Karachi (HRNW)- The leaders of the Working Journalists Forum (WJF) have strongly condemned the police’s misbehavior, harassment, threats and obstruction of media coverage during the court appearance of Anmol alias Pinky.
The forum’s founder and central president Mian Khurram Shahzad, general secretary Sajid Ahmed and chief organizer Aamir Raza have said in a joint statement that any attempt to curb the freedom of the press will never be accepted.
The leaders said that journalists perform their professional duties to convey accurate information to the public in courts, police stations and other government institutions, however, the harassment, obstruction of coverage and threats by the police during this incident is regrettable, illegal and condemnable.
They further said that telling journalists that “the consequences will not be good if the news gets out” is tantamount to misuse of power and an attack on freedom of expression.
The Working Journalists Forum also expressed concern over Inspector Sajida Nazir’s threat to file a case against journalists and said that if journalists are denied their constitutional and legal rights, the media community will protest vigorously.
The forum has demanded that the IG Sindh and Additional IG Karachi take immediate notice of the incident, conduct a transparent inquiry against the responsible officials and take strict departmental action so that such incidents can be prevented in the future.
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