It’s been a year and three months since the last attack on Pakistani journalist Jamshed Baghwan’s house in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan’s province Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The July 2, 2014 incident was the third on his house in four months.

Baghwan, the bureau chief for Express News in Peshawar, recalls how difficult that time was. His kids couldn’t sleep at night afterwards, he says, and they had to stop going to school. There were no fatalities, but it was only pure luck that saved Baghwan.

He was driving home with his wife that night when he saw a group of men put something outside the gate of his house. Minutes later, there was an explosion, which destroyed the front of his home.

That March another bomb had been found outside his house and earlier in April a hand grenade had been hurled at his residence. To date, there are no certain answers about who was behind the attacks.

Police made a few arrests, but no one was formally charged and there were no convictions.

Nor is Baghwan’s experience unusual. As the world marks the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists on Nov. 2, most cases of violence against media personnel remain uninvestigated. According to UNESCO’s global statistics, in the past decade 700 journalists have been killed, with no convictions in nine out of ten cases.

“There have been very, very few investigations, and even fewer convictions in the murder of Pakistani journalists,” said Bob Dietz, Asia program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

Killers walk free

Lawyer Saroop Ijaz, who works for Human Rights Watch in Pakistan, shares that opinion. He says the Pakistani government has an “abysmal” record of thoroughly investigating attacks on journalists and holding the perpetrators accountable.

“The formation of Commissions [to investigate attacks on journalists] is turning into a farce,” he told Al Jazeera America.

He mentioned some high-profile cases of targeted journalists, including Wali Khan Babar, a 28-year-old reporter, shot dead in January 2011 in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi; Salem Shahzad, who was found dead in Islamabad in June 2011 after reporting on the infiltration of terrorist groups in the military and Hamid Mir, among Pakistan’s most famous journalists, who survived an attack on his life in Karachi in April 2014.

“The Saleem Shahzad commission’s report failed to ensure accountability or even name the perpetrators,” said Ijaz.

“The Hamid Mir commission report remains pending and the proceedings shrouded in mystery. The witnesses, investigating officers and prosecutor have been assassinated in Wali Khan Babar’s cases. The impunity surrounding the violence against journalists continues unabated,” he said.

On CPJ’s Global Impunity Index, Pakistan ranks as the ninth worst country in the world in which journalists are murdered and no one is brought to justice. In terms of violence, the year 2015, however, has been better than previous years. In 2014, according to the International Federation of Journalists, Pakistan was listed as the most dangerous place for media with 14 journalists killed.

The high-risk areas in 2015 remain conflict zones such Yemen, South Sudan and Syria.

While the number of journalists being killed in Pakistan has dropped – so far this year, Geo News’s Aftab Alam is the only one killed – the scale of the violence is still disturbing. The attack that killed Alam was among three separate attacks on Pakistani media personnel in a span of 24 hours. (Though some officials have said it is not clear if Alam’s killing was related to his profession.)

“The threat level from all sides remains incredibly high. It is too soon to say the killing of journalists has abated in Pakistan,” said Dietz.

The accusations leveled by Geo TV against Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) led to a temporary ban on the channel. However, the channel disappeared from television screens in most parts of the country even before the ban was officially placed, and remained blocked for most of 2014.

“The Pakistani State has not displayed serious resolve to protect journalists, Ijaz said, adding, “By curtailing freedom of expression and criminalizing free speech the Pakistan government is only emboldening violent actors to attack journalists. The accusations of blasphemy and treason leveled on journalists by the State only makes an already beleaguered journalist community even more vulnerable.”

Targeted by all sides

Kati Marton, a board member of CPJ, was in direct contact with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif last year with respect to the violence surrounding media personnel.

She said CPJ had kept up pressure on the government since their first meeting with Sharif in March 2014.

“After our meeting we kept up fairly intense pressure on the Nawaz Sharif government, with a string of letters, alerts and blogs, and we returned to Pakistan twice after the meeting with Nawaz. But we have yet to see a serious increase in prosecutions, or even investigations, into the killings of journalists,” she told Al Jazeera America.

Mohsin Ranjha, parliamentary secretary for Ministry of Information, points out that security problems faced by journalists in Pakistan are the same as they are for anyone else.

“Journalists are under security threat, just like politicians, security forces or children in schools are,” said Ranjha, adding “We have never created obstacles for the media in any way, the media in Pakistan is independent. There are several talks shows that air completely false allegations against us, but we have never even tried to stop those.”

In an Oct. 29 report, the Pakistan Press Foundation highlighted the threats media personnel continue to face.

