KARACHI: The representatives of the media organisations and trade unions expressed serious concern over curtailment in freedom of media, saying that free media is must for development of the country and democracy.
The participations of a dialogue organised by the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) and the Karachi Union of Journalists (KUJ) held on Tuesday at Karachi Press Club stressed the need of a joint struggle protect the media freedom.
Rising job insecurity, shrinking space in print and on air, the loss of a human-centred lens and slipping editorial standards are steadily pushing labour out of Pakistan’s news coverage, they said, cautioning that the worker’s voice is fading from the media just as the unions that once defended it lose their grip.
PILER executive director Abbas Haider traced that relationship back centuries, recalling how the alliance between the press and organised labour helped win rights that workers still rely on today. KUJ leader Tahir Hasan Khan tied the decline to money. Rising printing costs have shrunk print media, he said, while journalists themselves live hand to mouth — without even the means to read and deepen their understanding of the issues they cover.
Dr Tauseef located the cause in how journalists are trained to see. Today’s reporters, he argued, lack the progressive lens needed to grasp the full meaning of an event.
Presiding over the session, senior journalist Sohail Sangi argued that piecemeal fixes will not be enough only a movement, with a clear strategy, can reverse the decline. He said trade unions and labour organisations must now adopt digital media as their own mouthpiece: publishing directly to the platforms where audiences already are, rather than waiting for space that print and broadcast no longer offer.
Others who spoke at the event included The News Union leader Dara Zafar; Dr Tanveer of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS); and journalists Fahmida Riaz, Akbar Ali, Waqas Angaria and Waqas Ranjha.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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