NEW YORK: Pakistani judges should cease using their contempt of court powers to prevent the media from airing programmes critical of the judiciary, the Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.
Brad Adams, Asia director at the Human Rights Watch, said, “Since Pakistan’s independent judiciary was restored to office in 2009, Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry and provincial high courts have repeatedly sought to prevent media criticism of the judiciary through threats of contempt of court proceedings, which can bring prison terms.”
He also said since October 2012, the high courts in Islamabad and Lahore have issued orders to stop the broadcast of television programs critical of the judiciary.
“Judges sworn to uphold the rule of law should not be using their broad contempt powers to muzzle criticism by the media,” said Adams. “Judges have no special immunity from criticism. Unless they want to be seen as instruments of coercion and censorship, they should immediately revoke these curbs on free expression.”
Recently, the courts have openly issued a spate of orders that seek to limit the media’s free expression rights, the HRW said. On October 9, Judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of the Islamabad High Court issued a restraining order to the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) to stop airing criticism of the judiciary on television.
The court sought to justify its order by asserting that the media ban was “to ensure that no programme containing uncommendable, malicious, and wicked material is telecast by any of the channels in which person of the honourable chief justice of Pakistan and other honourable judges of the superior court are criticised, ridiculed, and defamed.”
Journalists have told the HRW that major television stations and newspapers were informally advised by judicial authorities that they would be summoned to face contempt of court charges for criticising or commenting unfavourably on judicial decisions or specific judges. “No branch of government, including the courts, should be immune from public opinion in a democratic society,” Adams said.
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