The Committee on Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage on Monday postponed the committee proceedings to consider the Bill titled "The Journalists Protection and Welfare Bill, 2011" due to absence of media house owners. The bill was introduced on October 31, 2011 by Professor Khurshid Ahmed and 21 other Senators.
The bill was referred to the Standing Committee by the Business Advisory Committee in its meeting held on September 14, 2015.
The bill shall be extended to the whole of Pakistan, which shall be applied to all permanent, temporary, contractual and casual journalists employed by all existing media entities or those working freelance but duty registered as journalists with a media organisation, press club, or journalists union and whosoever will have a valid card of being a journalist.
The Senate Committee headed by Senator Mushahidullah Khan postponed the proceedings and said without the involvement of media owners, the issues related to journalists and other employees could not be resolved. He suggested that Information Minister should communicate with the owners of newspaper organisations in order to facilitate them by resolving issues faced by journalists.
Secretary Information Ministry Imran Gardezi said that the owners of different newspaper associations have taken one month to hold a meeting with other journalists associations, stakeholders and owners at provincial level. Senator Mushahid said that owners must be pressurised to own the responsibility to facilitate journalists and employees.
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