by this correspondent to get some information regarding PPP governments in past and about the relations of a key member of present judiciary with his party in yester years. “You people will never highlight the sacrifices rendered by the workers and leaders of PPP. You think that our workers who martyred on May 12 sacrificed their lives by taking money. Why you always forgot to mention the sacrifices rendered by the lawyers of the PPP during the movement for the restoration of chief justice and judiciary,” Taj alleged. When he was reminded that sacrifices rendered by PPP men were not only highlighted but were also appreciated by all the circles, he said, “No, you people are simply prejudiced. You are simply defaming PPP and its leadership. When told that not only this newspaper but the whole media unanimously presented PPP chief Asif Zardari as hero for creating an environment of reconciliation in the country, Taj didn’t admit this argument. Taj said that the media people should criticise when something was finalized.

http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=109405