“Pakistani journalists are not only targeted by militants but also by political, religious, ethnic and other pressure groups as well as the law enforcement agencies. …For every journalist who has been deliberately targeted and murdered, there are many others who have been injured, threatened and coerced into silence,” it said.

Journalists in various parts of the country, such as Balochistan, however, cannot even speak about the threats they are faced with.

That province has had the highest number of killings in Pakistan. According to the Balochistan Union of Journalists 41 journalists have been targeted in Balochistan in different incidents since 2008. Because of the high security threat, Balochistan remains an information black hole with virtually no news reaching mainstream media from most parts of the province.

A reporter from Balochistan who requested that he is not identified, remembers friends who have died on duty. But he says he cannot talk about them.

“The situation is too sensitive,” he said, “and Balochistan [remains] voiceless.”

Al Jazeera America

AS the UN marks the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists today, it is worth asking why this particular turn of phrase is being used.

According to UN figures, over the past decade, 700 journalists have been killed the world over during the course of discharging their duties. This averages out to one death a week. In 2013, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming Nov 2 as IDEI — the date commemorates the murder of two French journalists in Mali that year.

Obviously, violence against those who work in the media is far more endemic when the figures beyond the number of deaths are tallied. And as the UN points out, the issue is not just about violence but also the culture of impunity within which the violence is unleashed. “In nine out of 10 cases,” the UN notes, “the killers go unpunished. Impunity leads to more killings and is often a symptom of worsening conflict and the breakdown of law and justice systems.”

Also read-editorial: Violence against journalists

In Pakistan, journalists operate in an environment that is far from safe or enabling. Yet, a curious sort of paradox is in operation.

On the one hand, the growth of the electronic and other media, and their general raucousness, mean that there is considerable freedom to report, including on topics that were until recently taboo; the country does not figure on the list of 10 countries where the Committee to Protect Journalists has shown the most censorship takes place.

On the other hand, though, violence against journalists is a serious issue, as is the culture of impunity. Since 1994, the CPJ counts 56 journalists killed in Pakistan where the motive was confirmed as related to the work they were doing.

Beyond this ambit, the actual numbers of media workers’ deaths rises exponentially. The suspected perpetrators include non-state actors as well as state-sponsored elements, as believed to be in the case of Saleem Shahzad.

Further, journalists — especially in hotspots such as Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — are regularly threatened and attacked. Many are caught in the cross hairs of both the militants and the security forces.

The way out — on paper at least — is fairly simple. The state needs to investigate and prosecute all cases where journalists are targeted.

The reality, unfortunately, is that the state has failed to demonstrate any resolve.

The killers of Daniel Pearl were tracked down as a result of sustained international pressure, while the murderers of Wali Babar too were tried, found guilty and sentenced after much prodding.

But these are the only two cases where any meaningful progress has been made. In doing so, the state sends out the signal that it will stand and watch as journalists’ voices are silenced. Until this changes, there can be little for Pakistan to be proud of in terms of media freedoms.

Dawn

KARACHI: A month and a half back, the press club in Khuzdar opened unannounced after being shut for over a year. The press club was shut down in August last year after its president received threats from ‘unidentified men’ shortly after a press conference was held by members from the Hindu community revealing names of people involved in kidnapping for ransom.

There were calls by some journalists in Khuzdar to make the opening of the club a bigger affair by calling the director general of Frontier Corps and other higher-ups from law-enforcement agencies but the general consensus among journalists was to keep it a low-key affair. The reason behind the decision was the threat that still looms large in the district where the president and the general secretary of the press club were shot dead apart from 12 other journalists from the same district in past six years. This is not the first time the press club in Khuzdar was shut down. Facing similar threats by ‘unidentified men’ the press club was shut down for two and a half months in 2012 as well.

The bigger push to open the press club came from the administration, a handful of reporters working in Khuzdar revealed. Since the press club’s re-opening journalists work during the day and leave for home before sunset, senior journalist Shahzada Zulfiqar said while speaking to Dawn. “Most of us reporters cannot write reports the way they happen, can’t investigate openly, so what we do end up writing is very much dependent on the dictation that comes from the three sides: militants, separatists and security agencies,” he said.

Despite a crackdown on militants through the National Action Plan established in January this year, journalists count militants — whether religious, pro-state, anti-state or part of political parties — as one of the biggest threats to their lives, according to chairperson of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Zohra Yusuf. “There has been improvement in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) because of the ongoing operation. But the reporters are not able to independently visit and report from there. As a result of less access, we see a rise in embedded journalism than on ground reporting. Going by oneself, however, increases the chance of an attack from the militants,” she added.

