Journalists don’t go to Fawad Chaudhry’s news conference because he was rude when he answered a question.
Journalists monitoring the Supreme Court of Pakistan’s hearings on the Deputy Speaker’s contentious verdict on the no-confidence motion left former information minister Fawad Chaudhry’s news conference in protest over his aggressive reaction to a question.
In response to a query from veteran journalist Matiullah Jan, an irate Chaudhry labeled him ‘a hired gun‘ in a nasty way — a remark that drew censure from on-the-ground reporters.
Journalists kept asking Chaudhry to address the question or apologise to Jan for making inappropriate remarks. Instead, Chaudhry made personal attacks on the integrity of other journalists.
He said that the journalists covering the press conferences are compensated and have an agenda.
Asad Umar and Ali Muhammad Khan of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf attempted to defuse the tension, but to no effect, as Chaudhry stood by his dubious claims. In response to Chaudhry’s behavior, the journalists took down their microphones and cameras and said that they would not cover him until he said sorry.
Some of the best court reporters from a wide range of news and digital media outlets are meeting now to figure out what they should do next after the former information minister said what he said.
Chaudhry has made headlines for his physical attack on and vulgar comments directed toward journalists. Despite the PTI and Prime Minister Imran Khan’s claims that they support press freedom, they never took action against him or criticized him for his actions, even though they said they did.
