Pakistani Journalists Increasingly Under Threat of Unemployment

According to a recent report by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Dunya News has “sacked” approximately 70 journalists from its headquarters situated in Lahore under the pretense of downsizing. IFJ and PFUJ (Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists) have strongly condemned the terminations. 

Based on the report shared with Baaghi TV, IFJ and PFUJ (Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists) have strongly condemned the terminations and have consequently, called upon the management to ensure that required entitlements are paid.

Moreover, it has been confirmed by the report that lists for termination of employees for Karachi, Rawalpindi and Islamabad have also been finalized. Based on statistics of PFUJ, nearly 200 journalists are part of the lists for termination.

President GM of PFUJ, Jamali, and Secretary General Rana Muhammad Azeem have stated that the media group owners in Pakistan have not paid regular wages to their employees, adding, that the latest development from Dunya News is “tantamount” to “financial murder” for the working journalists.

[bs-quote quote=”We are going to knock the court’s doors against this wave of termination and try our best to reinstate the terminated journalists.” style=”style-8″ align=”center” color=”#dd0000″ author_name=”PFUJ Leaders “][/bs-quote]

This step from management of Dunya News is the latest in a long list of increasing concerns for journalists within Pakistan. As reported by the IFJ earlier in July, Geo News and Dawn were responsible for withholding salaries of employees with over 2,000 journalists without jobs as Jang Group of Newspapers suddenly shut down five of its newspapers.

The IFJ has further stated, “The financial instability of the media landscape in Pakistan is raising serious
concerns about the future of the media”. They have added that journalists “cannot be expected to work with pay, or when they do not know when their next pay will come”.

Moreover, Secretary General of the PFUJ, has added that “it is high time the IFJ jump[s] in and put[s] pressure on the government of Pakistan to support Pakistani journalists and save their jobs”.

Stay tuned to Baaghi TV for more updates.