Iqbal Khattak, a senior journalist while in a conversation on ending impunity against violence against the journalists added, “it is not only the responsibility of the government to ensure the safety of journalists in the line of duty, the media houses are equally responsible to make certain safety measures”. Muhammad Aftab Alam, a legal expert added that “since Pakistan is a signatory of UN Plan of action on the safety of journalists, it has the responsibility of fulfilling its commitments.

Fazil Jamili, President Karachi Press Club while speaking at the concluding session of media conference said, “In order to facilitate the working journalists, personnel press clubs have been established all over Pakistan but unfortunately they are not operating effectively due to various reasons. There is a need to ensure that press clubs are functioning effectively and facilitating their members in all respects.”

Syed Asif Salah Uddin , CEO of Adgroup spoke in detail about the dynamics of media economy and said, “Advertising gets a lots of criticism but if there were no advertisements journalists would not get paid”. Mohsin Shah Nawaz Ranjha, Parliamentary Secretary Ministry of Information and Broadcasting while speaking at the concluding session said, “One can simply not ignore the role of media today. The issues raised by senior and experienced representatives of media at this platform identifies a clear gap that is present among the consumers of media also the gaps among media owners and working journalists. It is for the best interest of all that such gaps are reduced

Business Recorder

LAHORE: The sudden death in Islamabad of Maria Golovnina, the Bureau Chief of Reuters in Pakistan and Afghanistan, on Monday, has sparked a lot of speculation and the internet is already littered with rumours regarding the cause of her untimely demise.

Her death is certainly very disturbing for the London-based Reuters, functioning since October 1851, because this globally acclaimed news agency had earlier lost two of its staffers during November 2001 (Afghanistan) and a matching number during 2007 (Iraq).

In 2007, as the April 6, 2010 edition of a prestigious British daily newspaper “The Independent” and the WikiLeaks reveal, US Apache helicopters had killed a dozen people in Baghdad, including two Reuters news staff.

The killed Reuters staffers included the media outlet’s photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen and his assistant and driver Saeed Chmagh.“The Independent” said a classified US military video had confirmed the two deaths.

In November 19, 2001, a Reuters photojournalist Harry Burton (an Australian) was killed in an ambush with a native colleague Azizullah Haidari and two others in Afghanistan.

The other two journalists losing lives in this incident were Julio Fuentes (working for a widely-circulated Spanish newspaper “El Mundo”) and Maria Grazia Cutulli (working for an Italian newspaper “Corriere della Sera”).

The 34-year old half Russian and half Japanese journalist Maria Golovnina, head of Reuters Afpak (Afghanistan and Pakistan) Bureau, was very fond of the late American actor and comedian Robin Williams, her Facebook page shows.

Maria’s Facebook page further reveals that in November 2014, she had broken a leg in Afghanistan and the three fractures had led to the implantation of two titanium screws in her shinbone.

This is what Maria had written on her Facebook page on November 26, 2014:”So now I am the proud owner of two titanium screws in my shin bone following a 2-hour operation.”She is the second internationally known journalist, after Daniel Pearl, to have died in Pakistan in last 12 years or so.

Daniel Pearl, the South Asia Bureau Chief of the American newspaper “The Wall Street Journal,” was kidnapped and murdered on February 1, 2002 Holder of US and Israeli citizenship, Pearl was actually based in Mumbai but was visiting Pakistan to investigate into the alleged links between the “shoe bomber” Richard Reid and Al-Qaeda.

In March 2007, top Al-Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Muhammad had stated at Guantanamo Bay Cuba that he had personally beheaded Pearl, and earlier in July 2002, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh—a British national of Pakistani origin—was sentenced to death by hanging for Pearl’s abduction and murder.

Here follows a list of some of the relatively better-known foreign journalists killed in Afghanistan and elsewhere since 9/11:

In April 4, 2014, a German photojournalist Anja Niedringhaus was shot by a man wearing a police officer’s uniform, while this “Associated Press” staffer was covering the country’s 2014 Presidential election.

On March 11, 2014, a Swedish Radio reporter Nils Horner was killed during a talk with his Afghan translator in Kabul.

