RIUJ expresses concerns on effort of Imran Khan to implicate senior journalists Hamid Mir, Murtaza Solangi & Waqqar Satti in Wazirabad incident

ISLAMABAD, Nov 07, (SABAH): Rawalpindi/Islamabad Union of Journalists (RIUJ) while expressing concerns on the effort of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan to implicate senior journalists Hamid Mir, Murtaza Solangi and Waqqar Satti in Wazirabad incident on the basis of one news has said that Imran Khan while taking names of these three journalists has tried to put the lives of these journalists in danger along with trying to influence their journalistic responsibilities.

This was stated President RIUJ Abid Abbasii and Secretary General RIUJ Tariq Ali Virik in a joint statement issued on Monday. They said that the journalist organizations will not allow any institution, political party or leader to suppress the freedom of media in this way.

They said that the representative organization of media, Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) while condemning the attack on Imran Khan had demanded registration of the FIR and arrest of accused, adding that PFUJ while condemning the PEMRA ban on airing speeches of Imran Khan had termed it as attack on freedom of expression. They said that Imran Khan should also avoid leveling such baseless allegations against the journalists, which is tantamount to attacking the freedom of expression.

They said that after any big incident all the reporters make efforts through their sources to get follow up news and whosoever reporter succeeds in securing the news through his sources he files the story. They said that the Wazirabad incident accused was arrested from the incident site and was handed over to the police by PTI workers. They said that the reporters and channels that succeeded in securing the statement of the accused they aired it while fulfilling their professional responsibilities, adding that the objection of Imran Khan is unwanted.

They said that instead of airing the statement accused arrested from the incident site, if the statement of someone else was aired or accused talk was presented out of context then Imran Khan would have been right in criticizing the journalists. They said that if this process will continue then RIUJ reserve the right to initiate the legal action for protection of its members.