ISLAMABAD    -    Minister for Information and Broad­casting Marriyum Aurangzeb has said that the incumbent government fully believes in the fundamental, democratic and constitutional right of freedom of expression.

Talking to a delegation of newly elected office bearers of Pakistan Fed­eral Union of Journalists (PFUJ), she said optimum measures were being taken for the promotion of freedom of expression under the leadership of Prime Min­ister Shehbaz Sharif as pro­tecting rights of journalist community was top most prior­ity of the govt. Felicitating the newly elected office bearers of PFUJ, she said media was the main pil­lar of the state and Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML-N) was the guard­ian of freedom of media in the coun­try. The minister expressed hope that the newly elected body of PFUJ will live up to the trust of the journalist community and will take all possible steps to solve their problems. She said that the ministry has received ‘The Journalists and Media Profes­sionals Protection (Amendment) Bill 2022’ and a special committee hav­ing representatives of the Ministry of Information, Law, Human Rights and Media, was working to finalize it. She said the Ministry of Information has made record payments to media houses to ensure payment of salaries to journalists. The journalist’s remu­neration was being linked with the payments to media houses.

The PFUJ delegation informed the minister about the problems faced by the journalist community. She as­sured to solve the problems of the journalist community. The delega­tion included PFUJ President Afzal Butt, General Secretary Arshad An­sari, Finance Secretary Lala Asad Pathan and other officials. Principal Information Officer (PIO) Mubashir Hassan and other officials of the Ministry of Information were also present in the meeting