The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) welcomes a statement by Pakistan’s President, Asif Ali Zardari, supporting journalists’ demands that the Seventh Wage Award be implemented immediately.

According to the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), an IFJ affiliate, the President put on record this intent in a communication to the union.

“The IFJ appreciates this long overdue admission that Pakistan’s Government has a special responsibility to ensure compliance with the statutory provisions of the law dealing with working conditions in the newspaper industry - the Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) Act 1973,” IFJ General Secretary Aidan White said.

“For far too long has the Act languished in official neglect, while newspaper managements have actively blocked its most salutary provisions.”

The IFJ has consistently stood by the PFUJ in its long struggle to secure full implementation of the Seventh Wage Award, which is nine years overdue. The last industry-wide wage revision occurred in 1996. Since then, the cost of living has escalated immensely, generating serious stresses for Pakistan’s journalists.

“Under the statute, the tenure of a wage award is no more than six years. The circumstances clearly indicate that an Eighth Wage Board should now be constituted under the law, to determine appropriate levels of compensation for media workers,” White said.

Both houses of Pakistan’s Federal Parliament and the four provincial assemblies have already endorsed the demand for the implementation of the wage award.

“With Pakistan’s President also now explicitly endorsing the demand, the IFJ calls on the newspaper industry to shed its resistance and honour the principle that good journalism flourishes when its practitioners do not suffer unreasonable economic adversity.”

For further information contact IFJ Asia-Pacific on +612 9333 0919

The IFJ represents over 600,000 journalists in 120 countries