ISLAMABAD, MAY 02 (DNA) – Press Freedom Day today is an appropriate occasion to commit ourselves to ending violence against journalists and also to vigorously defend the frontiers of freedom of expression as guaranteed in the Constitution.

This has been stated by President Pakistan People’s Party parliamentarian and former President Asif Ali Zardari in a message on the Press Freedom Day falling on May 3, 2016.

He said that exercise of right to information and the right to freedom of expression also required that media persons were free from threats to their lives and intimidation and coercion.

On this World Press Freedom Day therefore while expressing solidarity with journalists I also call upon all to ensure that media persons are protected and the perpetrators of crimes against them are brought to justice.

Apart from physical protection it is also important that journalists have economic protection, he said and called for setting up mechanism to ensure protection of economic rights of journalists. Economic strangulation is no less than acts or threats of physical harm, he said.=DNA

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