(Reference: The Guardian, March 11, 2014 edition)

On June 24, 2010, a US military journalist James Hunter was killed while covering a foot patrol.

(Reference: The Military Times)

On January 10, 2010, the British “Sunday Mirror” War Correspondent Rupert Hamer and his photographer were killed while traveling with US troops.

(Reference: The December 26, 2012 edition of The Independent)

On December 30, 2009, a Canadian reporter Michelle Lang (working for the “Calgary Herald”) was killed when a vehicle carrying him and four compatriot soldiers was hit by explosives.

(Reference: The December 30, 2009 report of CBC News)

On January 15, 2008, a Norwegian newspaper journalist Carsten Thomassen was killed in a Taliban attack on a Kabul hotel.

(Reference: The January 15, 2008 report of BBC News)

On October 7, 2006, Christian Struwe and Karen Fischer, who worked as freelance documentary filmmakers for a renowned German media outlet “Deutsche Welle,” were murdered in their tent on the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the US-led Afghan War.

They were believed to be on their way to see the Buddha statues in Bamyan province. These statues were destroyed under the Taliban.

On November 26, 2001, a Swedish TV4 camera operator Ulf Stromberg was killed during a robbery bid at a house where several journalists from Sweden were staying.

(Reference: a report carried by “The Guardian”)

On November 11, 2001, a Luxembourg Radio reporter Pierre Billaud was one of five journalists who were attacked, while riding a tank during reporting. Three of these journalists, including Pierre, had succumbed to injuries. The other two journalists who got killed in this attack were Radio France International reporter Johanne Sutton and a German freelance journalist Volker Handloik.

The injured correspondents included Paul McGeough (Australian) and Veronique Reyberotte(French).

(Reference: The New York Times)

By the way, while talking of some brave internationally acclaimed female journalists killed in the line of duty, it is hard to forget the case of Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot dead in her Moscow apartment building in 2006.

A strong critic of the Kremlin, she had received death threats following her outspoken reports documenting torture, mass executions and kidnapping by the military during the conflict in Chechnya.

In 1996, Veronica Guerin, a crime reporter for the British “Sunday Independent,” was shot dead in her car on the outskirts of Dublin by a motorcycle pillion passenger.

She had carried out investigations into senior members of the Irish criminal underworld.

In 2007, two local women journalists were killed in Afghanistan. These included reporter Zakia Zaki, who was shot seven times as she slept with her 20-month-old son. Her death came six days after Shakiba Sanga Amaj, a local television newsreader, was killed.

In 2011, two women journalists were found murdered in a Mexico City park.

The bodies of Ana Marcela and Yarce Viveros, the founders of a political magazine, were discovered by joggers.

Their killings followed a pattern of murders by organised crime gangs and drug cartels.

In 2009, a radio journalist Uma Singh was hacked to death by a criminal gang in Nepal.

Uma Singh had broadcast and written about women’s rights and the caste system, as well as political issues.

In 1965, Dickey Chapelle, a female US photojournalist was killed by a landmine in Vietnam.

She had covered the Second World War.

(Reference: The February 22, 2012 edition of “The Telegraph”)

It was in November 1965 that a New York journalist and popular game show panelist Dorothy Kilgallen was mysteriously killed in the United States.

By 1950, Dorothy’s column was running in 146 papers, and had garnered a whopping 20 million readers!

Each broadcast of her weekly TV show “What’s My Line?” was seen by 25 million viewers for 15 years in a row.

This show would feature a celebrity guest, for whom the panelists were blindfolded.

She was reportedly investigating into the November 1963 murder of US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

Just days before her mysterious demise, she had confided to her cameraman that she was all excited about going to New Orleans to meet a source whom she did not know, but would recognise.

The CIA had 53 field offices around the world watching her on her foreign travels.

During her autopsy, a pink liquid was found in her stomach but was never analysed.

(Reference: Midwest Today magazine)

The News

The post Many journalists have died in the line of duty the worldover appeared first on Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF).

QUETTA: The Balochistan government has yet to decide whether or not it should make public a judicial commission’s report on the targeted killing of a senior journalist in Quetta.

