On December 7, a security guard of Express News television channel was injured when two unidentified men threw a homemade explosive device in their office in the city of Sargodha in the Punjab province.

The attackers who had come on a motorcycle, knocked on the gate and when the security opened it, they hurled the explosive device and ran away. The security guard Sher Mohammad was injured in the attack and the gate and some vehicles were also damaged. Mohammed was taken to DHQ Hospital Sargodha and given medical aid for minor injuries. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

This was the third attack on a media house in the province of Punjab. Previously, on November 20, unidentified men hurled hand grenade outside the bureau office of Dunya News in Faisalabad injuring three employees. On December 1, an employee Din News was injured in the hand grenade attack outside their office of in Lahore. In both attacks the attackers threw pamphlets of ISIS – Khorasan Group (Daulat-i-Islamia Khorasan). The group warned media houses for the future attacks.

The First Information Report (FIR) against unknown attackers was registered in Counter Terrorism Department (CTD). Police had started investigation into the incident and a joint investigation team (JIT) was formed consisting of CTD officials and police.

Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) condemned the attack and announced a protest sit in outside Punjab Assembly on December 8.

Pakistan Press Foundation

SARGODHA: A small home-made explosive device (cracker) was hurled at the offices of Express Media Group on Monday evening with the resulting blast injuring a security guard and damaging a number of vehicles.

At least two unidentified men riding on a motorcycle had approached the Express office on University Road at about at about 5:15pm in the evening and hurled the cracker over the closed gate before fleeing. It exploded with a loud bang and the ball bearings within injured security guard Sher Muhammad, and damaged a door, an office van and a number of parked motorcycles.

Rescue 1122 rushed to the spot soon after the explosion and took the injured guard to hospital for treatment. The bomb disposal squad was also summoned to the spot.

Shortly after the attack, DPO Sarghoda Sajjad Hassan Manj and DCO Saqib Manan visited the Express Media Group office and issued orders to depute a police detail outside the office.

A case of the attack was registered in CTD Faisalabad police station with articles relating to terrorism included in the FIR.

Advisor to the Chief Minister Rana Maqbool Ahmed and IG Punjab Mushtaq Sukhera have also demanded reports of the incident within 24 hours.

Meanwhile, a joint investigation team (JIT) consisting of officials from Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) and the district police has been set up under Khalid Ranjha of the CTD and DSP City Rana Ghulam Murtaza to probe the attack.

Journalist unions and organisations have condemned the attack and have announced a protest for Tuesday (today).

Express Tribune

The assailants fled the scene. Baghwan and his wife rushed back into their home shortly before the explosion occurred, according to local reports. The explosion damaged the windows and exterior of Baghwan’s home and car. No one was injured, reports said.

Baghwan said he had not received any threats recently, according to the Tribune. Authorities launched an investigation into the attack.

Baghwan’s home was also attacked in March and April 2014. No group immediately claimed responsibility for any of the attacks, according to the Pakistan-based Freedom Network, a local media watchdog group.

Committee to Protect Journalists

Reporters Without Borders condemns today’s bombing of the home of Jamshed Baghwan, Express News TV’s bureau chief in Peshawar. It was the third attempt to target Baghwan and his family with an explosive device since March and the latest in an 11-month-old string of attacks on Express Media group personnel and installations, some of which have been claimed by the Taliban.

Left in a milk pack in front of the house by men on a motorcycle, today’s home-made bomb damaged the outside of the building but caused no injuries when it was set off by a timer at 11 am.

“We are outraged by this latest murder attempt targeting an Express News journalist and his family,” said Benjamin Ismaïl, the head of the Reporters Without Borders Asia-Pacific desk. “We urge the authorities to react quickly and to assign security personnel to protect their home.”

“My family members and I are all safe, thank God,” Baghwan told RWB. “More than one kilogram of explosives was used in the attack. Today’s blast was bigger than the previous ones.”

