CHARSADDA: A journalist here on Friday demanded a judicial probe into the alleged torture and humiliation he faced at the hands of some local leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

Speaking at a press conference, the journalist Saifullah Jan, who is a member of the governing body of the Charsadda Press Club, also accused the local police of siding with the accused.

He alleged that the PTI leaders, including Abdullah, his brother Fahim, Zakat Committee chairman Iftikhar and other armed men, forcibly took him to the PTI’s office in Charsadda bazaar, where he was allegedly stripped naked and tortured.

The journalist claimed that the accused made his video while being naked. Saifullah Jan said the accused let him go after public pressure. He said he went to the Sardari Police Station to register a complaint against the accused.

The journalist said though District Police Officer Mohammad Shoaib had directed the cops to register the case as per the law, the police used delaying tactics and did not include the relevant sections of the law in the first information report (FIR).

Saifullah said that five people had been nominated in the FIR, but the police removed the name of the main accused Iftikhar from it. He said his leg was fractured due to the torture, but the police mentioned in the FIR that he had suffered minor bruises.

The journalist said the police did not press charges against the accused and the local court granted bail to them. He asked the chief justice of the Peshawar High Court to look into the matter and help provide him justice by ordering a judicial probe into the incident.

Newspaper: The News

However, while no degree of coverage provided to such atrocities can suffice when pitted against the methodical brutality of the attack that resulted in a dozen journalists being killed in a single attempt, it is time to move to a broader debate, one that moves be­­yond anti-West sentiments and Islamophobia.

Take a look at Pakistan. It is considered the most dangerous country to report in with 14 journalists killed in 2014.

Read: ‘More journalists killed in Pakistan than any other democracy’

Journalists in the country live under the constant threat of murder, harassment, abduction and other forms of violence.

From impunity to direct and indirect threats by state and non-state agencies, Pakistan’s ‘democratic’ environment is charred by actors threatening to eliminate dissent.

According to Reporters Without Borders, Pakistan ranked 158th out of 180 countries on its World Press Freedom Index in 2014, placing it after other conflict-ridden zones, including Afghanistan (128th) and Iraq (153rd).

There is an obvious gap in global media reporting.
A report released by Amnesty International in 2014 cited 34 cases of media workers being killed in Pakistan since 2008 and ironically, this statistic only indicates the number of deaths.

The structured pattern of abuse perpetuated through other forms of violence, including abduction, harassment and threats to families of journalists, aims to place journalists in Pakistan under a continuous siege.

This has resulted in a catch-22 situation, impeding the development of a secure environment for journalists, which is vital for the overall evolution of the media in Pakistan. A free and open press lies at the core of addressing Pakistan’s most critical issues, particularly those related to national security, human rights, transparency and corruption, amongst other aspects.

Even when covering the 2014 ‘freedom march’ in Pakistan, women media workers were harassed. In Fata, over 12 journalists have been killed since 9/11, whilst others continue to survive on razor’s edge, often forced to move with their families to Peshawar to escape threats.

They are intimidated by violent state and non-state actors including militants and intelligence agencies, with no regulatory authority to ensure that they can work freely. Interrogations can result in beatings and death threats.

Similarly, Balochistan is another region in Pakistan where journalists live under the constant threat of losing their lives, with the issue being exacerbated as media persons oscillate between the opposing agendas of state agencies and nationalists. In some cases, journalists who have reported openly have been blindfolded, tortured and imprisoned.

However, minimal local and global attention is paid to Balochistan, even though these challenges translate to an automatic removal of its freedom of expression and struggle for independent journalism.

Despite these chronic challenges, one struggles to recall the attention granted to Pakistani journalists who battle due to their profession every day. Ironically, social classes within Pakistan itself are so insulated that in many cases they remain impassive to acts of ‘predictable violence’.

On a broader scale, what we see is an obvious gap in global media reporting, which clearly casts a discerning gaze based on territory, skin colour and popular myths.

It raises the question of the role played by geographical borders and political positioning in soliciting empathy for journalists by the wider community.

Is lamentation driven by who has been wronged and where they live? Shouldn’t the world react with equal horror when journalists in other countries are gunned down in the line of duty, irrespective of whether the act has been perpetuated by state agencies or anti-state elements?

Should the killing of journalists in any part of the world not equal an attack on the media community at large, irrespective of race, caste, creed, ethnicity or class, or is the media also driven by geostrategic principles? America made history when Barack Obama was sworn in as its 44th president in 2008.