Irshad Mastoi, bureau chief of Online news distribution agency, as well as a reporter Abdul Rasul and an accountant Mohammed Younus were killed on August 28, 2014 while they were at work in their office in downtown Quetta.

After the incident, Balochistan High Court (BHC) had formed a judicial commission, which recorded statements of witnesses to probe the killing.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Balochistan Home Secretary Akbar Durrani said judicial commission had submitted its report around two weeks ago.

“The report is sent to Balochistan chief minister and chief secretary and they will decide whether it should be made public or not,” he said.

“We asked the commission to probe murder cases of 14 Balochistan journalists. However, the commission has submitted a report on the triple murder case,” he said.

He said the remaining murder cases will be referred to a sessions court judge as the high court does not have enough judges to look after such a huge number of cases.

The home secretary, however, disputed the figure of Balochistan Union of Journalists (BUJ), which claims that as many as 40 journalists have so far been killed in Balochistan since 2007

“We have compiled the list of those who are journalists and do not have other jobs,” he said.
Commenting on the issue, the BUJ President Irfan Saeed said they demand judicial investigation into all the 40 cases. He said he will not comment on the report until he himself reviews it.

Meanwhile, other BUJ members said they have the complete list of the murdered media men, adding that they challenged government officials to debate on the number of journalists killed in Balochistan.

They said the government had not properly investigated even a single murder case.

Insurgency-hit Balochistan is one of the worst places in the world for journalists as it faces multiple issues like militancy, extremism, sectarian violence and proxy wars.

Express Tribune

The post Irshad Mastoi: Journalist’s murder probe complete appeared first on Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF).

Mental health carries a stigma in Pakistan, but one team is fighting the taboo to help journalists traumatized by their work covering the front line of the country’s battle with terrorists.

Peshawar (dpa) – Amin Mashal was among the first people to reach a Pakistani military training academy when Taliban suicide bombers had just killed nearly 100 recruits, three years ago.

The young journalist was traumatized by the brutality of the attack in the north-western town of Charssada in May 2011.

He saw bodies in pools of blood, scattered limbs and wounded soldiers moaning in pain.

“It was the worst thing I have ever come across in my life,” Mashal, now 24, recalled his first experience covering a terrorist attack. “It was terrifying.”

Mashal was in a state of shock after the attack that the Taliban said was to avenge the killing of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden by US commandos weeks earlier.

The subsequent murder of a colleague by jihadi militants in Mohmand tribal district near his hometown made Mashal jumpy and aggressive, and his anxiety began to reflect in his work.

But he never thought about counselling, because of the stigma attached to mental health issues in conservative Pakistani society.

He nearly quit working as a reporter for the state-run radio after Taliban gunmen killed 136 children at an army-run school in the city of Peshawar on December 16.

“I felt would have a nervous breakdown if I continue to cover such incidents anymore,” Mashal said.
But he recently found renewed courage to pursue his dream career.

Mashal was among 15 journalists treated for post-traumatic stress at a centre established by Peshawar University, with technical and financial assistance from the German DW Akademie.

“I was encouraged by my teachers to go for therapy and it feels much better now,” Mashal said, speaking from the journalism department of the university where he also completed a master’s degree last year.

DW Akademie provided funds to finance the centre for three years, and the university’s psychology department provides expertise and infrastructure.

“It was badly needed here,” said professor Altafullah Khan, who heads the journalism department and is coordinating between the DW Akademie and the university.

“Journalists are the first ones to get exposure to violence. Trauma is natural in some cases,” said Khan, who formerly headed the German broadcaster’s Urdu-language service.

“The idea behind the project is to make sure that the impact of trauma does not reflect in journalists’ reporting of some of the most depressing incidents,” said Khan.

Marina Khan and Farhat Naz are the psychologists providing counselling and proposing therapies to journalists bruised by years of exposure to violence.

“Most newsmen come to us with problems like aggression, anxiety, stress, abnormal sleep patterns and disturbed appetite,” Naz said.

The psychologists said they often have to probe to determine the exact nature and level of their depression because Pakistanis do not easily open up about mental health issues.

