PRESS freedom cannot be gauged by body bags alone. If it was, Pakistan would rank among the comparatively safer countries in the world for journalists today. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a total of 15 media workers were killed in this country during 2010 and 2011 for reasons confirmed as being related to their work; more recently, from 2015 onwards, ‘only’ four have lost their lives on account of their profession. But as most journalists in Pakistan will vouch, a reduction in deadly violence of the kind that has killed at least 57 media persons in this country since 2000, does not mean an absence of violence. The CPJ’s latest report explores the evolving media landscape in Pakistan where practitioners of this essential pillar of democracy are being silenced through more insidious ways as well as through direct acts of intimidation. Indeed, it can be argued that the number of fatalities has dropped in part because these tactics are working.

To put it another way, self-censorship has become the means to self-preservation. The report cites several examples to illustrate the oppressive environment in which journalists are working, and the impunity enjoyed by those determined to crush dissent and impose a one-dimensional narrative in the public domain. Recalcitrant journalists are picked up, beaten, abducted, arrested on flimsy pretexts, charged with terrorism, etc. Some are maligned as anti-state, an allegation calculated to provoke violence against them, or at the very least destroy their credibility. Editors are ‘advised’ to refrain from covering certain issues, or to do so with a particular slant. Resistance is met with strong-arm measures to disrupt circulation and limit viewership. No one, at least in public, dares name the perpetrators; and no one is held accountable. It does not help that the red lines are growing increasingly blurred as ‘national interest’ becomes ever more loosely defined, subject to the needs of the moment. The PTI, now that it is in government, must honour its pre-election pledge to uphold constitutional rights, including the right to freedom of the press. Lifting censorship from state-run media was commendable, but it should also address the censorship that is throttling private media. As suggested in the CPJ report, journalist safety legislation must be urgently enacted and the perpetrators of violence brought to account. The new government can do much to assert its democratic credentials by ensuring that the open season on journalists comes to an end.

DAWN

“Coloring the legitimate newsgathering activities of a respected journalist as evidence of international terrorism risks chilling the vital work of the media, especially in Pakistan where journalists routinely interview Taliban and other militant groups as part of their coverage,” said Bob Dietz, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator.

“The NSA has once again brought the dangers of mass surveillance into sharp relief,” said CPJ Internet Advocacy Coordinator Geoffrey King from San Francisco. “Given a big enough pool of data, anyone can end up fitting a ‘suspicious’ pattern. Journalists who traverse many sectors of society to bring the public the news are particularly vulnerable.”

Zaidan and Al-Jazeera strongly defended the journalist’s reporting and rejected the U.S.’s suspicions, The Intercept reported.

Committee to Protect Journalists

Two unidentified gunmen stormed the offices of the independent news agency Online International News Network in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, killing the bureau chief Irshad Mastoi and a reporter, Ghulam Rasool Khattak. A network employee, accountant Muhammad Younis, was also killed, according to news reports.

All three were shot several times, according to police. Khattak and Younis were killed immediately, and Mastoi was rushed to hospital where he was pronounced dead, reports said. The assailants fled the scene, according to reports.

“This brazen attack underscores the dangers faced by journalists in Baluchistan where the press is constantly under pressure from all sides,” said CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney. “The authorities must bring not only the gunmen but also those who commissioned them to justice. Anything less will send the signal that journalists can be killed with impunity.”

Mastoi was secretary-general of the Baluchistan Union of Journalists, the largest journalist body in the southwestern province, according to Malik Siraj Akbar, editor and founder of The Baloch Hal news website. Mastoi was an assignment editor for the privately owned news channel ARY News and had written for publications including The Express Tribune. He had reported on issues including the political situation in the restive region, according to colleagues.

It is not clear what Khattak covered at the news agency.

Baluchistan–Pakistan’s largest province by area and smallest by population–is mired in an insurgency and sectarian strife. Its residents are faced with criminal activity, daily disappearances and targeted killings, and international journalists are routinely denied access to the province.

CPJ research shows that local journalists in Baluchistan face pressure from a number of sources: pro-Taliban groups and Pakistani security forces and intelligence agencies, as well as separatists and state-sponsored anti-separatist militant groups. At least six other journalists have been murdered in Baluchistan in direct relation to their work in the past decade, according to CPJ data.

Committee to protect journalists

Ali K. Chishti, a correspondent of Friday Times, said he was intercepted by some half a dozen policemen in the PECHS area minutes after he had left his office with driver on Aug 30.

Mr Chishti, who felt that there was serious threat to his life, left for Islamabad after the incident. He said he ‘suspected some people’ of being behind the incident. However, he did not mention any name.

“I was dragged out of my car, put into a police vehicle and taken to Do Darya where I and my driver were handed over to some people in civvies. I also heard a gunshot…soon after we were taken out of the vehicle. I was kept there for nine hours and severely beaten up. My driver has since been missing,” he said.

Mr Chishti said the people in civvies threatened him and asked him to leave the city within 24 hours and refrain from reporting the matter to anyone. They also ‘abused’ Friday Times editor Najam Sethi, he added.

“I wrote extensively on national security issues and also about extremist elements. I am not sure but have enough reasons to believe who they were and why they did it to me,” said Mr Chishti.

Our New York Correspondent adds: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on the Pakistani government to fully investigate the abduction and beating of Mr Chishti.

Mr Chishti told CPJ and other news outlets that he had been abducted and beaten up on Aug 30, and released the next morning.

DAWN

The CPJ that works for the safety of journalists around the world has also called on the PML-N government to legislate for bringing intelligence agencies under parliamentary oversightas there is no law at the moment governing the functions of the agencies.