Yet it seems that the cleavage between preaching one morality and practising another remains largely unaddressed, for when it comes to ‘terrorism’, all roads inevitably lead back to terrestrial borders and faith.

In an era when the media has become a critical, indispensable part of our lives, with journalists often reporting from the most treacherous geographical locations stricken by unprecedented risk, it is time that the world began recognising the tremendous daily pressures faced by media persons across the globe.

From a disrespectful public, to imminent dangers at the scene of reporting, to cases of abduction and murder, such instances abound.

There are few other professions that can draw a parallel to such pressures, given that journalists are the bedrock that defines free speech in the world and are positioned as the natural antithesis for myopic, puritanical thought.

Dawn

After hours of deliberating over a move that could cost him his reputation, job or life, a journalist in Pakistan decided not to write an article because of concerns that he might offend someone.

“It wasn’t an easy decision,” a source privy to the development told this scribe. “But after several hours of heated conversations relating to questions of sensitivity with friends belonging to various political and religious backgrounds, as well as informal consultations with editors, a lawyer and his parents, he decided that writing an article would cause more harm than good and it might be a better idea to go to sleep.”

Experts say Mr Dilawar Dabang’s concerns are not unfounded. “Every time you write a line, you cross one too,” according to the director of the Institute for Preservation of Sanity. “You may cause personal offense to a politician, irk the Taliban or other terrorist groups, anger a rights activist with a large number of Twitter followers, or seem to have challenged the mighty military establishment. If you make an attempt not to offend one of them, you end up offending the other.”

In a country deemed among the most dangerous in the world for journalists, Pakistan’s reporters and editors have found themselves in a fix after the military’s decision to go after all terrorist groups including those it previously used for leveraging in regional politics. “After serving Pakistan’s nationalist interests my entire journalism career spanning 22 years, I woke up one morning to find Pakistan’s national interests have changed,” said a veteran reporter from Lahore. He has not been to work since.
“Liberal activists are saying the military is telling lies,” said a young journalist who is now on leave without pay after receiving threatening phone calls from terrorists residing in Pakistan’s lawless regions in the northwest in the city of Peshawar. “If they are correct, I do not want to even start gathering courage to write against the Taliban just yet. When I go back to my job, I would rather be writing horoscopes.”

According to insiders, one newspaper editor has decided to limit the content of his newspapers to paid content relating to public interest issues like male pattern baldness, aphrodisiacs, breast enlargement, and weight loss.

But even that may not resolve Mr Dilawar Dabang’s dilemma. “He had resorted to writing film reviews, and in a recent article he expressed unfavorable opinion of The Battle of the Five Armies,” another friend told me. “Hours after it got published, an angry The Hobbit fan left a comment on the website reminding Mr Dabang that he belonged to a minority sect, and furnished evidence of various kinds that the sect was beyond the pale of Islam.”

“I knew it was dangerous to openly criticize bearded killers in newspapers,” the journalist told his friend. “I just did not know Gandalf was one of them.” Due to fears that he will be beaten up by a mob, dragged in the streets and burned to death, he asked for his article to be removed from the website.

A web editor in the publication said Mr Dabang’s article about baldness in men also received impolite feedback. “Frustrated by his argument that male pattern baldness is untreatable, a visitor to our website accused him of unfairly targeting the Prime Minister and being on the payroll of opposition leader Imran Khan.”

Disappointed, he further limited the scope of his writing to classified job ad copies. “The job was simply clerical,” a senior colleague in his organization revealed. “He was literally working with templates,” he said, “happily using words like ‘driven’, ‘hardworking’ and ‘handsome package’; but his happiness was short lived.” A friend called him up a week later and told him a feminist group had threatened to boycott his newspaper because he did not use gender neutral job titles.”

Dilawar Dabang realizes that women and liberals are easy to ignore in Pakistan, but he does not know what to write. Analysts and experts believe the safest way for him to be a journalist is to not write anything at all. Or at least not write anything meaningful.

The Nation

According to reports, Shehryar Mehsud, a columnist at the Urdu daily Akhbar-e-Khyber, was arrested on the orders of the political administration of South Waziristan allegedly for exposing the ‘corruption of political agents’ in development projects. Mehsud had received threatening calls from the administrators after he wrote a column on corruption.

