Journalist file petition in Supreme Court to form accountability commission

Senior journalists have filed a petition in the Supreme Court of Pakistan, seeking the formation of an accountability commission for the media to form a code of conduct and probe the corruption of media professionals.

Hamid Mir of Geo Television Network and Absar Alam of Ajj Tv filed the petition, praying the top court to form an independent commission to inquire about the source of incomes of TV channel owners, anchorpersons and advertising agencies.

Hamir Mir while speaking to the media observed, “Our petition seeks that the source of income of the government, Bahria Town administration, advertising agencies, TV channels owners and all prominent anchorpersons”.

He also said that the commission should find out where the government’s secret funds are spent and for what purposes. He said that the property tycoon Malik Riaz should disclose that how many media professionals he had given money to.

He explained, “Accusations have surfaced that journalists are taking kickback money to promote government campaigns. The most prominent was that the elections were nearing and amid this, readjustments and positioning was being done”.

Replying to a query about his name being taken among media professionals accused of taking money, he was of the opinion that everything will be crystal clear once the application is accepted.

He was of the opinion that the owners should also be questioned along with journalists. The proposed commission should also introduce a code of conduct for media professionals, he added.

Mir clarified that not every anchor is a journalist as some of them might be doctors, engineers or coming different walks of life.

In his view, the commission will be held accountable whenever fingers are raised towards him/her.

Mir further said they were asking the court to hold black sheep accountable who have barged into the media through parachutes.

Absar Alam said that the credibility of media was at stake as it was only about forming a code of conduct.  Under Articles 4, 5 and 19, every citizen has fundamental right to approach the court, he added

He noted, “TV channel owners are not doing anything, where do we go except for knocking the doors of the court?” He was of the view that people fear doubts on every journalist after the maligning campaign.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=29191

Posted by Faisal Farooq on Jul 19 2012. Filed under Pakistan, Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.