The IFJ has also called for apologies from the Pakistani politicians and government after an horrific week of media-targeted violence. In ongoing demonstrations organized by PTI and PAT against the government, the IFJ has also noted that both the state and the opposition directly targeted journalists and media workers in a concerning series of retaliations against media workers who were attempting to report on the protests.

Pakistan’s police forces directly attacked the media including journalists and staff from ARY News, News One, AbbTakk News, Dunya TV, Dawan News and JAAG TV at one of the demonstrations on August 30.

Several media workers were injured during the police onslaught. Police were also engaged in manhandling journalists, pulling out camera operators and other media workers from DSNG vans and beating them with batons. Police also smashed cameras and DSNG vans of several channels as well as journalists’ vehicles.

In his letter to Nawaz Sharif, IFJ President, Jim Boumelha, said the aggressive behaviour of security forces was “totally unacceptable” and “grossly violated the media’s rights to report and the citizens’ right of information, as expressed explicitly in Pakistan’s constitution”.

Security forces also failed to intervene for the safety of journalists on a number of occasions when the demonstrations showed intolerance towards the media, Mr Boumelha said.

The IFJ has called the leaders of PTI and PAT to account saying: “At the time, when they have to bear the attacks from unknown groups, it is extremely worrying that even responsible political parties and the state’s security agencies assault media and journalists”.

On September 1, over 800 PTI and PAT protesters stormed the PTV building in the early afternoon, holding a number of staff hostage and forcing management to shut down the transmission of PTV News and PTV World. They also stole weapons from security guards manning the building and damaged a number of PTV vehicles. There have also been reports of violence and manhandling against PTV staff.

On August 30, anti-government demonstrators attacked the office of Pakistan’s leading TV channel Geo News in Islamabad. Protesters were on a march toward the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s House, when the crowd of angry demonstrators gathered outside the Geo News office, pelting it with stones. Some stick-wielding protestors reportedly also attacked the satellite van of Geo News as the staff in the building struggled to escape. No one was hurt in the incident but the building was damaged in the onslaught.

Similarly, journalists of Geo TV were forced to leave the venue of sit-in protest after he was abused and his microphone was snatched away. Journalists were among media workers who locked themselves in the Digital Satellite News Gathering (DSNG) van after PTI / PAT cadres started kicking on the van and warned to leave within minutes on August 15. On August 16 also, journalists were attacked again and forced to flee the rally venue.

Mr Boumelha said in his letters to PTI and PAT: “As political parties aspiring for democratic rule in Pakistan, your commitment to democratic values, human rights, and the freedom of expression should be unconditional and demonstrative.”

The IFJ reminds Pakistan’s leaders and opposition that democracy cannot prosper without vibrant media giving platform to pluralistic opinions.

International Federation of Journalists

On Sunday, protesters pelted stones at and damaged the offices of the privately owned Geo TV and struck a Geo News satellite van with batons, the channel reported. Early Monday, protesters armed with sticks stormed the headquarters of the state-run Pakistan Television (PTV) and harassed staff, damaged broadcast equipment, and cut cables, leading to a temporary block in transmission, according to news reports. Although the army eventually brought the situation under control, the ability of anti-government protesters to get inside a building the military was apparently guarding prompted some to question the army’s role, the BBC reported.

For nearly two weeks thousands of protesters, led by the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Imran Khan and anti-government cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri, have been camped out in Islamabad, after a march to the capital to call for the resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif over allegations of electoral fraud, a charge he denies. Government officials believe the protests are backed by the country’s powerful military establishment, according to reports. The military, which has been at odds with the Sharif administration on a range of issues since his election last year, has led several coups in the past, one of which removed Sharif from power in 1999. Already, the military has pressured Sharif to relieve control of foreign policy and security issues according to government aides, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Several journalists covering the anti-government protests for outlets including ARY News, Aaj TV, Samaa TV, and Geo have come under attack, as we noted earlier.

Against this backdrop of unrest, last week we documented death threats against freelance columnist and retired army officer Kamran Shafi, who had been critical of the anti-government movement and military. Ansar Abbasi, investigative editor at the privately owned The News International also received a death threat from the same email account, using the name “Khaki Power”, around the same time. The News is part of the Geo/Jang group–which has been labeled anti-establishment and traitorous by many Pakistanis loyal to the military since the attack on Hamid Mir, an anchor and columnist for the group.

The threats in Shafi’s case did not end there. Today, he received another threat from a different email address, albeit the same and seldom-used domain name, telling him: “And make no mistake, you can be bumped off with 1 phone call giving it a ‘go’. Traitor. You dont deserve to breathe air in this country nor walk it’s [sic] soil.”

To read the full threat sent to Shafi click here.

