Journalists Killed in Pakistan – Pakistan Freedom of Expression Monitor

Wali Babar case prosecutor’s brother killed

Web Desk — Sun, 13 Apr 2014 08:02:38 +0000

JHELUM/KARACHI: Special Public Prosecutor in Wali Babar murder case Abdul Maroof Advocate’s brother was killed in Jhelum on Saturday. According to police, Abdul Saboor, brother of the public prosecutor, was murdered by unknown armed persons. Abdul Maroof said his brother had no enemy. He said the motive behind the murder could not be ascertained so …

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NA body asks for arrest of journalists’ killers

PPF Editor — Sat, 22 Mar 2014 11:28:51 +0000

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly sub-committee of the Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting and National Heritage has recommended the government arrest the nominated accused of journalists’ killing across the country.

The committee expressed serious reservations over non-arrest of the killers of journalists, which creates further uncertainty among the journalists’ community. Police officials from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan informed the committee that majority of the journalists were killed in trouble areas or in terrorism related incidents. In such cases no one directly nominated that was why in majority of these cases no arrest were made so far. However, the committee directed that those people should be arrested soon who directly involved in killing of journalists.

The sub-committee meeting held in parliament house and was chaired by Convener Ms Naeema Kishwer Khan. Secretary Information Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said the KP Assembly has passed a bill “Journalist Endowment Fund”. If a journalist martyred in terrorism related incidents, his/her family will be paid Rs1 million by KP government and Rs0.2 million for wounded or other mis-happening to any journalist. Apart from it, the KP government also planning to establish journalist colonies at Nowshera, Mansehra and other cities of the province, he maintained.

DIG KP Mohammad Ali Babakhel briefed the committee over journalists killing during last three years in five troubled districts of the province. According to him majority of journalists were killed in terrorist incidents in Peshawar, Charsadah, Karak, Abbotabad and recently in Mansehra districts. In Abbotabad and Mansehrea journalist’s cases, the accused were arrested. In some cases, media persons reach earlier than police on spot of the incident, he added. The provincial government made compensation to the deceased families. However, he said as media house are run on profit bases, therefore, they should also give some compensation to the journalist’s families.

DIG Headquarter Balochistan Khalid Mehmood told the committee that during last three years 14 journalist killing cases occurred in Balochistan, in which 3 journalist families were not paid due to different reasons. One family not contacted for compensation and they think that government agencies involved in the killing of their person. The compensations also vary from case to case, they are paying Rs1 million, Rs2 million and also Rs0.5 million.

IG Islamabad Police Sikandar Hayat told the committee that during last three years not a single case of journalist killing happened and it may be due to better security arrangement. Convener of the committee Naeema Kishwer Khan directed the ministry of information and broadcasting to strictly instructed owners of media house to properly equip journalists while sending them in trouble areas for reporting. She also asked that one time compensation should be made to government-journalists.

Daily Times

Journalists in Pakistan

PPF Editor — Fri, 24 May 2013 10:14:27 +0000

A damning report by Amnesty International has brought to light what people involved in the media industry in Pakistan have known all along — that journalists are just not safe in the country.

The report points fingers at all those quarters that have, in the past, been accused of making life a living hell for journalists from all media backgrounds. They include not just the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) but also state security agencies and even political parties. Basically, everyone with something to hide has a score to settle with this country’s media men and women. The most visible cases that outline the dire threat against journalists are those of Saleem Shahzad who was killed after he uncovered a story about militant ties with the security agencies and Wali Khan Babar who was killed in Karachi after exposing some of the mafias that have the city in its grip. Both cases highlight how the state’s security agencies and the mafia wings of certain political parties may be involved in putting the lives of journalists at risk.

Pakistan has earned and retains the unenviable title of ‘the most dangerous place in the world for journalists’ since 2010. The Amnesty International report clearly states that journalists have been threatened and coerced for reporting on the military, political parties and militant outfits. It also states that lack of persecution has allowed this open hostility towards journalists because no one has so far been brought to book for the deaths and intimidation of journalists. If one thinks about it, the deaths of Saleem Shahzad and Wali Khan Babar seem to have forever been lost in the murky waters of the country’s rich and powerful interests. In addition to this, the electronic and print media bodies and managements of media organisations refuse to take responsibility for their employees, never bothering to look into the threats visited upon journalists who uncover some of the biggest and most damning stories in the country. The media has been a relatively free voice, a watchdog of society, since 2002. It is the one forum in the country where people are held accountable and crimes by the well connected are brought to light. If those who threaten the media are allowed to walk away with impunity, there will be no end to these crimes against humanity and freedom of expression. The Amnesty International report should not be taken lightly; it is there for the whole world to see. With a new elected government about to take office, it is time it and the media bodies came together to tackle this growing threat to the media.

Source: Daily Times

In the line of fire

PPF Editor — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 07:33:03 +0000

THE Committee to Protect Journalists says seven Pakistani journalists were killed while working this year. The South Asian Free Media Association puts the number at 13. Whatever the actual figure, Pakistan remained one of the most dangerous countries in the world, and the deadliest country in South Asia, for journalists in 2012. Caught between state and non-state actors, reporters, photographers, cameramen and other media workers sacrificed their lives as they attempted to report the truth while trying to avoid the wrath of multiple institutions and groups. A few were caught in violent riots or killed while covering violent incidents, but many were murdered with intent, particularly in Balochistan, which has now statistically become the most dangerous province for a Pakistani journalist. Many others, from district correspondents to nationally recognised television journalists, survived or received direct threats to their lives.

One of the reasons Pakistan regularly features at or near the top of such lists is, ironically, a result of the freedom the country’s media has gained over the last decade. Unlike in many other countries and conflict zones, Pakistani journalists might be harassed by the authorities but are rarely directly disallowed from reaching and covering dangerous areas and incidents. The flipside, of course, is that they pay for this freedom by laying down their lives. But the answer is not to limit their movement.
Instead, it lies in devising and implementing a set of policies aimed specifically at protecting journalists and punishing those who kill them.

On that front the state and media organisations have abdicated their responsibility to the men and women who take on the task of keeping citizens informed. The effort made to investigate Daniel Pearl’s execution has not been replicated for any Pakistani journalist. In the rare case where a journalist’s death attracts widespread attention, no clear conclusions are reached; the report on Saleem Shahzad’s murder, for example, simply states the obvious — that the culprits could have been intelligence agencies or Islamist extremists. In a particularly chilling example of the impunity with which those killing journalists get away with their crimes, all six witnesses to the murder of Wali Khan Babar have also been killed. Pakistan’s journalists are increasingly falling victim to the overt and covert conflict between extremists, separatists and political actors on the one hand and security and intelligence agencies on the other. If the state isn’t willing to prevent this from happening, media organisations will simply have to find a way to pressure it to do so, because the worst outcome would be if the media had to reverse the strides it has made by curbing its reporting.

Pakistan Press Foundation