The local journalists’ community believes that Mehsud’s arrest is an attempt to silence the journalists. Pakistan is quickly becoming one of the most dangerous countries for journalists, with 13 journalists killed this year so far. The culture of impunity in Pakistan, which includes threats like the ones Mehsud receive continue to weaken press freedom across the country. Mehsud was detained overnight and subsequently released.

The PFUJ said: “The PFUJ demands that Governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, federal minister for state and frontiers region and federal government should intervene in the issue and hold inquiry into the case both corruption charges and illegal detention.”

IFJ acting director, Jane Worthington, said: “Journalists in Pakistan, especially in the tribal areas, face hostile condition to carry out their profession. It’s a matter of serious concern that state agencies that should be supporting journalists by ensuring their safety and security are detaining and threatening journalists.”

The IFJ further added: “The IFJ urge the Pakistan government to immediately launch an investigation on the detention so as to ensure free flow of information and opinion.”

PFUJ

This was stated in recently released research study ‘Media Safety in Pakistan’. The study is based on an extensive field research and comprehensive case histories of journalists, who were either threatened or killed. It entails interviews with the surviving victims, and victims’ relatives, friends, fellow journalists, employers, and the relevant government officials, etc.

The study finds out that the killed journalists’ threat perception was weak. The journalists belonging to small and local media outlets were more prone to threats. The state and non-state actors both contributed to the threat matrix at the local level. Criminals and militants in small towns and tribal areas mainly threatened journalists affiliated with local publications and media outlets with comparatively less outreach.

According to the study, affiliation with major media outlets, especially in small town and cities, offered some security and those upset by journalists’ coverage do not react to such an extent which can create resentment against them at a national level. However, in major media stations, the journalists who are critical towards policy issues of the state and non-state actors are more prone to threats. Journalists who are considered to be opinion makers or are seen as playing a role in shaping the discourse on an important issue are also likely to face greater threats.

The targeted journalists’ religious and political affiliations had not contributed to the threats they faced. Nonetheless, being a part-time journalist does not shield one from threats; they too were equally prone to threats simply on account of their work as journalists.

The study reveals that in case of the journalists killed, their family members and friends did not know if victims’ media groups had been demanding exclusive reporting from them. In absence of evidence to the contrary, it may be assumed that reporters took risks on their own initiative. That could happen for a number of reasons; first, they were in search of professional excellence. This could also be linked with economic conditions. Second, they were under social, political and ideological compulsions. A sense of social obligation was an important factor in victims’ work as most of them engaged in social activities at some level. Their educational profiles also suggested that they chose journalism under social obligation, to bring change in society and this could be another reason for their inclination towards exclusive reporting.

Business Recorder

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 session was organised on the topic of ‘The Image of the Journalist in Pakistan and the world’ by the US Consulate General for the students of the Institute of Communication and Media Studies, Ziauddin University, said a press release issued by the university.

Speaking at the event, US journalists Linda Roth and Terry Anzur said every journalist should have the curiosity to fulfil his or her responsibilities in all circumstances.

They said it was a lot more difficult for journalists in Pakistan to fulfil their responsibilities and it became all the more important for them to remain cautious while discharging their duties.

Terry Anzur is a journalism trainer with experience of about 30 years in the field of multimedia journalism, while Linda Roth has worked in CNN as a news producer and international news correspondent.

While highlighting the basic foundations of journalism, the journalists stated that the prosperity of democracy was not possible without free media.

They were firm in their stance to support the free press and media and told the students that before reaching any conclusion, it was crucial to substantiate any piece of news from its source as that formed the very basis of true journalism.

They thought that it was crucial for a journalist to ensure the authenticity and respect the ethics of the news that was delivered to the public.

Both journalists shared their insight on the evolution of broadcast media in the United States. Their backgrounds and work experience in the field of journalism allowed them to provide a unique insight and kept the students of ICMS engaged. They also shared experiences from their professional lives with the students.

The News

‘A bullet has been chosen for you’: Attacks on journalists in Pakistan, describes how the Pakistani authorities have almost completely failed to stem human rights abuses against media workers or to bring those responsible to account.

Amnesty International has documented 34 cases of journalists being killed in Pakistan in response to their work since the restoration of democratic rule in 2008, but only in one case have the perpetrators been brought to justice.

But these killings are just the most brutal statistic – many more journalists have been threatened, harassed, abducted, tortured or escaped assassination attempts in the same period.

