LONDON: A group of Afghan nationals held a protest outside Pakistan High Commission London on Friday afternoon which turned violent when a Geo News reporting team was attacked by some of the demonstrators.

“The Watan Group” had organized the protest to seek justice for the daughter of the Afghan ambassador to Pakistan who was allegedly kidnapped in Islamabad two weeks ago. Around 50 protestors took part and raised slogans against Pakistan.

There were three incidents of violence. At the start, a protestor punched this reporter and hit his phone while filming the protest. Immediately after that, this reporter called the police and informed them of the attack.

The police arrived after over 40 minutes. Just before the police arrived, around five protestors marched across the road where Pakistani media was present and one of the protestors punched this correspondent, seriously injuring and fracturing his thumb and making the phone fall on the ground.

Minutes later, a Pakistani student, Ehtesham Hasan, 20, who argued with the protestors peacefully, was cornered in Knightsbridge. Geo News cameraman Naseer Ahmed, who was filming the incident, was also attacked by three protestors who broke Geo’s logo and mic and beat him up in the presence of witnesses.

Around a dozen Scotland Yard officers reached the protest venue after a complaint was made to the police about the attack. The police took statements from this reporter and Ahmed.

The police then watched the CCTV camera footage and confirmed that a violent attack had taken place and that it was unprovoked.

The Scotland Yard officer incharge said: “We have reviewed the footage and we can confirm that the assault took place. With help from the footage, we will investigate this matter further. We have given crime reference numbers to the victims.”

The Watan Group’s chief organiser said he was unable to control the youth because “they are upset at the kidnapping of Afghan ambassador’s daughter”. When told that it was the organiser’s job to keep the protest in control, he said he cannot comment further.

A Pakistan High Commission spokesman said that the protest was recorded and the footage has been given to the police. The spokesman said that this is not the first time a protest has turned violent outside the Pakistan High Commission.

The High Commission previously launched a complaint with the police through the diplomatic core, but no action has been taken yet.

Source: The News

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) on Thursday expressed concern over last week’s attack on the office of Geo and Jang media group in Karachi.

“The IFJ expresses its concern over the actions of protesters who attacked the Geo-Jang media group and the lack of police presence as this publicized protest turned violent,” it said.

IFJ said it welcomes the swift action by the anti-terrorism courts and calls for an urgent investigation into the handling of the matter by police on the ground at the time of the protest.

The central offices of the Geo and Jang media group vandalized by a group of protesters from the Sindhi community on February 21, in retaliation over a satirical segment aired on the network.

The mob reportedly angered by the airing of a satirical segment by Geo TV anchor Irshad Bhatti in a January 28 broadcast of the Khabarnak program. In the episode, the program presenter interviewed an impersonator of former Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari—a typical format of the show, where the show’s co-host Ali Mir adopts various characters. During the segment, Bhatti introduced the Mir’s character as the millionaire leader of bhukhe-nange (hungry and naked) people. He also accused him of exploiting people from Pakistan’s Sindh community.

Following a public backlash, Bhatti  issued an apology statement on February 21, claiming that his intention was not to disrespect the Sindh province or Sindhi language and clarifying that the program was satire and comedy. His apology statement was shared from his Twitter account also.

In response to the program, the Sindhi communities reportedly planned a peaceful protest in Karachi on February 21. But when the protestors reached the Geo office the protest turned violent, with protesters tearing down a gate and breaking through another main gated entry to the office on Chundrigar Road. During the attack, protesters threw chairs, broke furniture and glass, and allegedly roughed up receptionists, camerapersons, and other staff in the building.

Geo News officials accused police of failing to provide security to the office saying the protest was planned in advance.

Geo News Managing Director, Azhar Abbas, tweeted: “Strongly condemn attack on offices of Geo and Jang. They vandalised the reception area and beat our cameraman and staff. Where is the Govt??”

On February 21, Karachi police filed cases against over 200 people in connection with the attack and on February 22 the administrative judge of the anti-terrorism court remanded 13 suspects in judicial custody for their alleged involvement in the attack. The suspects were booked under Sections 147, 148, 149, 324, 342, 427 and 506-B of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.—IFJ media release

Website: Journalism Pakistan

Peaceful protest in a democratic society is a fundamental right, but if it turns into vandalism it undermines the very fundamental rights that a society must protect at all costs. The mob attack on the Jang/Geo Karachi office on Sunday, with staff threatened and attacked, is yet another sign of increasing intolerance in Pakistan. Though media organizations have reacted sharply to condemn this incident, and the authorities have also taken notice, such attacks increasingly threaten the lives and properties of media professionals. The protesters could have staged a peaceful demonstration and even handed over a complaint to the concerned staff regarding any grievances they had, but the path they chose just cannot be justified. This is not a proper way of venting your anger if you feel hurt.

