LAHORE: While the autopsy report of Maria Golovnina, the Pakistan and Afghanistan Bureau chief for foreign news wire “Reuters,” strengthens the common belief that this terrorism-hit country has been a dangerous working place for foreign bureau chiefs, research shows that it has been equally unsafe for their local counterparts, a good number of whom have also died unnaturally in the line of duty.

On February 1, 2002 or some 13 years before Maria’s sad and unnatural demise, the globally-acclaimed Daniel Pearl, the South Asia Bureau Chief of the American newspaper “The Wall Street Journal,” was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan too.

Here follow the names of some of the local bureau chiefs killed in Pakistan in recent times:On August 28, 2014, Irshad Mastoi, the bureau chief of “Online News” distribution agency was murdered in Quetta along with his two colleagues.

Mohammad Ismail, the Islamabad bureau chief for the “Pakistan Press International” was murdered in November 2006. His body was found near his home in Islamabad with his head completely smashed with a hard blunt object.

Faisal Qureshi, the Lahore Bureau Chief of the “London Post” was cruelly murdered in Lahore during October 2011.Syed Saleem Shahzad, the Pakistan Bureau Chief of “Asia Times Online” and Italian news agency “Adnkronos” was killed ruthlessly in May 2011.

A research conducted by the “Jang Group/Geo Television Network” reveals that professional journalists heading reputed media outlets have been killed at least since March 1914, when Henriette Caillaux (1874-1943), the second wife of a French Prime Minister Joseph Caillaux (1863-1944) had fatally shot Gaston Calmette (1858-1914), the Editor of the country’s leading newspaper “Le Figaro,” which had sold 56,000 copies in 1866 at its launch and had the highest circulation of any national newspaper of the time.

Henriette Caillaux had believed that Editor Calmette would further publish private letters that would demonstrate that Premier Joseph Caillaux and she had intimate relationships whilst he was still married to his first wife.

During her trial, Madame Caillaux said she made the decision to protect her beloved husband by sacrificing herself.At 5 pm on March 16, 1914, she had entered offices of “Le Figaro,” wearing a fur coat— in which she was hiding a pistol.

The killer lady had fired six shots, critically wounding editor Calmette, who had succumbed to his wounds just six hours later.Henriette Caillaux had made no attempt to escape and newspaper workers in adjoining offices quickly summoned a doctor and the police. She had insisted on being driven to the police station by her chauffeur in her own car, which was still parked outside. The police agreed to this and she was formally charged upon reaching the headquarters.

However, on July 28, 1914, a strong belief that women were not as strong emotionally as men had resulted in her acquittal by a local Paris court.(References/sources: Kershaw Alister’s book “Murder in France” and Edward Berenson’s book “The Trial of Madame Caillaux”)

Meanwhile, the offices of top newspapers have been attacked since October 1, 1910, when “The Los Angeles Times” building in Los Angeles city (California) was bombed, resulting in the killing of 21 newspaper employees.

Quite recently in January 2015, Stephane Charbonnier, the editor of the French satirical magazine “Charlie Hebdo,” was killed along with his 11 colleagues in a Paris shootout.

In 2003, Michael Thomas Kelly, a magazine editor for US media outlets “The New Republic,” the “National Journal” and “The Atlantic” was the first US journalist to be killed while covering the invasion of Iraq.

He had also worked for “The New York Times,” a columnist for “The Washington Post” and “The New Yorker.”Top television anchors too have borne the brunt of investigating what they “should not” have!

For example, in November 1965, 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 recognize.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 analyzed.

The News

Pakistan has been at war now for almost 35 years at a stretch. It all began with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan around 1979-80. A call went around the so-called Islamic world for recruits for jihad against the infidel Soviets. Our religio-political parties, led by the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, not only answered this call with religious fervour but they and their ilk also became the most vociferous champions of the American cause. The CIA flooded the jihadis with dollars and the most sophisticated weapon systems, and assisted by our intelligence apparatus, trained them in camps that mushroomed all over Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. This jihad lasted for almost 10 years, enriching in the process, in dollar terms as well as in terms of political clout, our religio-political parties and those who toed their line, including those in the media, who promoted the jihad with extra passion.

