ISLAMABAD/LONDON — Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry has said that Pakistan is one the freest states of the world as far as freedom of expression is concerned.
Talking to Stephen Sackur on BBC’s HARDtalk programme, Chaudhry said there were no restrictions on the freedom of expression in Pakistan, as it was one of the fundamentals of the Pakistani constitution.
Answering a question about protection of journalists, Chaudhry said, “Pakistan is one of the freest states as far as media is concerned. We have 43 international channels, including BBC, in Pakistan. We have more than 100 private channels, 258 FM channels and 1,569 print publications. The size of media itself defies your claim.”
Replying to a query about the attack on journalist Asad Ali Toor, the information minister said he took notice of the incident and sent senior police officers to investigate it. He said, “We have got footage of the people involved in this case.”
“It has become a fashion in the Western media to accuse the Pakistan military agencies of every such attack,” he said. He said there has been a history of people using names of the intelligence agencies to get immigration.
Answering another question, the PTI leader said that attacks on journalists take place across the world. “Pakistan is no exception to that,” he said.
Interrupting Chaudhry, Sackur said that such incidents do not occur in many countries. According to a Reporters Without Borders report, he said, the situation in Pakistan is much more dangerous for journalists than other countries of the world.
In the past, Chaudhry said, the situation in Pakistan was not only dangerous for journalists but for ordinary civilians as well since the country was fighting the war on terror. He said that many journalists and ordinary civilians were killed in this war. He said that even former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in one of the terrorist attacks.
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