EMRA President shares a heartfelt message ahead of World Press Freedom Day

Lahore, 2nd May: President of Electronic Media Reporters Association (EMRA) Mohammad Asif Butt and EMRA Secretary Saleem Sheikh released a message on World Press Freedom Day.

Tomorrow is a day to pay tribute to the services of journalists around the world, including in Pakistan.

May 3 is a World Press Freedom Day, which aims to raise awareness of the importance of press freedom and to remind governments around the world that they should respect freedom of expression which is given under Article 19 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights or Charter.

In his message, EMRA President Muhammad Asif Butt said that a wave of nationalist governments has taken place in countries all over the world including Pakistan. And the first target of such governments is the media.

He added that If we look at the time, the situation of freedom of the press in the world has not improved but has deteriorated. And all over the world, there is less space for free media or what is called traditional media or legal media. While the field of media has expanded as a whole because now social media has started to include itself in the same category.

Muhammad Asif Butt paid tributes to journalists who sacrificed their lives for the freedom of expression in Pakistan.

He said that the media is compromised in most places today. Some big media houses have interests. Somewhere governments have goals.

In countries like Pakistan, domestic reporting is not as comprehensive as it should be, and care is taken to ensure that the interests of media owners are not harmed, which is tantamount to restricting freedom of expression.

President EMRA said that the governments make a lot of claims for freedom of expression to uphold freedom of the press, but when it comes to implementation, things are different.

He concluded that freedom of the press is, of course, very important, but with every freedom, there must be certain conditions and some limitations. As responsible journalists, we must have them.

Keep reading all the latest news on Baaghi TV!