May 5, 2026
Press Release
LAHORE
Speaker of Punjab Assembly, Malik Muhammad Ahmed Khan, told media watchdog Freedom Network Executive Director Iqbal Khattak in a meeting on Tuesday, that the Punjab government recognised the importance of journalism and would take the essential steps needed to protect journalists,
“The speaker’s office is ready to facilitate all stakeholders, including the government, working journalists and civil society, to jointly work towards a legislation protecting the journalists in Punjab province,” he said, adding that there was a need to facilitate the journalist community in the province and that press clubs were playing “a bridge role” between the government and public. However, he believed every service provider was to work within or under any existing legal framework to promote responsible and ethical journalism.
During the meeting, the Punjab Assembly speaker was briefed on state of press freedom in Pakistan handing Freedom Network’s latest report on threat cases against journalists to mark the World Press Freedom Day on May 3.
Khattak told the speaker that groundwork for such legislation had already been laid during the caretaker government of Mohsin Naqvi in May 2023 when the Punjab Journalists Protection Coordination Committee (PJPCC) had been notified to facilitate investigation into attacks on journalists and media houses.
“We need to transform the administrative order (aboutPJPCC) into a legal framework passing law from the assembly floor,” Freedom Network Executive Director Iqbal Khattak spoke on the occasion.
The Freedom Network executive director suggested that Punjab government must allocate some percentage of advertisement budget for capacity building of journalists encouraging media practitioners to promote ethical journalism to discourage disinformation and misinformation undermining independent journalism and safety of journalists.