Islamabad, Oct 05: An international media rights group has said it is alarmed over a new defamation law in Pakistan that could see offenders including journalists land in jail for up to three months, and said it seriously threatened independent media.
Reporters without borders (RSF) in a statement issued yesterday "expressed alarm at a new law that would send journalists to prison for 'ridicule, unjust criticism...contempt or hatred'".
"This is a serious threat hanging over the heads of independent and opposition journalists," RSF secretary general Robert Menard said in a letter to Pakistan information minister Nisar Memon.
The law, which was announced Tuesday, stipulates that "any wrongful act or publication or circulation of a false statement... Made orally or in written or visual form which injures the reputation of a person... Shall be actionable as defamation."
It increases penalties for "defamation" with up to three months imprisonment, fines of nearly 900 dollars/euros and an obligation to publish an apology.
The imposition of the law, which covers print and electronic media as well as individuals, came barely one week before the first general elections on October 10 under President Pervez Musharraf's three-year military rule.
Bureau Report