Asked who he thought was behind the bombs, Baghwan said: “The enemy is unknown. I am clueless as to why these elements are targeting my house. I see no reason to believe that these attacks are unrelated to my profession.”

Although no group has claimed the bomb attacks on Baghwan’s home, the police think the same people were behind them, and that the motive may have been to put pressure on him and other journalists.

Baghwan also expressed dismay at the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government’s failure to protect him. “No-one from the government side has contacted me since these bombs started going off outside my home. I’ve not been provided any security nor has the information minister expressed any solidarity with me.”

The attacks on Express News began in August 2013, when shots were fired at its headquarters in Karachi. It was the target of shots and bombs again in December. Three of its employees were shot dead in Karachi in January. And, on 28 March, shots were fired at a car carrying star programme host Raza Rumi, killing his driver and injuring his bodyguard.

Some of these attacks have been claimed by Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, which said it acted to combat the negative coverage it was getting from Express News and other media.

Pakistan is ranked 158th out of 180 countries in the 2014 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.

Reporters Without Borders

In the last six months or so, the Express Group offices in Karachi were attacked twice, three of the group’s staffers were killed in the same city (owned by Taliban), our anchor person Raza Rumi had a close shave in Lahore but his driver was not so lucky, our bureau chief in Peshawar escaped two attempts at his home. And what was the response of the media industry at large? Couldn’t care less!
Compared to the Pakistani media, its Afghan counterpart is just a toddler in age and experience. But look at the way the Afghan media has reacted collectively to an attack on one of its members and his family by the Taliban. This is not the way we do it in Pakistan. We don’t even name the attack victims, let alone identify the organisation to which they belong to.

We have fought four military regimes and as many civilian dictatorships. Our struggle for press freedom is legendary. The media is perhaps the only section of our society which has kept aloft the democratic flag during the darkest of the dictatorial days. We take pride in being one of the most vibrant media in this part of the world.

The price for being so lively has been very heavy, especially since the commencement of the War on Terror. Pakistan, today, is ranked as one of the most dangerous countries for journalists in the world. As many as 50 journalists have lost their lives in the last seven to eight years while reporting from various parts of the country, which has now become a virtual war zone.

The perpetrators have been both, the state and non-state actors. Both try to manipulate the media to promote their respective propaganda. Those that refuse to toe their line are harassed by both and those that prefer factual reporting, rather than what the perpetrators want them to report, are most often than not silenced forever, leaving no clue as to who pulled the gun.

Jihadi outfits that now dot the length and breadth of the country did not just appear on the scene one fine morning out of the blue. They were all mid-wifed by you-know-who for a strategic purpose. And the same agencies also manipulated a large chunk of the media to serve as the mouthpiece of these militant organisations. And every one of these three actors — the state, the non-state actors, as well as the jihadi media –– thrived until the very state of Pakistan appeared to be on the verge of being overwhelmed by these non-state actors and their propagandists.

And when the falling out began, a kind of anarchy set in with the state actors trying desperately to control the damage, the non-state actors trying equally desperately to establish their supremacy at gunpoint and the jihadi propagandists within the media industry trying to set the national agenda as they saw fit through their own marketing prisms.

The attack on one of Geo’s leading anchor persons is one of the manifestations of this anarchy. While condemning the murderous attack and praying for his quick recovery, let us not ignore the vertical and horizontal polarisation in the media that has been caused by Hamid Mir’s tragedy.

Express Tribune

Raza Rumi is alive. It appears Hamid Mir will survive. Shan Dahar is dead.

For CPJ, most of this weekend was taken up learning about and responding to the assassination attempt on Geo TV’s most prominent anchor and commentator, Hamid Mir. CPJ quickly released a statement after the attack and fielded questions from international and Pakistani media almost nonstop. On Sunday, I met with about 30 Pakistani journalists and community leaders in New York to discuss the situation. The government has offered a reward of 10 million Pakistani rupees (about $102,000) for information leading to the apprehension of the people who tried to kill the very high-profile Mir.

