A malicious and targeted social media campaign was launched against senior Pakistani journalists on 4 July 2019.
The hashtag #ArrestAntiPakjournalists kept on trending number one on Twitter for some time and over 28,000 tweets were posted maligning the journalists.
Hamid Mir, a renowned journalist and host of the political show Capital Talk on Geo News, was among the journalists targeted by the hateful campaign.
In a video message, Mir has asked those who are demanding the arrest of journalists, including himself, to first collect evidence against them.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) has passed a resolution in Islamabad in which the FEC has called upon the government, state institutions and the judiciary to take immediate action against the matter as it is a direct threat to the lives of journalists and their families and such campaigns also tarnish Pakistan’s image throughout the world.
FEC has also urged the government to direct the Federal Investigation Agency’s cybercrime wing and other concerned agencies to investigate the matter and hold those who launched the campaign accountable for putting the safety of journalists and media workers at risk.
The Karachi Union of Journalists (KUJ) has also condemned the hateful campaign against the senior journalists and demanded the regulatory bodies and federal investigative agencies to take immediate notice of this ‘cyber terrorism’.
Ashraf Khan, the president of KUJ, demanded “such tweets must invoke the constitutional clauses against incitement of violence and the perpetrators should be brought to justice.”
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Source: MEDIA FEED