The threat from militants was visible in Quetta when 23 days after the Khuzdar Press Club was shut down, ‘unidentified militants’ attacked the office of Online News agency in Quetta killing two journalists — bureau chief Irshad Mastoi and his reporter Ghulam Rasool — and an accountant Mohammad Yunus. Shortly after, two suspects belonging to the outlawed Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) were arrested in Quetta and were handed over to police. Both men admitted to killing Mastoi and revealed a list of people they were planning to kill which included Mama Qadeer of the Voice of Missing Baloch Persons and Hafiz Hamdullah, the leader of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazal, among others. Shortly after revealing this information, the two suspects were, however, killed in an encounter in Mastung.

The only success story in this regard is the Wali Khan Babar case, a reporter with Geo Television, who was shot dead in Karachi in 2011. “But even in that case what needs to be looked at is that the verdict was given when the case was moved to another district in Sindh,” adds Zohra Yusuf. Another example of a verdict given in a reporter’s murder case has been in the case of Wall Street Journal reporter, Daniel Pearl, murdered in Karachi in 2001.

Analysts count the trend of ‘unidentified men’ roaming scot-free as an encouraging and recurring trend impeding prosecution. When it comes to the threat facing journalists in Pakistan, especially those reporting from the field, there is not one area which is affected more than the other as all are affected in a similar manner, says representative of Reporters Without Border, Iqbal Khattak. “The nature of the threat varies from city to city. Threat is more visible in some areas than others but it is a threat nonetheless. For instance, Karachi is a much more complicated case than Fata and Balochistan because the competing forces in the city are varied and not as visible. At the same time, dynamics change entirely when you compare upper Sindh and Karachi,” he adds.

Journalists working in central and southern Punjab, Khattak said, face harassment from the Punjabi Taliban and the administration. For instance, a few years ago, a journalist from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was stopped by the administration in Mianwali while covering a story on nuclear waste. Even after many years, a comprehensive report looking at the role of the religious groups in the southern Punjab can’t be published or telecast in any medium.

Citing a more recent example, he said, “Without mentioning names, since the issue is very latest, a journalist in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was facing serious threats from militants. We informed his organisation and with their help were able to relocate him and his family to another city. Timely inclusion of his organisation helped a lot in ensuring his security.”

There are three layers to security, Khattak said. “One layer is ensured by you in making sure the report is accurate and objective, the second one by your organisation in terms of ensuring training and safety measures and the third one by the government in providing security and prosecution. A collaborative approach between these three is ideal but doable.”

Khattak proposes three solutions: to sensitise journalists, inform them about the region, dynamics of reporting, risks and dealing with various actors, to update organisations in dealing with risks, plan B in cases of conflict zones and ensuring balanced and objective reporting, and to make sure the government is ensuring prosecution.

According to Khattak and Yusuf, trends can be managed with the way a state manages impunity. “Despite everything, I must add that no story is more important than your life. There are threats in covering soft stories also. So, it is better to be safe,” Khattak said.

Online harassment

At present, the Prevention of Cyber Crimes Act, 2015, is considered one of the biggest threats to the freedom of expression. Though the act has been held back for the moment and is going through amendment.

Senior programme manager at Bytes for All Furhan Hussain said that one of the problems of the act was the way it is drafted. “Blanket powers have been given to the state and law-enforcement agencies which will curb the freedom of expression whether online or off it,” he said. Working to ensure digital security to journalists for the past five years now, Furhan recounted hearing similar stories of wire-tapping, online harassment and threats leading to attacks from journalists across the board. “We receive constant complaints from reporters receiving push messages. A push message is one which has no name or number of the sender and can contain a one-line message enough to threat a journalist,” he added.

In recent days, the digital security group speaks of witnessing an increase in the number of cases related to hate speech by what they call, “cyber armies”. The accounts by the cyber armies, according to Furhan, usually go after reporters who either report from conflict zones or give their opinion about the current situation in the country. “The accounts by these cyber armies are usually right-wing in their comments. They operate in groups and go after any reporter who speaks about the problems within his/her district, town, or city. They don’t stop until the reporter deactivates his/her account,” he added.

Women remain the most vulnerable in terms of facing harassment on social networking websites, he said. “It doesn’t matter how big a journalist a woman is, she’d face abuse and rape threats if she’s open about her findings during field visits or says anything that is considered anti-Pakistan,” Furhan said.

Dawn