If authorities fail to arrest those who are responsible for such attacks, the tendency grows into a widespread disease and encourages recurrence of such incidents. We have seen inquiries in the past too, but without proper follow-up the inquiry gets lost or gathers dust. To pre-empt such incidents in future, it is imperative that a comprehensive strategy be chalked out by the authorities to protect media offices and professionals. The groups which gave a call for the protests should have asked their members to remain peaceful and not get violent. When they converged on the vicinity of the Jang/Geo offices, the authorities should have cordoned off the area to prevent the protesters from barging into the offices. Ultimately, the responsibility of protecting the media lies with the government and state institutions. Violent incidents such as this one must stop so that the media in Pakistan can work independently and objectively. The management of Geo had already apologized for the controversial remark that hurt some feelings and triggered the anger. Such remarks do not reflect the policy of a media house, and after the apology the matter should have been settled. The media in this country – both electronic and print – is already under pressure from various quarters. Civil society and political forces must come to the rescue of fundamental rights, and freedom of expression is perhaps the most important one. As such, the police too must be more vigilant and ensure attacks of this kind cannot take place in the future with such impunity.

Newspaper: The News (Editorial)

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

Sometime in the middle of December 2012 journalist Saifur Rehman informed me via Facebook about the escalating threats that journalists faced in Balochistan. “Buddy, now an extremist group has just repeated its threat to journalists in Quetta. It has threatened to target journalists if news about them is not given space.”

I did not know that this would be my last contact with the man. On January 10, 2013, the 33-year-old television reporter Saifur Rehman was killed along with his cameraman Imran Shaikh during one of the deadliest bombings in Quetta’s Alamdar Road neighbourhood. More than 100 were killed in the attack. A 20-year-old photographer, Mohammed Iqbal, was also among the dead.

Saif went to Alamdar Road, a restricted area where members of the Hazara community live. He was reporting on the bombing that occurred near Snooker Club. As he went closer the crime scene, a more deadly and devastating explosion occurred. Dozens of bodies were charred beyond recognition. Family members took hours to identify Saif and his cameraman Imran Shaikh.

Saif was known amongst his friends for calling the bluff of some journalists who often pretend that they are more powerful than a chief minister and more well-informed than others. He is still remembered for his friendly behaviour with everyone as BBC’s Balochistan correspondent. We remember him as one of the jolliest journalists in Quetta.

Besides the scourge of extremism and the failure of law enforcement agencies, I believe that the growing trend of breaking news has taken the life of dozens of journalists in the last decade. There are fewer opportunities for training but immense pressure from newsrooms on reporters in Quetta.

According to the Balochistan Union of Journalists (BUJ), journalists in Balochistan are targeted for their work and are killed when they are caught in explosions or shoot-outs. The last deadly incident served as a grim reminder to the owners and heads of media outlets as they started to make sure that the safety of journalists was not compromised.

The Press Club in Khuzdar has been closed for more than five months while journalists have migrated from sensitive areas like Dera Bugti, Kohlu and Awaran, leading to a near-blackout of news there. It is clear that no one is happy with the reporters or the conduct of the media in general, but people should also understand that a reporter is not powerful enough to fight or challenge any stakeholder. All he or she can do is to report the news.

Express Tribune

Media in the crosshairsThe media remained the target of attack through 2014, caught in the crosshairs of guns wielded by militants, political and criminal elements and even professional rivals throughout 2014. The country was declared the world’s most dangerous place for journalists by the International Federation of Journalists, ahead of war-torn Syria. Fourteen journalists were killed during the year in what appeared to be targeted attacks – in some cases for exposing wrongdoing, in others for motives that remain mysterious.

The year began on a bad note, with a television channel reporter shot dead on January 1 in Larkana, allegedly for showing a pharmacy selling a drug that had a ‘not for resale’ label on it. The life of journalists it seems comes cheap. There were other incidents too, such as the attack on the office of the Online International News Network in Quetta in August. Three persons, including two journalists, were killed. There were no arrests and, as the PFUJ noted in his report released at the start of the year, this impunity contributed to making the year that has just passed possibly the worst on record for media professionals in the country.

The lack of accountability was visible also in the failure to identify those who had staged attacks on prominent journalists or issued threats. Geo news journalist Hamid Mir narrowly escaped death in May 2014 when he was attacked by gunmen in Karachi. Raza Rumi had to flee the country after his car was shot at in Lahore in March the same year. We still do not know who was responsible for these assaults or the threats issued to journalists. The trend seems dangerously to be on the rise.

It was not only individuals who were caught in the delicate line fire. The Jang/Geo media house was taken off the air for 15 days following charges of blasphemy made during a morning show, with the incident leading to a mass campaign in which newspapers belonging to the group were attacked and all Geo channels erased from cable networks long beyond the Pemra dictated period of a 15-day suspension. There were strong suspicions of rivalries and politics at play in the unpleasant series of events.

