The London Central Branch of the NUJ notes with alarm the recent
brutal treatment of journalists in Pakistan following countrywide
activities staged by unions on International Press Freedom Day, May
3rd. A number of leading members of the Pakistan Federal Union of
Journalists (RIUJ) and its affiliate the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Union of
Journalists (RIUJ) were arrested following a rally outside Parliament
House. They were held for several hours, only being released after a
march by journalists from the rally to the police station. In Lahore,
several journalists were injured when the police charged a rally
organised by the Punjab Union of Journalists (PUJ) and then blocked a
demonstration outside the home of the Chief Minister.
This branch protests at the physical and illegal mistreatment of
those journalists taking action against the lack of press freedom in
Pakistan and calls upon the NUJ nationally to declare its support for
those journalists and protest in the strongest terms possible to the
Pakistan government through its embassy.
