Journalists denied access to Press Gallery of the parliament to cover the president's address

 The decision was taken to stop journalists from protest or walkout during president's address

For the first time in the history of Pakistan , the press gallery of parliament has been closed for journalists. It never happened before. No government in the past stopped journalists from covering the presidential address or other events. The government is not sending right messages to media. The media and press freedom are already under attack.  Unfortunately, it happened under a civilian government. PTI has set a new precedent. 

  Not even when military dictators came to address the parliament. The journalists are protesting inside the parliament against press gallery closure. The PTI government was fearing that journalists might staged a walkout during the president's address to the joint session of the parliament. 

Senior journalist Nusrat Javed who has been covering parliament for nearly last 36 years expressed his emotions in these words. In a tweet he said "have been covering parliament since 1985. Even in worst of times governments never behaved so humiliating to media. sad. really sad".

The parliamentary reporters association has announced to continue protest against this decision. They have made it clear that peaceful protest and walkout is their democratic right and they walk out from next sessions of the parliament. 

The attacks on media will not serve the ruling party. it is a known fact that media played an important role in bringing PTI to power. Hours long non-stop coverage was provided to PTI leadership for nearly 07 years. Now same party in power wants to fully control the media including social media. 

The decision was taken to stop the journalists protesting inside the parliament during presidential address. Thousands of journalists are already protesting against the new media bill PMDA outside the parliament house. The working journalists, media organisations are resisting the attempt of the PTI government to introduce new law to control the media.  

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