Islamabad, 8 Nov. (AKI/DAWN) - The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) has announced that reporters throughout the country will observe a "black day" on Friday to protest against the imposition of emergency rule.

The journalists plan to boycott all official functions on Friday and Saturday, hoist black flags on press clubs. All affiliates of the PFUJ will organise meetings, set up protest camps and observe a hunger strike.

They have threatened to carry out this protest if the government fails to lift curbs on the media by Thursday.

President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency on Saturday, saying it was necessary to curb rising militancy.

However since Saturday private television channels have been blacked out and hundreds of journalists, activists, opposition politicians and lawyers have clashed with police and been arrested or detained.

At an emergency meeting held at the Islamabad-Rawalpindi Press Club Camp Office, the PFUJ said the state of emergency had not been imposed to crush militancy. It said its target were the judiciary, media, lawyers and the civil society.

The PFUJ and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) also announced that a Global Action Day would be observed on 15 November to express solidarity with Pakistani journalists.

IFJ affiliates and other press freedom supporters will organise protests at Pakistani missions abroad and send letters of protests against the crackdown to Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. The meetings and demonstrations will continue until 20 November.

An international mission will also visit the country to look into the action taken against the media. The PFUJ has urged the IFJ to send the ‘crisis’ mission to remind the government of its pledge to support a free press and to meet journalists who are defying the government’s crackdown.

The PFUJ condemned the manhandling of journalists by the police and demanded that the state of emergency and the two orders issued against the media last week be lifted.