“This is the most difficult part,” Naz said. “You have to make them realize that this is a problem that needs to be taken care of.”

Khan said he was happy with the way journalists had responded to the initiative.

Fifteen journalists were treated at the centre during the first three months of its launch.
“This is something much better than our expectations,” Khan said.

Dal je

“Press freedom … is in retreat in all five continents,” said the RSF 2015 World Press Freedom Index.

The head of the RSF told the media that the deterioration is linked to a range of factors, “with information wars and actions by non-state groups acting as news despots”.

Take a look: Pakistan ranked 159 out of 180 countries in press freedom: report

Examples of such groups are Boko Haram and the Islamic State, as well as criminal organisations in Italy and South America.

Further, several countries fell in the rankings as compared to last year, for example the US. The latter’s drop was in part because it launched a “war on information” against whistleblowers including WikiLeaks and others, while Venezuela’s record worsened since the National Bolivarian Guard fired on “clearly identified” journalists covering protests.

Pakistan, where the threats faced by journalists and the constraints on reporting are a dirty, if open, secret, was ranked at 139 of the 180 countries evaluated.

That said, however, some of the positions awarded are curious, and raise questions about the methodology and logic used in ranking countries. Qatar, for example, like several other Gulf countries, is not exactly known for reporting freely on its internal politics. However, it weighed in at 115.

Placed higher were the Central African Republic (110) and Kuwait (90), which, again, can by no means be considered places where there is any degree of freedom to report.

In fact, the ranking exercise falls into the trap of counting statistics rather than analysing the actual situation in its full context, especially in developing countries. In several parts of the world, the growing levels of violence against journalists actually provides a clue to increasing media freedoms since the state or other parties hit back only when there is reportage to resent.

Pakistan is a good example of this: during earlier periods of severe restrictions on the media, violence against journalists was less frequent because information was so tightly controlled that much of it went unreported.

As the scope of the media has expanded, so too has the resistance to open debate. It is a pity that a number of journalism’s watchdog bodies have failed to account for these nuances, for they are of vital importance in the complex web of media repression.

Daily Dawn

The attack on media workers in Islamabad on Sunday appears to be part of this pattern of intimidation and violence. Five media persons were injured when unidentified attackers lobbed a cracker at DSNG vans returning from the PTI rally.

Two of the victims work for DawnNews, while employees of Dunya News and Abb Takk News were also among the injured.

Also read: DawnNews vehicle attacked in Islamabad, cameraman injured

A similar incident was witnessed in Karachi in January, when an Express News van was attacked. Unfortunately, in that incident — claimed by the banned TTP — lives were lost. The same media house’s offices in Karachi were also targeted in earlier attacks.

While claims of responsibility for the latest attack had not emerged at the time of writing, a committee has been formed to investigate the incident.

The number of actors who have attacked journalists and media workers in the past have included religious and separatist militants, as well as individuals reportedly associated with political parties.

Personnel apparently working for the security agencies have also been known to target media workers. So until more details of Sunday’s incident emerge, it will be difficult to fix the blame.

However, what past cases make clear is that almost anyone can commit acts of violence against the media in Pakistan, and get away with it. In this case too, how did the attackers disappear into the ether in the supposedly secure environs of Islamabad?

We hope the committee formed to investigate the matter pursues the case and does not end up with inconclusive results similar to those of committees past. And media houses need to close ranks to send a strong message to the state that violence against journalists will not be tolerated and those using intimidatory tactics against media workers must be made to face the law.

DAWN

Secretary Information Mohammad Azam informed the meeting that the ministry was planning to work on a proposal to allocate Rs200 million for the families of the journalists who received injuries or were killed in the line of duty.

“The government has not paid a single penny to the families of the journalists who were killed or injured while performing their duties,” the secretary said in reply to a question by Ms Memon. The members expressed concerns over the role of the ministry which they said had failed to compensate the families of the victims.

Mr Azam said the government had already abolished the secret fund which was also used to support the journalists’ community to overcome their health-related issues in the past.

Secretary information says no compensation has been paid so far to families of mediapersons

“We have a proposal for the allocation of funds in this regard and have already discussed it with the government’s financial adviser to process in this regard,” he added.

