Fawad Chaudhry faces backlash, NA members demand draft of proposed media authority

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry faced a hard time in the committee as members demanded to see the draft law of the Pakistan Media Development Authority (PMDA), reported Kalbe Ali for Dawn.

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.”

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.

صحافیوں نے وفاقی وزیر اطلاعات فواد چوہدری سے “صحافی سرٹیفیکیٹ” لینے سے انکار دیا @asmashirazi pic.twitter.com/tsZBaBk8nx

— Absar Alam (@AbsarAlamHaider) September 2, 2021

“It is important to regulate the media,” the minister said, adding: “We have studied the laws of the United Kingdom (UK), India, Australia, Singapore, and European nations before formulating the draft PMDA law.”

“But most of all, there will be no compromise over the rights of media workers and against floating of fake news and there was a severe pressure against the Authority regarding these two things,” said Fawad.

After reflection on the proposed PMDA, the chairman of the committee PML-N’s Mian Javed Latif decided to form a subcommittee, which will be headed by Aurangzeb with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Kanwal Shauzab and Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) Nafisa Shah as its members.