This weekend’s response wasn’t unlike that on March 28, when gunmen sprayed the car of TV anchor and widely-respected analyst Raza Rumi, a member of the Express Group of media organizations. And we handled a flood of questions after the January 17 attack on an Express TV van in Karachi, in which three media workers were killed and a cameraman injured. It was the third attack in eight months on the Express Media Group. An attack on an Express bureau chief’s home was the fourth. The attack on Rumi was the fifth.

But in the middle of all the phone calling and emailing in the last few days, I received two email messages that took the focus off Mir and Raza Rumi, but are, in fact, all part of the same problem. I’ve conjoined both messages and edited them to make them a bit clearer:

Dear All,

Still we are waiting for justice regarding Shan Dahar’s case, please raise case of Shan along with Hamid Mir. No more investigation is done in this case, please take up our case to [the] government level. And make this statement possible for other journalists in Pakistan "Protecting Pakistan journalists"

We have submitted an application to our honorable Deputy Inspector General of Police Larkana Division for a re-investigation of Shan Dahar’s case one week before, but no output. We need your support & cooperation all the time. Could you please follow up our case with higher authorities, we don’t have approach nor any source. Your prompt action will be highly appreciated, awaiting suitable response.

Protecting Pakistan journalists
Riaz & Fouzia
Brother-in-law of Shan
Sister of Shan Dahar
Karachi, Pakistan

My CPJ colleague Elisabeth Witchel, our international expert on questions of impunity in the killing of journalists, and I met Riaz and Fouzia in Karachi in March, a week or so prior to a CPJ delegation meeting with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Information and Law Minister Pervaiz Rasheed. The couple is adamant in pursuing justice for Shan Dahar, and we’ve promised them that we would raise their case whenever we could.

There has been little substantive movement in the investigation of the shooting death of Dahar, a local reporter for Abb Takk television. He died on January 1 this year, while filming near a pharmacy in Larkana. He had already produced one story on prescription drugs being illegally resold in the town, and was taking video of a package bearing a “not for resale” label on it shortly before he was shot, according to his family. Nasir Baig Chughtai, the director of news for Abb Takk, confirms that Dahar was on assignment at the time he was killed. He died in the hospital after waiting for hours for medical treatment, which never came, possibly because it was the New Year holiday.

CPJ’s data show that 96 percent of journalists murdered around the world are local journalists covering local stories. Dahar’s case is every bit as typical of that reality as the murder attempts on Rumi or Mir. And worse, in 90 percent of the cases of journalists killed, no one is brought to justice–the killings happen with impunity. Pakistan has the world’s ninth worst record for bringing the killers of journalists to justice, according to CPJ’s annual Impunity Index.

So, starting on January 1: An increasingly bad record for the Nawaz Sharif government in terms of journalists’ safety. Much has been made of the somewhat successful prosecution in March of some of the perpetrators, but none of the masterminds, in the January 2011 murder of Geo TV reporter Wali Khan Babar. But the credit for that cannot be given to the Sharif government. The trial was underway when the government came to power and former Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was instrumental in pressuring the federal and Sindh governments to bring the trial to a conclusion. What worked were the tactics of hearing the case in an Anti-Terrorist Court; changing of the trial venue to a less dangerous location; the use of special prosecutors; and a witness protection program for those with the courage to testify. This has emerged as a model for such politically sensitive trials, even though they may come at a cost: In early April Abdul Saboor, the brother of Abdul Maroof, the special public prosecutor in Wali Khan Babar murder case, was killed by unidentified men. No motive has been ascertained, police say.

When CPJ met with Sharif and Pervaiz Rasheed in March, we walked away with the feeling that the government realizes it has a problem when it comes to journalists’ security and is ready to take steps to deal with it. Amid the ongoing killings, attacks and unrelenting threats, their plans are coming closer to be realized.

