Islamabad - Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Senator Farhatullah Babar on Wednesday proposed a plan to address the growing incidents targeted and untargeted killing of journalists in the country.
“Legislation needs to be enacted in consultation with all stakeholders and provinces to ensure safety and security of journalists,” said Farhat while addressing a function, which was held to commemorate the journalists martyred in the line of duty. He proposed the publication of what he called ‘national register of crimes against journalists’ containing detailed information about various types of crimes committed against journalists. He said that legislation needs to be enacted in consultation with all stakeholders and provinces to ensure safety and security of journalists. About the setting up of a journalists’ protection fund, he said that the Senate information committee was informed the other day that the ministry has already moved a summary for 200 million rupees as seed money for the fund. He said a special training programme be launched by the media houses in collaboration with other stakeholders to train journalists in basic safety and security protocol.