Other channels came under attack too, with the PTV headquarters in Islamabad broken into by PTI and PAT activists on September 1 during their sit-in in the capital. For 40 minutes, the national network vanished from the airwaves. No one has been punished for what happened; and no one has been punished for the attacks made on media professionals by political activists including those from the PTI – a party which has repeatedly lashed out at Geo, accusing it of being an enemy agent with activists beating up its reporters covering their rallies.

While the year has been a bleak one for the media, it has also been a time when the need is arisen for it to reflect on its own actions. The issue of hate speech broadcast over channels has been raised again and again. This is a matter that has to be addressed. Media responsibility is just as important as is the need by the state to protect it. We also lost key figures who have shaped the media in Pakistan during the last year, with Majeed Nazami, one of the country’s best known editors whose contributions go beyond the realm of journalism, passing away in July 2014.

The hold of the media over the minds of people continues to grow. It has shown resilience in the face of violence, and its evolution continues at a time when it is clear it must play a critical role in shaping the future of our country.

The News

ISLAMABAD: PPP-led opposition parties in the Senate on Tuesday protested over the registration of an FIR against a private TV channel and staged a walk out from the House.

At the beginning of Upper House’s proceedings, Opposition Leader in the Senate Aitzaz Ahsan said that although opposition has reservations on the conduct of media, it stands by media in this hour of trial.
He said that walk out by journalists from the press gallery is not good because the media is an important part of parliament which is “incomplete without press gallery”.

He expressed his concerns over registration of the FIR, which invokes anti-terror laws against the management and reporter of the TV channel. He urged Minister for Information and Broadcasting Pervaiz Rashid to look into the matter and resolve the issue.

Aitzaz also announced a walk out from the House to record his protest.

MQM Senator Tahir Mashhadi appreciated the role of media and stressed withdrawal of the FIR against the CEO and a bureau chief of the TV channel.

“Today is black day for democracy in Pakistan. The media has always highlighted incidents of target and extra-judicial killings in Karachi… today we all should support the media in this crucial time.”

Senator Abdul Rauf said his Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party would continue its support for the media.
Hasil Bizenjo said the FIR against the TV channel has not been registered by the provincial government. “The Balochistan government can never think of imposing curbs on media.”

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said the government fully supports independence of media because it is an important pillar of democracy. He clarified that the federal government has played no role in registration of the FIR.

Pervaiz Rashid assured the senators of all-out efforts to resolve the issue.

Responding to points of order raised by various opposition members in the Senate, he said the case against a private news channel had been registered on the directive of Balochistan High Court.

“The government does not want to impose any restriction on the media, rather it will protect the media freedom,” he added.

Meanwhile, Aitzaz pointed out that the House was not in order as media persons were not present in the gallery.

Senate Chairman Syed Nayyer Hussain Bukhari suspended the proceedings for 15 minutes and directed the information minister to persuade the media personnel to come to the House and cover the proceedings.

The minister visited the press gallery and assured reporters that the issue would be resolved. Senators Nasreen Jalil, Abbas Khan Afridi, Saeed Ghani and Farhatullah Babar accompanied the minister.
Nisar Ali Khan informed the Senate that law enforcement agencies had so far traced 93 out of 381 disappeared persons from all over the country.

Replying to a question, the interior minister said that law enforcement agencies had traced 48 missing persons from Punjab, 32 from Islamabad Capital Territory, seven from Balochistan and six from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. However, no disappeared person was traced from Sindh, he added.

He also informed the House that around 381 persons had disappeared during 2012 from all over the country.

According to the record of law enforcement agencies, 75 persons disappeared from the ICT, 153 Punjab, 98 Sindh, 34 KP and 21 from Balochistan. Nisar said that the cases of remaining disappeared persons were being investigated by the seasoned police officers, which were expected to be worked out soon.
All the station house officers have been directed to register the case upon receipt of any complaint regarding enforced disappearance, he added.

To a question, the minister agreed that the aforementioned figures “are not realistic” as they were provided by provincial governments.

Daily Times

Mr Razzak, 35, was a reporter for the Urdu-language newspaper Daily Tawar. His mutilated body was found in the city of Karachi last Wednesday. He had been reported missing since 24 March.

The Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Irina Bokova, called on Pakistani “to do all in their power” to investigate Razzak’s killings and shed light on this heinous crime.

The Nation

According to a police officer, sections 506, 148, 149, 427 and 382 of the Pakistan Penal Code had been inserted in the FIR lodged by injured cameraman Ijaz George.

He said some journalists captured one of the alleged attackers and handed him over to police. He was identified as Afzal Sultan. — Staff Reporter

DAWN