Several media rights group have come together to issue a press release on Wednesday strongly condemning the government's proposed Pakistan Media Development Authority (PMDA) calling it "unconstitutional and draconian law against the freedom of press."

The All Pakistan Newspaper Society, Council of Press Editors, Pakistan Broadcasters Association, Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, and Association of Electronic Media Editors and News Editors signed the release saying that the federal government wants to tighten control on the media from one platform but "ignores the fact that print, electronic and social media are separate entities each with their own defined features."

They also said this moves smacks of an authoritarian regime that "should have no place in democratically elected dispensation."

Earlier in June, the same media bodies met and rejected the "proposed PMDA [which] was intended to hinder media freedoms and take control over the media by the top information bureaucracy." They likened the PDMA to the then Press and Publications Ordinance 1963, created during Ayub Khan's rule.

The PMDA, if passed, will be the only authority responsible for the regulation of print, broadcast and digital media in Pakistan. This means all previous laws about media regulation will be abolished.

The PMDA will register digital media platforms, monitor and analyse them and monitor that are complying to cyber laws. They will also have the authority sanction media outlets for violating rules it has set up i.e. it will have tighter control of what digital outlets publish and disseminate.

The PMDA will also monitor revenues generated through online advertisements to ensure there's no tax evasion.

“This will be a new statutory institution established to regulate films, electronic, print and digital media in Pakistan in the age of meta data, digital and social media, and internet-based content and advertisements,” according to the proposal.

It will regulate broadcast and print media as well as films, issuing NOCs for the latter's production for example.

The PMDA will have the authority to settle wage disputes.

The federal government will also set up a media complaints cell in which it will decide on complaints filed against content published or broadcast on these platforms.

A person can go to a tribunal to file an appeal against any decision handed down to it by the PDMA or the aforementioned complaint council. The tribunal will fall under the PMDA and be headed by high court judges who have the authority to fine unto Rs25m or sentence one to jail time up to three years.

The Supreme Court will be the only body that can question the PMDA's decisions.

In a powerful editorial on the subject, Dawn wrote: "Journalists over the last few years have endured indirect censorship and outright violence for simply trying to do their job. Now an attempt is underway to replace these blatantly illegal tactics by legislation that ultimately has the same objective — to bludgeon the community into acquiescence."