Ms Memon directed the officials to finalise the proposals as soon as possible, adding the committee would fully support the proposals.

On Monday, the secretary had also informed the Senate standing committee on information and broadcasting that the ministry had already forward a summary to the ministry of finance to allocate Rs200 million for this purpose.

The secretary told the NA committee that the ministry was also planning to arrange workshops for journalists working in conflict zones.

“We have allocated Rs100 million for the training of journalists covering development activities. The mediapersons will be trained on the standards of economic reporting,” he added. Ms Memon later said a separate meeting would be convened to discuss issues related to the rating system of private TV channels.

The committee directed the ministry to improve the quality of press releases being issued by the Press Information Department (PID) and its regional offices.

It also recommended deputing more cameramen/reporters on the foreign visits of the prime minister.

Iqbal Khattak, a Peshawar-based senior journalist and media safety expert, told Dawn that nine mediapersons and four assistants attached with different media organisations lost their lives so far in the current year.

“It is unfortunate that the government has failed to allocate funds at the federal level for the families of the journalists who were killed in the line of duty.”

He said the government provided financial support to the families of the police and military personnel who lost their lives in the line of duty.

“The government is not serious in punishing the killers of the journalists. The culprits target journalists due to the slim chances of being convicted and punished,” he said.

Mr Khattak demanded the government establish a special public prosecutor to investigate and proceed against the attackers on journalists across the country.

DAWN

But he was messaging for another reason. He says he is concerned because he received a new round of threats and denunciations related to his plans to attend an upcoming conference in Bangladesh of journalists, hosted by the Bangladeshi newspaper Prothom Alo. Under discussion will be the incidents of 1971, when Bangladesh began its break away from Pakistan, leading to a vicious and bloody secessionist war.

Mir angered his own government when, on November 5 in the Urdu-language Daily Jang newspaper he encouraged Pakistan to issue an official apology to Bangladesh over atrocities of 1971. That re-opened a wound from last year when, while in Bangladesh, he identified the “main culprits,” as he put it, of the bloodbath as a group of Pakistani army officers. “I never spoke against the Pakistan Army, I only mentioned the names of some books written by Pakistan Army officers who confessed atrocities,” Mir said in this weekend’s email message.

“A few hours after my visit to the Bangladesh High Commission some mysterious people dropped CDs containing hate material against me in offices of different newspapers. Many people started tweeting against me and saying ‘Hamid Mir is enemy of Pakistan and agent of Bangladesh,’” he wrote. The CDs contained archival footage of past programs in which he was critical of the government and the military’s policies in Bangladesh.

His concerns for his safety are not overwrought. Remember, this is a man who was targeted for death eight months ago because of his outspoken views. While Mir was still hospitalized, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif established a three-member judicial commission which was supposed to release its report on the murder attempt within three weeks. Six months have passed since that deadline, and there is no report.

The motive for the April shooting remains unclear, but it seems likely to have been linked to Mir’s criticism of Pakistani policy in Baluchistan province, the region bordering Iran and Afghanistan in the west. At the time, he had been critical of the disappearances of Baloch political activists, hitting the issue frequently on his TV programs. A battle between insurgents and counter-insurgents has been waging in Baluchistan for years, and it is playing out in ugly incidents perpetrated by many sides to the conflict.

The result of the April murder attempt: The very outspoken Mir admits to dialing back his on-air rhetorical tone: “I am very careful these days in TV shows, but even then I am getting threatening messages and facing another hate campaign.” For Mir, and his associates, there seems little recourse but to publicize this recent round of accusations in the hope that the publicity will head off another serious attack.

Committee to protect journalists

The President of Federal Union of Journalists, Afzal Butt, and Secretary of the PFUJ, Khurshid Abbasi, condemned the incident and said that the union would observe three days of mourning. They said that a delegation of the PFUJ would meet the IGP of Sindh soon.

The News

The body of the deceased journalist was shifted to Gambat Hospital. Soon after the information about the killing some local journalists reached the hospital and protested against targeted killing of journalist Jeewan Arain. They demanded arrest of the killers.

The News