In an April 14 piece in The Express Tribune, “Protecting Pakistan journalists” Mazhar Abbas, who won a CPJ International Press Freedom Award in 2007, outlines where things stand in terms of the government’s efforts to address the problem legislatively. Abbas, a former secretary-general of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, is far from a government apologist. He remains a strong advocate of journalists in the best trade-union tradition. But even he says, “There is a sense of realization within the government that the security of media in Pakistan is the responsibility of the state.”

Abbas explains that in recent days the government submitted 20 draft proposals for consideration by the National Assembly, which arose out of its consultations with most of the stakeholders to the problem. The proposals cover everything from insurance for journalists to safety training, who pays for protective gear for staff on dangerous assignments, and how quickly attacks on journalists must be investigated and brought to trial. A main forum for that discussion has been the Pakistan Coalition on Media Safety, a group that arose just over a year ago out of a U.N. conference in Islamabad, the International Conference on Safety & Security of Pakistani Journalists. Now, in 2014, a year later, Abbas says he hopes the legislation to protect journalists will be enacted by World Press Freedom Day, May 3, 2015, a year from now–an optimistic but achievable deadline.

Meanwhile: After this weekend’s attack on Mir, the highly respected Zohra Yusuf of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said, Protecting Pakistan journalists “There should be an independent and judicial inquiry commission but that should not end like the one established to probe into killing of journalist Saleem Shahzad. This time the attempt went unsuccessful so there is a need to inquire about the details and people behind the attack before they plan another one.” Her idea was adopted by the government on Sunday.

CPJ has been highly skeptical of the value of special judicial inquiries and tribunals like those called for by the HRCP’s Yusuf. See, for example, “Justice for Saleem Shahzad? We’ve seen this before…” and “What should happen following the Raza Rumi attack.” We feel that special investigations, even when they include high-ranking judicial figures, circumvent the basic application of the laws of the country for the crime of murder: a police investigation, the appointment of a prosecutor, a trial, a conviction, and a sentencing. We feel that as the government waits for its proposed new legislation, it should use those tools it already has, the tools it used in the Babar case, to continue to prosecute the ongoing attacks on journalists. The threats and violence remain as prevalent as they ever have been, and show no signs of abating. Prosecutions of those who would kill journalists should start now. Protecting Pakistan journalists

Bob Dietz, coordinator of CPJ’s Asia Program, has reported across the continent for news outlets such as CNN and Asiaweek. He has led numerous CPJ missions, including ones to Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka. Follow him on Twitter @cpjasia and Facebook @ CPJ Asia Desk.

Committee to Protect Journalists

The report highlighted that despite six people being convicted in the case, justice is far from complete as two convicts are still at large and mastermind of the killing is yet to be identified. The report also mentions that during the trial, five more people linked to the case were also murdered including witnesses, informants, and investigators.

The conviction seems to have had scant impact on those who are targeting the media in Pakistan. Three staffers of Express Media group were killed in January, while analyst and anchor of Express News show “Khabar Se Agay” Raza Rumi, came under a gun attack in Lahore on March 28, 2014, in which his driver, Mustafa, was killed and his guard injured.

Separately, Express News bureau chief in Peshawar Jamshed Baghwan was targeted twice within the span of one month. First a bomb was found outside his house on March 21, while on April 7 a hand grenade was hurled at his residence in Peshawar. Perpetrators in all the attacks are yet to be apprehended.

The rate of unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants in Pakistan has improved from 0.130 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants previous year to 0.123 this year.

Impunity high in conflict region

With 100 journalists murdered in the last decade and 100 per cent impunity, Iraq remains the worst offender on the Impunity Index, a spot it has held since 2008. The two year silence in fatal anti-press violence was broke with the nine new murders in late 2013. The rate of unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants has increased from 2.818 to 3.067.

Somalia and Philippines have also retained their spots on the Impunity Index, second and third slots respectively. Somalia’s rating worsened for the sixth year in a row. Although the anti-press violence has moved slightly down from its record high in 2012, with four new murders in 2013, journalists continue to be targeted.

