UPDATE: The IFJ has learned of another journalist being held by police in Pakistan.
Imtiaz Alam, Secretary General of the South Asia Free Media Association and Foreign Page Editor of The News, was arrested along with about 60 other human rights activists, lawyers and intellectuals in Lahore, Pakistan, on Saturday. He is being held at the Sadar Police station in Lahore and the reasons for his arrest have not been disclosed. His wife told the IFJ that she has not been allowed to see him since Saturday. Last night officials at the station refused to accept home-made food that she had prepared for Imtiaz.
Journalists in major centres of <country-region w:st="on"></country-region>Pakistan are maintaining their boycott of official government functions and defying the Government’s anti-media crackdown ahead of meetings of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and local press clubs to organise coordinated defence of press freedom in <country-region w:st="on"></country-region>
<place w:st="on"></place>
Pakistan .
Newspapers across <country-region w:st="on"></country-region>
<place w:st="on"></place>
Pakistan continue to be critical of President Pervez Musharraf’s actions in clamping down on the media through an emergency decree issued on Saturday. However, broadcasters remain off the air while their owners negotiate with the Information Ministry, reports the PFUJ, an affiliate of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).
The PFUJ’s Executive Council and other journalists’ groups are considering extending a black-ban on reporting government functions, including a boycott of tomorrow’s National Assembly session in which a resolution to support the emergency decree is expected to be pushed. Journalists boycotted a prime ministerial function in <city w:st="on"></city>
<place w:st="on"></place>
Islamabad on Monday.
A Global Day of Action is also being prepared, including organised protests at <country-region w:st="on"></country-region>
<place w:st="on"></place>
Pakistan embassies around the world to condemn the Government’s attacks on media personnel and institutions and to call for the withdrawal of the anti-media ordinances.
The IFJ’s Regional Director, Jacqueline Park, said the federation fully supports the actions of the PFUJ and media personnel in <country-region w:st="on"></country-region>
<place w:st="on"></place>
Pakistan and is on standby to send a crisis mission to the country. “The courage of media workers in defending freedom of expression in <country-region w:st="on"></country-region>
<place w:st="on"></place>
Pakistan is to be applauded,” Ms Park said.
The media stand against the Government saw government authorities fail in their attempt to close a printing press of the Jang Group, <country-region w:st="on"></country-region>Pakistan’s biggest media group, in <city w:st="on"></city>
<place w:st="on"></place>
Karachi on Monday. In a statement, Jang said police backed off when the editor of the daily Awam newspaper refused a government order not to print a supplement.
Also on Monday, two newspapers received government notices ordering a change in their editorial policies, according to the PFUJ. The editor of one of the papers, the Ausaf, in <city w:st="on"></city>
<place w:st="on"></place>
Islamabad , declared the paper would not abide by the notice.
Meanwhile, senior television journalist Lala Asad Pathan, of Aryone World, remains in a safe place after authorities raided his home in Sukkur on Sunday and took two of his brothers, who are not journalists, into custody. The offices of Aryone have also been raided. The PJUF reports that detained media workers have been released, although authorities have not returned gear such as cameras.