U.S. Diplomat Stresses Free Flow Of Information During Visit To Lahore
11/28/2007
Lahore – The U.S. Embassy’s Cultural Attaché, Constance Colding Jones, stressed that free flow of information is an “integral part of a democratic society” during her meetings with media and academia today.
“The media must be free to report on events and share opinion with the public,” the senior U.S. diplomat said in her meeting with Mr. Imtiaz Alam, Secretary General of South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA).
The Cultural Attache said that one of President Musharraf’s greatest achievements was the “growth of a free and vibrant media” and urged that “curbs on media must be lifted.”
The U.S. diplomat is in town to attend the Golden Jubilee Conference of the Pakistan Library Association being held at Aiwan-i-Iqbal. The U.S. Consulate has a stall at the conference venue displaying material and services available at the Consulate’s Information Resource Center (IRC).
During her visit to Lahore, where she was posted from 1995-96 as Deputy Director of the American Center, Ms. Constance Jones also visited the Children’s Library Complex and Aitchison College where she presented books for schoolchildren. Both institutions are recipients of American Discovery Centers – which comprise computers, books and CDs on a wide variety of subjects.