The London Central Branch of the NUJ notes with alarm the recent brutal treatment of journalists in Pakistan following countrywide activities staged by unions on International Press Freedom Day, May 3rd. A number of leading members of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (RIUJ) and its affiliate the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Union of Journalists (RIUJ) were arrested following a rally outside Parliament House. They were held for several hours, only being released after a march by journalists from the rally to the police station. In Lahore, several journalists were injured when the police charged a rally organised by the Punjab Union of Journalists (PUJ) and then blocked a demonstration outside the home of the Chief Minister.
This branch protests at the physical and illegal mistreatment of those journalists taking action against the lack of press freedom in Pakistan and calls upon the NUJ nationally to declare its support for those journalists and protest in the strongest terms possible to the Pakistan government through its embassy.