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.”
