By IRNA,
Islamabad : Pakistani journalists on Monday called for a free media, saying that there should be no restriction on freedom of expression.
They told IRNA that Pakistan is certainly enjoying more freedom of expression than any other Islamic country but it has yet to achieve international press freedom level.
Mazhar Abbas, a senior Pakistani journalist said in Pakistan the situation of media is far better as compared to the rest of the Islamic world.
He added that the problem of the media of Islamic countries is that the journalists of these countries are not interested in getting the freedom of expression.
He was of the view that Arab journalists have surrendered to the restrictions imposed on them by their respective countries which is unfortunate.
He said that while criticizing the western media the Muslim journalists have to analyze themselves and see that whether they are coming to a certain level of journalism or not. If the answer is no then we have no right to demand independence of media, he said.
He said that western media has its own way of dealing the issues but they do give the opinion of the other side in their stories. He said that there should be objectivity in news.
I wish that the media of Islamic countries could be strong enough, he said.
Mazhar suggested that there should be comprehensive debates on freedom of media in Islamic countries.
We have to sit and think that how Islamic media could meet the western level of journalism, he said.