Press Releases 2007
U.S. Consul General Visits ARY TV Office, Karachi Press Club
11/21/07
Karachi – The U.S. Consul General, Kay L. Anske, today visited the offices of the ARY Television Network and the Karachi Press Club and expressed the U.S. Government’s “grave concern” over the orders of the Government of Pakistan to suppress the news media and the arrest of scores of journalists in the country.
“Such extreme and unreasonable measures are clearly not in Pakistan’s best interest, and contradict the progress Pakistan has made toward becoming a fully democratic society,” Consul General Anske said during her meeting with the ARY TV Network management. “We don’t think that these kinds of emergency measures are compatible with the kind of environment that is needed to conduct free and fair elections.”
The senior American diplomat in Karachi urged the Government of Pakistan to quickly lift the curbs on media and immediately permit broadcasters to resume their programming. “As Ambassador Patterson has already pointed out, such measures are also economically punitive for the affected news organizations,” Consul General Anske said.
“The media must be free to report on events, criticize the government and share their opinions with the public,” the U.S. Consul General emphasized during her visit to the Karachi Press Club.
The U.S. Consul General said that one of President Musharraf’s greatest achievements was the flowering of a free and vibrant media. “There is no way to put this genie back in the bottle by cutting off the media now,” the Consul General remarked.
The President of the Karachi Press Club, Sabihuddin Ghausi, and the President of Karachi Union of Journalist, Shamim-ur-Rehman, briefed the American diplomats about the Tuesday’s arrest of scores of journalists from a demonstration rally outside the club.