Similar threats have been sent to several other journalists. Omar Quraishi, the editorial pages editor for the privately owned Express Tribune, received the following disturbing message from the same email account that sent the latest threat to Shafi:

From: “SSG” <ssg@safe-mail.net>
Date: 29 Aug 2014 11:20am
Subject: Notice
To: <omarrquraishi@gmail.com>
Cc:

Quraishi – consider this your ONE and ONLY notice. Watch your mouth. If you utter rubbish again, I will personally see to it that you leave this world covered in your own urine.. begging for forgiveness. How does that sound? Shut your mouth or I will gladly shut it for you for ever.

Quraishi told CPJ he believes the threat is in connection with recent tweets, in which he has been critical of the military and of supporters of the campaigns led by Khan and Qadri.

On Sunday, Ahmad Noorani, an investigative journalist at The News, also received a death threat from the same e-mail address.

Threats against journalists in Pakistan are never to be taken lightly. CPJ research shows that at least half of all journalists murdered in the country were threatened before they were killed.

Pakistan’s advanced surveillance capabilities, recently highlighted by Sohail Abid, from local internet rights group Digital Rights Foundation, should be capable of tracing the source of these threats. Commentators including Shafi, have questioned how threats such as the ones made against him can go untraced by the country’s powerful intelligence agencies.

Even before the current political crisis, Pakistan is one of the deadliest places for journalists. On Friday, 28-year-old Ihsan Ali, an assistant to the bureau chief of the Urdu-language Mashriq, a privately owned daily, was shot dead by unidentified assailants in Mardan district–a case we are currently investigating. Last week, three employees, including journalist Irshad Mastoi, were shot dead at the Quetta offices of the independent news agency Online International News Network.

Sadly, amid this political crisis, views in the media have become polarized, and rivalries and infighting have reached new levels. Independent and critical voices are suffering at a time when the public needs them more than ever in Pakistan. Until the Pakistani media can achieve some level of solidarity they have little hope of combating the risks of being a journalist, CPJ research shows.

Sumit Galhotra is the research associate for CPJ’s Asia program. He served as CPJ’s inaugural Steiger Fellow and has worked for CNN International, Amnesty International USA, and Human Rights Watch. He has reported from London, India, and Israel and the Occupied Territories, and specializes in human rights and South Asia.

Committee to Protect Journalists

Business Recorder

They were also surprisingly familiar with the locations of key offices and the central newsroom and news studios located within the labyrinthine building of the state-broadcaster, which is a veritable maze for newcomers.

PTV officials told Dawn that the intruders also harassed station employees vandalised several offices on different floors.

A security official deputed at PTV Headquarters told Dawn around 9:30am, approximately half an hour before the station was stormed; a bearded man approached the security room adjacent to the building’s main gate and issued an ominous warning.

“Be ready. We are coming for you in a little while,” the security official quoted the unidentified man as having said.

“I thought he must’ve been some sort of over zealous protester, trying to harass us, the official said, adding that just after 10am, when hundreds of protesters stormed the building, he was forced to change his opinion.

Upon entering the premises, a team of individuals made straight for the MCR, where they asked technicians to first remove all news tickers that were relaying news of the state broadcaster’s occupation by protesters, at the time.

Following this, the men, who appeared to be from both PTI and PAT, asked them to cease transmission.

“A layman cannot possibly understand the technicalities of transmission so well; they knew exactly what they had to do,” an MCR technician told Dawn, adding that it was surprising that they managed to find the MCR with such ease.

In order to ensure that PTV went off the air, certain individuals among the occupying group asked the staff inside the broadcast facility to deactivate the satellite uplink, while keeping uplink and downlink monitors active, the MCR technician said.

“In my near-30 year career, this is the second time I’ve seen the army deployed at PTV Headquarters,” he said, referring to the coup staged by former military ruler Pervez Musharraf in October 1999.

“This time around, I don’t how long the army will state here, because their presence is felt to be necessary for as long as these anti-government sit-ins continue,” he said.

PTV World Controller Mohammad Owais Butt told Dawn that it was a stroke of good luck that after taking over the MCR, the protesters did not seek to come on-air and make a statement against the interests of the state.

“We were afraid that they might force us to air their own propaganda, but thankfully, they seemed content with interrupting our transmission,” he said.

DAWN

According to eyewitnesses, nearly 400 PTI and PAT workers stormed the PTV building, across the road from the main entrance to the Pakistan Secretariat. The attack came soon after demonstrators were repulsed from the secretariat compound.

But the occupying force was dispersed without incident by a contingent of army and Rangers personnel, who arrived on the scene within an hour of the state-TV being taken off-air.

Transmission was restored shortly after noon as the occupying force dispersed peacefully, shouting pro-army slogans and hugging military and paramilitary personnel who arrived at the scene.

