Daily Times

LAHORE: Lahore High Court Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah Thursday reserved the decision on a petition challenging the ban on the media coverage at airports. Several journalists’ organisations had approached the court against the ban on media coverage. The counsel for the petitioner alleged that the “impugned ban was imposed only to blanket alleged corruption and smuggling at airports”. He submitted that attitude of airport authorities was not good with local and foreign passengers, while delay in flights had become a routine matter. He said that the only reason behind such an “unconstitutional” step was to give a cover to ever-increasing incidents of their negligence from the airport authorities. He said that right of information was constitutional right of every citizen, and the media coverage on airports was the primary right to provide information. He said that prohibiting media coverage was tantamount to muzzle the freedom of expression. He requested the court to declare the ban on the media coverage at airports unconstitutional. The counsel for the government had taken the plea that the ban was imposed citing security reasons. The court after hearing the arguments from both sides reserved the judgement.