Battle hit Syria has joined the ranks of Iraq and Somalia for the first time this year. Syria has been dubbed as the most dangerous country for the journalists with more than 60 media persons been killed in the cross fire and unprecedented number of abductions. Now deliberate murders of journalists have made it a worst, at least seven journalists have been targeted in Syria since 2012, with all complete impunity. The perpetrators come from all sides—non-Syrian militant groups, rebels targeting pro-government media, and President Bashar al-Assad’s forces. Syria is placed fifth on the impunity index at the rate of 0.313 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants.

CPJ’s 2014 Global Impunity Index

Express Tribune

On September 17, 2012, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) blocked YouTube after the website refused to remove the trailer of the controversial, amateurish anti-Islam film, Innocence of Muslims by Sam Bacile (aka Nakoula Basseley Nakoula). The then PPP-led government declared the following Friday “Love The Prophet Day,” hoping to encourage peaceful protests. However, the violence that ensued was yet another disturbing reminder of the growing influence of the conservative right in Pakistani society. Although YouTube remains blocked in Pakistan, two days ago the TTP launched its official website through its media partner, Umar Media, which serves as a central information portal featuring videos, publications and statements made by its leaders. The website, until recently accessible in Pakistan, has been criticized for carrying propaganda that incites violence, especially against Pakistan’s security forces.

The war Pakistan seems to fighting is not just against the physical presence of the Taliban but also the entrenchment of their it Islamic ideologies. This ideological infiltration has become more pronounced courtesy of the mainstream media, allowing both militant groups as well as conservative right-wing parties to exploit mainstream media attention and gain access to a larger audience.

The Pakistani media has given extensive space to statements made by militant leaders and has readily covered terrorist incidents throughout the country. While this may fall within the ambit of the media’s responsibility, the editorializing and depiction of such incidents has only further emboldened the militants. By negotiating with militants, the government has transformed those who were previously seen as “enemies of the state” into “stakeholders,” granting them the appearance of valor, along with tremendous legitimacy and leverage.

Against the backdrop of negotiations, leaders of different militant groups and conservative right-wing individuals like Maulana Abdul Aziz (former chief cleric of the Lal Masjid, infamous for fleeing under a burqa during an operation in 2007) have regularly appeared on political talk shows voraciously defending their rigid views on Shariah implementation. TTP leaders frequently give statements to national papers from undisclosed locations. In an interview given to Newsweek Pakistan, TTP spokesperson, Shahidullah Shahid claimed that, “We consider Mullah Omar as the Amir-ul-Momineen. In Pakistan, Mullah Fazlullah is leading us and he has all the qualities to lead the Pakistani nation.” Given the state’s weak negotiating position, extensive Taliban coverage not only glorifies and emboldens the militants but also creates space for a militant narrative.

While the media can easily be criticized for engaging in a ratings race, the truth remains that it cannot function in an environment where it is under constant threat and intimidation. The government, desperately preoccupied with coaxing a peace deal out of the TTP, has failed to prioritize the security of its citizens and the media.

Threats have been issued to journalists and media owners across the board. Since last year, militants have attacked the liberal Express Media Group in five separate incidents. Bomb attacks and shooting incidents outside the Karachi office caused much alarm and prompted the media group to ask the state for protection. Earlier this year, the TTP killed three employees of the same media group, prompting the Express Tribune to shift its editorial policy and refrain from publishing criticisms of the group, whether in its reports or in the opinion pages. In addition to this, the group’s TV channel also allowed TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan to appear on one of its talk shows and promised adequate coverage in return for a halt against attacks. Despite that, an assassination attempt targeting renowned journalist and outspoken Taliban critic Raza Rumi took place in Lahore on March 28. Rumi, a noted columnist, is also a TV anchor for the Express News channel. The militants’ strategy is clear and two pronged: exploit the media to carve out a space for its own narrative while at the same time intimidate media groups and individuals who dissent from their view.

