Demonstrators blocked the office of the "Dawn" news channel for several hours and threatened reporters.
This statement was originally published on pakistanpressfoundation.org on 4 December 2019.
Around 30 to 35 unidentified people on 2 December 2019 staged a protest outside the offices of Dawn News television channel in Islamabad over the publication of a news report regarding the ethnicity of the London Bridge attacker.
Holding banners, chanting slogans against the newspaper and standing outside the office starting at 3:30 p.m., they demanded an apology from the media group. Security guards of the media house locked the main gate and stopped the protesters from entering the premises.
Talking to the Pakistan Press Foundation, the economic beat reporter of Dawn News Khaliq Kiani said that some of the protesters also misbehaved and threatened employees of the newspaper as well as Dawn News, when they arrived at the office.
After two hours of protest, the president of the National Press Club Shakeel Qarar called the police and the Deputy Commissioner of Islamabad to sort out the matter. After negotiations with the newspaper management in the presence of an assistant commissioner, the protesters agreed to disperse after hurling warnings.
Talking to the PPF, Qamar said working journalists would not allow curbs on press freedom and asked the government to take steps for the protection of media persons. The incident must not be ignored by the government, he said.
The incident was widely condemned by various political leaders and journalists’ bodies, including the president of Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists.