“Pakistan’s media community is effectively under siege. Journalists, in particular those covering national security issues or human rights, are targeted from all sides in a disturbing pattern of abuses carried out to silence their reporting,” said David Griffiths, Amnesty International’s Deputy Asia-Pacific Director.
“The constant threat puts journalists in an impossible position, where virtually any sensitive story leaves them at risk of violence from one side or another.”

The report is based on extensive field research into over 70 cases and interviews with over 100 media workers in Pakistan. It examines several recent cases where journalists have been targeted for their reporting by a range of actors.

Numerous journalists interviewed by Amnesty International complained of harassment or attacks by individuals they claimed were connected to the feared military spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). While some are featured in the report with names changed, others could not be included even under a false name because they feared for their lives.

The spy agency has been implicated in several abductions, torture and killings of journalists, but no serving ISI officials has ever been held to account – allowing it to effectively operate beyond the reach of the law. Human rights violations against journalists by the ISI often follow a familiar pattern that starts with threatening phone calls and escalates into abductions, torture and other ill-treatment, and in some cases killings.

Journalists are also victims of human rights abuses by non-state groups across the country. Aggressive competition for media space means that powerful political actors across the country put severe pressure on journalists for favourable coverage. In Karachi, supporters of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) party, Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) religious group and others stand accused of harassing or killing journalists they consider critical.

In conflict-ridden regions in the northwest and Balochistan province, the Taliban, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and ethnic Baloch armed groups openly threaten reporters with death and attack them in retaliation for seeking to highlight their abuses or not promoting their ideology. Journalists in Pakistan’s heartland of the Punjab have also faced threats from the Taliban and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi-linked groups.

Despite the wave of violence and attacks, the Pakistani authorities have largely failed to hold perpetrators to account. In the overwhelming number of cases researched by Amnesty International, authorities rarely adequately investigated threats or attacks or brought those responsible to justice.
Only in a handful of high-profile cases have more thorough investigations been carried out, and only after public outrage has made it impossible for authorities not to act.

“The government has promised to improve the dire situation for journalists, including by establishing a public prosecutor tasked with investigating attacks against journalists. But few concrete steps have been taken,” said David Griffiths.

“A critical step will be for Pakistan to investigate its own military and intelligence agencies and ensure that those responsible for human rights violations against journalists are brought to justice. This will send a powerful signal to those who target journalists that they no longer have free reign.”

Media enterprises operating in Pakistan must also ensure they provide adequate training, support and assistance to journalists, in an important, practical step towards addressing the risk of abuses while they are at work.

“Without these urgent steps, Pakistan’s media could be intimidated into silence. The climate of fear has already had a chilling effect on freedom of expression and the broader struggle to expose human rights abuses across Pakistan,” said David Griffiths.

Amnesty International

Amnesty International’s Maya Pastakia told The News: “Both of these groups (the Taliban and agents of spy agencies) have been implicated in abuses against journalists like abductions, torture and killings.” She said that Amnesty International was appalled by the attack on Hamid Mir and “wishes him a speedy recovery”.

She said: “The attempt on his life is emblematic of the threats faced by journalists in Pakistan, especially those working on sensitive national security issues or speaking out about human rights violations. However, it is important to note that we do not know who is responsible for the attack on Hamid Mir. The Pakistani authorities must carry out an independent, thorough and transparent investigation and ensure that those responsible are brought to justice in fair trials without recourse to the death penalty regardless of their affiliations to any state institution, political party or any other group.”

She said it was an unfortunate reality that journalists in Pakistan lived with the constant threat of harassment, violence and even killings, making it one of the most dangerous countries in the world for media workers. She said that the Amnesty was deeply alarmed by the range and frequency of threats, intimidation, torture and killings of journalists – carried out with virtual impunity.

“AI has documented 32 targeted killings of journalists as a direct consequence of their reporting since 2008. Seven of those have occurred since the new government of Nawaz Sharif came to power. The attacks have a chilling effect on freedom of expression, with many journalists afraid of covering topics that cross a ‘red line’ that would leave them at risk of violence. The climate of fear has meant that many media outlets increasingly self-censor.”

She said that the Pakistani media community was under siege from all sides and in all corners of the country. Maya Pastakia said a range of state and non-state actors used violence and threats to silence negative coverage, including intelligence services, political parties, state security forces, and armed groups like the Taliban.