This is the first time that PTV’s transmission went blank since October 12, 1999, when former military ruler retired General Pervez Musharraf took power in a bloodless coup after toppling the government of then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Eyewitnesses told Dawn the protesters were carrying PTI and PAT flags and shouting slogans in favour of Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri. PTV Senior Controller Asmatullah Niazi blamed the district administration for what he called their failure to protect the state broadcaster.

PTV employees had been facing a hard time, as their office was located right on the edge of the red zone and was at the centre of the anti-government protests, which have raged on in the capital for over two weeks now.

“Despite the army’s deployment in aid of civil authorities, how could the administration forget to deploy security around this key national institution,” he said.

Mr Niazi said that PAT workers who stormed the building instructed staff manning the channel’s transmission to stop broadcasting “useless content” and asked them to broadcast speeches by Dr Tahirul Qadri.

DAWN

According to reports out of Pakistan, police attacked media on Saturday, August 30, including journalists and staff from ARY News, News One, AbbTakk News, Dunya TV, Dawan News and JAAG TV at one of the demonstrations. Several were injured during the attacks. Police reportedly also pulled camera operators and other media workers from DSNG vans and beat them with batons. The IFJ has also heard that police allegedly smashed cameras and DSNG vans of several channels as well as journalists’ vehicles.

Also on August 30, anti-government demonstrators attacked the office of Pakistan’s leading TV channel Geo News in Islamabad. Protesters of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) were on a march toward the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s House, when the crowd of angry demonstrators gathered outside the Geo News office, pelting it with stones.

Some stick-wielding protestors reportedly also attacked the satellite van of Geo News as the staff in the building struggled to escape. No-one was hurt in the incident but the building was damaged in the onslaught.

Today, September 1, over 800 PTI and PAT protesters stormed the PTV building in the early afternoon, holding a number of staff hostage and forcing management to shut down the transmission of PTV News and PTV World. They also stole weapons from security guards manning the building and damaged a number of PTV vehicles. There have also been reports of violence and manhandling against PTV staff.

The PFUJ said: “We demand the government to avoid attack on journalists; and advise journalists to take maximum care and keep their safety and security a priority.”

The IFJ said that incidences of police intentionally targeting media personal covering demonstrations was a deplorable situation and highlights the increasing security challenge facing journalists in Pakistan. The IFJ reminds journalists to remain vigilant during this time, and safety should remain their upmost priority. Please access the IFJ Safety Guidelines for Covering Demonstrations and Civil Unrest for more information.

“The police have the responsibility of protecting journalists; so their assault and violence cannot be justified by any logic,” the IFJ Asia-Pacific said. “We urge an immediate investigation into the matter and action against those policemen involved in the assault on journalists.”

International Federation of Journalists

The media persons came under attack while they were covering heavy police teargas shelling on PTI and PAT activists who are continuing their protests police beat up the media persons ruthlessly and also damaged vehicles of seven media houses. The attack on media persons has widely been condemned across the country.

The injured media persons were Khuram Fayaz, Samma TV cameraman; Ajab Khan, Samma TV cameraman; Awais Qazi, Samma TV cameraman; Atif Yousuf, Waqt TV cameraman; Imran Iqbal, Waqt TV cameraman; Mohammad Zahid, Waqt TV DSNG operator; Jameel Kiyani, Waqt TV driver; Essa Naqvi, Dunya TV reporter; Asad Ayub, Dunya TV reporter; Adnan Dunya TV DSNG Engineer; Anjum Fatemi, Dunya TV cameraman; Asif Abdullah, ARY News cameraman; Iqbal Zaib, ARY News cameraman; Kashif Abbasi, DawnNews cameraman; Naushad Abbasi, DawnNews cameraman; Yasir Malik, DawnNews reporter; Samar Abbas, DawnNews reporter; Ashfaq Hussain, DawnNews cameraman; Imran Chaudhry, DawnNews cameraman; Mansoor Ahmed, DawnNews cameraman; Amir Alam, Express News cameraman, Majid Shah, Express News cameraman, Usman Afzal, Express News Cameraman; Rana Tariq, Aaj TV reporters; Haroon Khursheed, Aaj TV cameraman; and Ghulam Ali, Aaj TV cameraman.

Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), Pakistan Broadcasters Association, Hyderabad Union of Journalists, Rawalpindi Islamabad Union of Journalists, National Press Club and various other journalist organizations have strongly condemned the incident and demanded action against the police.

On September 1, hundreds of activists of PTI and PAT barged into headquarters of state owned Pakistan Television (PTV). All entrances to PTV headquarters were occupied by protesters as they began to damage the property, working their way through the first, second and third floors. Wires were cut off as protesters entered the panel room.

They took over the programming control room after which transmission was taken off air temporarily. However, the transmission was later restored after the army intervened and expelled the protesters from the PTV building.

The attacks on Sunday and Monday followed attacks on 12 media workers and on media houses in since the start of the protests by PIT and PAT on August 14.

Pakistan Press Foundation