The lack of security granted by the government has prompted some media groups to provide private security to the owners, editors and heads of their news channels. However, the fact remains that Pakistani media and journalists face a serious threat and the government has so far failed to allay the media’s concerns or provide adequate security. Adding salt to the wounds, in the general atmosphere of competition and ratings, TV channels even now fail to unite; coverage of media attacks is fleeting and names are absent if the victim is a competitor. This trend is troublesome and the journalist community faces a dangerous challenge, one that will require non-traditional solutions to address.

In Afghanistan, following the unfortunate attack on Serena Hotel, which killed nine people including a well-known AFP journalist and his family, Afghan journalists declared a 15-day boycott of news reporting on the Taliban. It is unlikely that the same action would be taken in Pakistan, where many remain sympathetic to the terrorist agenda.

Given the violence and intimidation, the absence of a liberal counter-narrative, and the government’s policy of appeasement, the militant narrative has been able to gain increasing prominence in mainstream media. Where once a media appearance by a leader of a terrorist group that is responsible for the killing of 19,000 civilians was an anomaly, today it is common and tomorrow it will be normal.

Using the powerful tools at their disposal to reclaim the ability to shape national discourse will undoubtedly be an uphill task for the Pakistani media, made particularly difficult in the absence of security and support provided by the government. However, the Pakistani media must stand tall. And it must stand united.

If for nothing else, it must do so for its own survival.

Arsla Jawaid is a journalist and managing editor at the Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad. Follow her on Twitter @arslajawaid

The Diplomatic

On March 28, prominent columnist and television host Raza Rumi narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in Lahore after he left the office of Pakistan’s Express Media Group. His driver, Mohammad Mustafa, was killed and a guard was injured in the attack. Rumi hosts a show on Express’s Urdu-language channel and is a vocal critic of discrimination against religious minorities and Pakistan’s militant groups generally.

The attack on Rumi is the fifth such incident targeting employees or offices of the Express Media Group since August 2013. There have been a range of attacks — from three staffers being killed while sitting in a parked news van to the group’s bureau chief in Peshawar finding a bomb outside his house. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the former, stating that: “This is a war of ideologies and whosoever will oppose us in this war of ideologies, will play the role of enemy and we will also attack them.”

In a disconcerting development that has created a palatable sense of fear, a number of Pakistani journalists and editors are believed to be on a hit list of militants. Few know why they are being targeted, but the future looks bleak for the viability of an independent Pakistani press and the safety of journalists in the country.

In a column published after he survived the assassination attempt, Rumi wrote: “Pakistan’s journalists face the oddest of challenges. They are being coerced into silence or singing praises of extremists and advocating legitimacy for their operations. Pakistan’s politicians have almost given up, as their private and public statements are at variance and they have accepted that this ‘new Pakistan’ of fear, threats and unpunished violence is what they have to deal with.”

The threats to Pakistani journalists have increased over the years, and the offices of newspapers and television stations have been fortified with barbed wire, high walls, and security guards. But as the Taliban’s former spokesperson Ehsanullah Ehsan has said forebodingly: “If we can get inside military installations, media offices should not be too much of a challenge.”

The threat of physical harm is one that many journalists now live with in Pakistan, a country where reporting is already an incredibly difficult task. Censorship has long plagued the Pakistani press, and journalists have suffered for attempting to report the truth under military regimes and democratic governments. Ask any reporter in Pakistan if they have ever been threatened, and they’ll name everyone from politicians to Mafioso, who court and censure journalists in often equal measure.

Despite the oft-used cliché that a ‘vibrant press’ exists in Pakistan, journalists are routinely threatened and cautioned against reporting on ‘controversial’ issues. The list of journalists targeted for their work — from freelance journalist Hayatullah Khan, who was found dead after reporting on the CIA-run drone program, to Asia Times correspondent Saleem Shahzad, whose body was found in a canal after he privately expressed fears about the military establishment — grows longer every year. Self-censorship is now ingrained in many newsrooms, where taboo subjects range from political scandals and major business groups to the intelligence services.

