Message from CJA Canada

Time for a well-deserved tribute or two, Pakistan
on your special day in the free expression fight
The mighty efforts Pakistan’s journalists are making to advance freedom of expression and civil rights are a model for the profession well beyond your republic’s borders.
You have fought hard, worked hard, talked hard and persuasively, and made huge gains in circumstances that have daunted many before you in getting these basic democratic messages in front of the law-makers and public.
On behalf of my colleagues in the profession in Canada and the Commonwealth Journalists Association secretariat and branch, know that you have our admiration and certainly moral support. Through your efforts, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has been persuaded on the merits of establishing a journalist victims fund. It is to be hoped that such creativity spreads. Others in the Commonwealth should take note. Your persuasion also has paved the way for exposing the corrosive nature of gender bias. By keeping the pressure on you have taken great strides, in our profession and society, working against the ingrained resistance of a male-dominated society not quite ready to give women
their due.
Your efforts in the face of much adversity win you great credit and set an example for so many in other Commonwealth states.
Your have our admiration and support.

Sincerely,
Murray Burt
Past International President
CJA Canada