However, our mainstream media kept itself physically at a safe distance from the jihad. No major newspaper sent its correspondent into Afghanistan to cover the war. A handful of Pakistani journalists, who did go in, were sent in mostly by the Western and US media. The Tuesday briefings at the USIS in Islamabad about the progress of the war, mostly confined to the number of Soviet troops killed in the preceding week, used to be the only remote window to the war for our mainstream media and that, too, confined only to their ‘cleared’ Foreign Office beat reporters.

Next, we willingly entered into two low-intensity clandestine wars by early 1990, one in Afghanistan on the side of the Taliban against the Northern Alliance, seeking strategic depth, and the other on the side of the freedom fighters inside occupied Kashmir against the Indian troops. Both these wars were being fought in the name of jihad by so-called non-state actors with the full backing of the state. This war had lasted for almost 12 years, having tapered off by the middle of 1999 after the Kargil fiasco. During this war as well, our mainstream media had kept itself largely aloof. There was no coverage from the war theatres by correspondents of our mainstream media. Whatever coverage appeared in our major newspapers was courtesy of foreign news agencies. However, on occasions, one or two Urdu newspapers would carry interviews of the Kashmiri jihad leadership, which used to be specially arranged by you-know-who to send some specific signals to friends or to mislead the enemy. These wars virtually came to an end by 2002 as in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Afghanistan was invaded by the US and at the same time, the world had redefined armed freedom struggles like the one going on in Indian-occupied Kashmir, as terrorism.

The second Afghan war, which lasted for 13 years, was also covered by our mainstream media from a safe distance. Except for a few who already had the experience of covering the first Afghan war and the one that ‘we’ fought on the side of the Taliban, did cover this war but mostly for foreign media organisations. And most of the coverage of this war by our mainstream media was again courtesy foreign news agencies.

So, despite having lived in a war theatre for over 35 years, our mainstream media did not produce even a handful of experienced and well-trained war correspondents. That is why when war finally knocked on our own doors sometime in 2005, we were caught unawares. And that is perhaps why we have lost so many journalists in this war in the last 10 years or so. Pakistan, today, is known as one of most dangerous places for media practitioners. We have also lost a number of journalists covering the armed insurgencies indulged in by the militant wings of political parties in Sindh, as well as in the ones waged by nationalists in Balochistan. In fact, today the entire country has become a war zone and every journalist operating in this zone, no matter what his beat, has become a war correspondent but without being trained for the job. So, what is needed urgently is for media organisations to set up crash courses for journalists on the principles of working in a war zone. Are there any takers? Guess not.

Express Tribune

Jamshed Baghwan, as I know him for the past 15 years, is a brave and self-made journalist. He is among those who have balanced views and encourage unbiased reporting. He researches thoroughly, making sure never to air any kind of story without multiple credibility checks. He is a strictly professional journalist and is liked by everyone inside his community, which is why he remains the general-secretary of the Peshawar Press Club and the vice president of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists. While being committed to ethics, he maintains friendly relations with his fellow journalists at the Express News bureau in Peshawar.

If Baghwan can be attacked, so can other journalists in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Its no wonder that Amnesty International deemed Pakistan to be the most dangerous place for journalists. Pakistani journalists face multiple threats from all sides. They are not free to think freely and write freely. He/she is always threatened, always feeling stifled and stressed.

In the past eight years, I have seen 13 journalists being killed in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. Majority of the journalists in this area have imposed self-censorship. Many are found saying that their lives are more precious than media ethics.
Journalists get no support from the federal or provincial authorities. The injured get no monetary compensation. Families of those dead are not extended any support either.

The other sad side of his story is the rivalry and jealousy between media organisations. While reporting Baghwan’s attack, his name and his media group’s name was not even mentioned in the bulletins. When Hamid Mir was attacked, there was country-wide outrage. But when Baghwan was attacked, that too for the third time, his predicament was largely under-reported and even ignored. He was ignored like those dozens of journalists who lose their lives or are paralysed in FATA and Balochistan, as if they are not citizens of the state, but some unwanted aliens.

Express Tribune