“By ensuring the effective prosecution of journalists’ killers and halting the era of anti-press violence, Sharif and his new government will be protecting Pakistani democracy for years to come,” said Bob Dietz, CPJ Director Asia.

CPJ’s 51-page report has been released a day after Amnesty International’s annual report documenting serious threats Pakistani journalist are facing from “state security forces, political parties and religious militant groups.”

The ISI and MQM, with their strong-arm tactics, have dominated in the CPJ report. “For journalists, they are among the fiercest Goliaths standing in the way, sometimes physically, sometimes psychologically.” read the report titled: “Roots of Impunity: Pakistan’s Endangers Press and the Perilous Web of Militancy, Security and Politics.”

MQM and ISI however denied the accusations leveled against them in CPJ report. Author of the report, Elizabeth Rubin, former New York Times correspondent, has investigated at length the killing of Geo TV reporter Wali Khan Babar, Voice of America’s reporter Mukarram Khan Atif and Saleem Shehzad.

Between 2003 and 2012, CPJ research shows, 23 journalists were murdered in Pakistan in direct reprisal for their work, making it the fourth deadliest nation in the world for the press, wrote Bob Deitz.

In at least seven murder cases, CPJ found that government, military, or intelligence officials were the likely perpetrators, he noted. “These targeted killings have taken place with perfect impunity: Not a single journalist murder has been successfully prosecuted over the past decade.”

Writing on Wali Khan Babar’s murder in January 2011, the report said that Police arrested several suspects affiliated with the MQM, a leading political party, “but the case has been derailed by threats, intimidation, and murders of key figures in the investigation.” Five witnesses or law enforcement officials connected to the case have been slain, and two prosecutors were fired without explanation, it noted further.

Explaining the threats journalist face from MQM, CPJ report quoted a newspaper editor who said they have to be extra careful publishing anything about them. “They don’t forget these things. We vet every word, every sentence written about the MQM. I am responsible for 150 reporters and I have to be careful if a byline is given on a story,” an editor explained to CPJ requesting not to be named.

Another TV executive said that even the cable operators are pressurised by the MQM to shut down a program that is not liked by the party. Another editor said they feel more threatened from MQM than Taliban. “At least if Taliban threaten you, you can ask authorities for help. With these guys (MQM), No.”

As CPJ also interviewed journalists at Karachi Press Club asking them why the killers of Wali Babar are not arrested. One of them replied: “Everyone points a finger at the MQM, but the prosecutors/judges are also under threat.”

CPJ report also throws light on the complexities of the circumstances surrounding the murder of Mukarram Khan Atif. Although Taliban took responsibility of killing him, Mukarram’s colleagues doubt the claim, the report said.

As Mukarram has covered a deadly US military attack against a Pakistani army post in Salala, he was repeatedly threatened by the military and intelligence officials after his report was aired.

“Several CPJ sources believe government officials were behind the killing. Disclosing links between the military and militants, after all, is a red line that is not to be crossed,” noted the report.

In the report’s chapter on recommendation, CJP has demanded re-opening of 23 murder cases of journalists especially those of Wali Babar and Mukarram Atif. It has also demanded to publicly disclose the findings of all official inquiries into attacks on journalists particularly the one conducted into the murder of Hayatullah Khan who was found murdered in 2006 after covering a sensitive national security matter.

In addition, CPJ has demanded of would-be PM Nawaz Sharif direct the intelligence agencies stop intimidating journalists. In line with the recommendation of Saleem Shehzad Commission report, CPJ has called for setting up the office of ombudsman to address the grievances of media persons regarding threats from state institutions.

CPJ said Nawaz Sharif government must consider the adoption of journalist protection initiative like introducing legislations declaring attacks on journalists as a federal crime. It said Pakistan must cooperate in the creation and implementation of programs promoted through the UN Action Plan on Security of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity.

Source: The News

BBC Urdu reported that police in the provincial capital of Quetta had filed a First Information Report, or complaint, on Wednesday against at least seven Baluch dailies and Pakistani journalists and publishers in connection with their publication of a statement by the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group. Reports said the statement was in relation to a suicide bombing but did not offer further details. The complaint named dailies Qudrat, Bakhabar, Zamana, Jang, Mashriq, Express and Intekhab as some of the defendants. Reports did not immediately identify the names of any journalists or publishers.

Last month, another complaint was also filed against four of the papers–Jang, Mashriq, Express, and Intekhab–for publishing a statement by Jaish-ul-Islam, a Sunni militant group accused of carrying out attacks against Shias in Baluchistan. In the statement, the group claimed responsibility for killing a police officer, reports said.

The defendants can face charges under Pakistan’s Anti-Terrorism Act, which prohibits the “…printing, publishing, or disseminating of any material … that glorifies terrorists or terrorist activities, incites religious, sectarian or ethnic hatred, or gives projection to any person … or organization concerned in terrorism,” according to news reports.

“Pakistan’s anti-terror law effectively criminalizes reporting on vital issues of public interest,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “Journalists in Baluchistan already work under tremendous pressure and should not face the additional burden of prosecution under a vague and sweeping statute.”

The defendants can also face charges that include contempt of court for disregarding a provincial high court’s decision that forbids news outlets from publishing or broadcasting statements by banned militant groups, reports said. In October, Pakistan’s Supreme Court upheld the provincial court’s decision.

The Baluch press work in a dangerous climate, under pressure to report in line with the views of several elements, including pro-Taliban groups, security forces, and intelligence agencies, as well as Baluch separatists and state-sponsored anti-separatist militant groups. CPJ research shows that journalists in Baluchistan are threatened for not publishing statements made by militant groups.

A hearing for the case has been scheduled for May 30, reports said.

Committee to Protect Journalists