But there is little outrage at threats to journalists and the press in Pakistan. In fact, raging against the press is almost a national pastime, with politicians and conspiracy theorists routinely making lurid allegations. This has fostered an environment where violence is seen as an almost legitimate course of action. Social media websites and popular discussion forums are flooded with allegations against journalists, from accusations that they are on the payroll of foreign spy agencies to calling them biased and unprofessional. In a leaked judicial commission report investigating the May 2, 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden, the former head of the Inter-Services Intelligence Ahmad Shuja Pasha claimed that Pakistani journalists were involved in a campaign against the agency, accusing them of being “heavily bribed with money, women and alcohol.”

There is no clear solution to protecting journalists in Pakistan. Recommendations for media safety guidelines have been drawn up several times but rarely acted on. There is little scope for media groups to work together — many refuse to name each other in print or in broadcast, even when attacks take place. But most importantly, the current sense of confusion in Pakistan — on what the government is negotiating with militant groups and what it is preparing to accede — has led to a state where journalists appear to be fair game in the war against militancy. The most one can hope for is that law enforcement agencies and the judiciary can act swiftly to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the attacks, and that media organizations can bolster security outside their offices. These steps, however, can only go so far if the enemy is just at the doorstep.

Despite this, Pakistan’s journalists have continued to work. A largely unacknowledged network of stringers, fixers, and freelancers has helped foreign news organizations and wire services cover the region. But the attack on Rumi is a reminder of the long-standing piece of advice routinely exchanged by Pakistani journalists — ‘cover the story, don’t become the story.’ That no longer appears to be an option.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif recently made a set of commitments to the Committee to Protect Journalists, including that the protection of journalists would be a negotiating point in peace talks with the Taliban. But like its predecessors, the Sharif administration has abandoned the idea of protecting Pakistani citizens, let alone journalists, in its quest to appease militant groups. It would be foolishly optimistic to expect that the prime minister — or any other official — will be moved by the death of yet another innocent citizen.

Saba Imtiaz is a freelance journalist based in Karachi and a Carnegie Fellow at the New America Foundation. She is the author of Karachi, You’re Killing Me! (Random House India, 2014) and No Team of Angels (First Draft Publishing, forthcoming.) She tweets at @Saba_Imtiaz and can be contacted at saba.imtiaz@gmail.com

Daily Times

Issuing notices to Punjab chief secretary, Punjab secretary and the inspector general of the Punjab Police, the committee gave the order during a meeting today.

March 28 was another dark day in the history of Pakistani journalism when the Express Media Group came under a fifth attack a little over two months after three of its staffers were killed in a brazen gun attack in Karachi.

Unidentified gunmen had opened fire on Rumi’s car in Lahore, injuring him and killing his driver. The attack had taken place just a few hundred yards away from the Express News office in Raja Market, which Rumi had just left after hosting his programme ‘Khabar Se Agay’.

In the meeting of the Standing Committee today, no representative of the Punjab police was present. Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid asked the committee to take serious notice of their absence, after which the committee issued the orders.

No details regarding the attack on the Express News anchor have been shared with the committee as of yet.

Previous attacks on Express Media Group

March 19, 2014: A bomb was defused outside Express News Peshawar bureau chief Jamshed Baghwan’s house in Murshadabad area of Peshawar.

January 17, 2014: Three Express News staffers – technician Waqas , driver Khalid, and guard Ashraf – were killed when the DSNG van of the channel came under attack in Nazimabad, Karachi. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan had taken responsibility for the attack.

December 2, 2013: Three people were injured when the Karachi office came under attack. Two hand grenades were hurled at the office building, while unidentified assailants had opened indiscriminate fire.

August 16, 2013: Four armed men had fired indiscriminately outside the entrance of the Express Media Group office in Karachi, injuring two members of staff, including a guard who is paralysed.

Express Tribune