She called on the Government of Pakistan to ensure that those involved in the attack on Hamid Mir are brought to justice. “Investigations into attacks against journalists have rarely brought perpetrators to justice. It is an appalling indictment on the part of successive governments that only in two cases of journalist killings only a handful of people been prosecuted in the last two decades. The government must show political will. All suspected perpetrators must be tried before the courts, regardless of whether they are linked to powerful actors like the military, police or intelligence officials, armed groups or political parties.

“Media enterprises, whether Pakistani or international, must play their role in protecting journalists. They are liable under national law if they fail in their ‘duty of care’ to minimise and mitigate risks that journalists face in their duties. All journalists working on behalf of the enterprise, whether in capacity of staff, contractor or stringer should receive sufficient training, protections and resources to ensure their safety.”

The News

It was a bloody start to 2014 for the journalists in Pakistan when a Larkana-based correspondent of Ab Tak TV, Shan Daher, was shot dead on the eve of New Year. Since January, six media workers had been killed in targeted attacks while over a dozen have already received ‘death threats’, including three anchors.

So, all is not well in Pakistan for journalists and the media houses. The situation is far more alarming and threatening than it has been realised. The risk factor for the media has increased as conflict escalates. Today, the country is caught in the midst of many conflicts including terrorism, sectarianism, separatist movements violence between underworld mafias. Journalists report these stories from the conflict zones without having any training or even understanding of the danger.

To address journalists’ challenges, different journalist bodies, press clubs, editors, broadcasters’ bodies and media-related NGOs have conducted training workshops, seminars, conferences and have come forward with different proposals.

The most serious efforts so far came from the Pakistan Coalition On Media Safety, a joint forum of media stakeholders. The forum is making efforts to bring all major stakeholders on one platform on the one-point agenda of ‘safety of journalists’.

The information committees of the National Assembly and the Senate have now decided to address the issue more seriously and the government, through the Ministry of Information and the Ministry of Interior, has shown some urgency in addressing this issue.

However, actions often speak louder than words. In the last meeting of the Senate committee, the government had submitted a draft of 20 steps, which it is taking in consultation with all the stakeholders for the safety of journalists. But how and when these would be implemented is the real test.

There is a whole set of measures which the government has assured the Senate committee of, which it is ready to take up in consultation with all media stakeholders. There is a sense of realisation within the government that the security of media in Pakistan is the responsibility of the state. Therefore, the government assured that any issue related to the security of the media or media personnel would be handled on a priority basis.

The government also accepted that the media, as well as the rest of Pakistan, is confronting a highly volatile situation and that steps must be taken to restore peace and reduce the threat perception. But there have been incidents of targeted killings, abductions, sectarian violence, bomb blasts and suicide bombings. Journalists often become the victims while covering some of these events.

Moreover, the government acknowledged that journalists often become the victim in three kinds of violent incidents: in the line of duty while covering the event, because of issues other than work and thirdly, his or her family also faces threats and is sometimes attacked.

The Upper House said that it had been informed by the government that the compensation to media personnel hurt or martyred in the line of duty would be standardised across all provinces and that a Special Public Prosecutor will be inducted for fast-track investigations in Islamabad to expedite the cases of journalists.

All IGs are to be asked to inform the standing committee of ‘hotlines’ assigned for media personnel in case of emergencies. As informed by the relevant ministry and the Minister of Information, government officials have made a commitment for the media’s security and thus, special hotlines will be established by April 8.

For increased protection, it was also proposed that bulletproof vests must be provided to all journalists in the line of duty, special arrangements at all media houses be undertaken by government to ensure top-level security and scanners be installed by government at all media houses.

All investigations of cases of attacked or injured journalists must be closed within three months and full compensation be paid. Every single attack on media must be fully investigated.

The task on the part of the media bodies is that they must provide the standing committee a complete and comprehensive security plan for all media personnel working for them including any security infrastructure they wish to install.

However, after reading these assurances, I found an important step missing i.e., measures for training journalists to work safely. Therefore, I suggest that there is need to set up a National Training Institute for Safety of Journalists and Media Workers in Islamabad, with its subsidiary in all the major cities. The media houses should also contribute and make it mandatory for every journalist and media worker to get basic safety training.

If the government sets up such an institute and invites local as well as international trainers, it would certainly help minimise the risk factor. They should also get the training from ex-army officers particularly for working in conflict areas. Professional trainings are also required, instructing journalists on how they should go about to report safely from a conflict zone.

I hope when we observe the International Press Freedom Day, in 2015, these assurances and steps would be implemented.

Express Tribune