HRCP urges govt to ensure freedom of expression

Demands effective information commission in each province

ISLAMABAD : The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has urged the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government to take appropriate steps to prohibit and prevent unauthorized, illegal and unlawful interference with freedom of expression in the country.

In a fact-finding report August 2018 titled, ‘Curbs on freedom of expression in Pakistan’, launched on Wednesday here at a local hotel, the human rights activists said that in Pakistan democracy is not possible without freedom of speech.

The report has been compiled by the HRCP citing numerous complaints lodged by journalists regarding interference in freedom of expression in the print and broadcast media.



The HRCP has demanded of the government to set up effective information commissions in each province on urgent basis to implement the state’s obligations under the Right of Access to Information Act 2017.

While briefing the media on the report the panelists including human rights activists IA Rehman, Nasreen Azhar, senior journalist M Ziauddin, Pakistan Peoples Party senior leader and former senator Farhatullah Babar stressed that now journalists and media house owners are threatened through new ways and techniques.



In the report, HRCP has demanded the federal and the provincial governments and state institutions to protect the rights of media persons to function with dignity and in peace.

The report further says there should be no interference in the sale and distribution of any newspaper, nor should any TV channels be deliberately displaced.