Pakistan Freedom of Expression Monitor
News with beliefs, thoughts, ideas, and emotions
Sialkot: The government will take effective measures to provide security to journalists, Science and Technology Minister Zahid Hamid said on Sunday. He was addressing the media at Badiana, Pasrur. Hamid said that the media shoud promote a softer image of Pakistan. Hamid presented a cheque for Rs. 0.5 Million to the Badiana Press Club.
MULTAN: Central President of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf Makhdoom Javed Hashmi has said that journalists are less secured than politicians and their lives are in danger, adding the government should take measures to protect their lives.
He was talking to the media men where they observed hunger strike at the call of PFUJ in front of Multan Press Club (MPC).
Javed Hashmi expressed solidarity with the journalists and said PTI never supported the terrorists nor favoured the terrorism.
However, PTI stressed the need for talk to the Taliban but Present regime deliberately delayed the talk consequently we had to suffer great loss.
He vehemently condemned the massacre of Shiites and said that sectarianism was being fanned openly with the connivance of the rulers.
To a question, Javed Hashmi said PML-N was governing the country like a dictator and it was not ready to revive the local bodies’ institutions and holding local councils elections in the Punjab. He said the government got delayed the polls.
The members of Khyber Union of Journalists (KhUJ) staged a protest here on Thursday to condemn the killing of three workers of a private TV channel in Karachi. The protest was led by KhUJ President Nisar Mehmood, General Secretary Tariq Afaq and other senior media persons.
The protestors, tying black strips around their arms, urged upon the government to take serious steps for the protection of journalists. They also raised slogans against the federal and provincial governments and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police for torturing a senior journalist inside the provincial assembly.
The KhUJ representatives strongly condemned the killing of three workers of a private TV channel in Karachi. They said that both the federal and provincial governments had failed to ensure protection to journalists. They urged the government to initiate stern action against the culprits involved in the gruesome and inhuman acts and bring them to justice. ANP leader Mian Iftikhar also participated in the protest camp to express solidarity with the journalists. He said that sustainable peace in the country was not possible until terrorism was eradicated.
KARACHI: Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) has announced to observe token hunger strike tomorrow (Thursday, 23 January, 2014) throughout the country to protest against non-provision of protection to journalists and media workers.
In a press release issued, PFUJ president Rana Azeem and Secretary General Amin Yousaf directed unions of all cities to establish hunger strike camps in their cities. They said that killers of journalists and media workers have not been arrested, while compensation amount has not been given to the heirs of martyred journalists.
PFUJ leaders appealed to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to take notice of situation and give representation to PFUJ in the parliamentary committee formed for protection of media workers.
Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists
ISLAMABAD: A large number of journalists held a protest demonstration here on Saturday to condemn the killings of three Express News staffers.
The protest was held outside the National Press Club by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Union of Journalists (RIUJ) and was attended by a large number of journalists including senior TV anchors, reporters from the print and electronic media, and backend staff from electronic media.
In a tragic incident in Karachi late on Friday evening, three employees including a driver Khalid, technician Waqas and guard Ashraf were shot dead by unidentified assailants.
The protesting journalists emphasised the ned for journalists to stand united in this testing time, irrespective of their professional affiliations.
While holding placards inscribed with slogans such as “stop killing journalists”, the journalists shouted slogans against the government for failing to protect and provide security to members of the media.
NPC President Sheharyar Khan, who is also an Express News reporter, pointed out that police protection outside the press club had actually decreased since the incident, and demanded that the government ensure that every journalist, no matter whom his employer, be assured of a safe working environment.
Senior journalist Rana Jawad said the attack was not on a specific media group but on the whole journalistic community.
“It is one organisation today, it could be another tomorrow,” said senior journalist and anchor Hamid Mir.
He said that the government was well aware of the groups and agencies involved in such attacks.
Secretary RIUJ Bilal Dar said that Pakistan has become the third-most dangerous country in the world for journalists.
Dar said that journalist community must stand united irrespective of whichever organisation they are affiliated with and continue working with the same passion. “By seeing the number of cameras today, we can all be assured that the press stands united,” said former PFUJ senior vice president Fauzia Shahid.
Separately, rights activist Tahira Abdullah demanded “that the government provided adequate security and protection to the media, across the country”.
“If the media stops reporting today, the public will not be able to get their grievances across,” she said.
While speaking to The Express Tribune, Abdullah said such incidents were occurring far too frequently and the government should provide adequate protection to those working in the media.
Condemning the killing of three workers of a private TV channel in Karachi and police atrocity against a local senior journalist, the fraternity on Friday staged a protest demonstration here outside the Press Club. Participants demanded of the Federal and provincial governments to take proactive steps for the protection of working journalists.
On the call of Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), the Khyber Union of Journalists (KhUJ), Tribal Union of Journalists (TUJ) and Peshawar Press Club, organised a joint protest demonstration, headed by KhUJ president, Nisar Mehmood, PPC president Nasir Hussain, president TUJ dozens of working journalists from print and electronic media participated.
The protesting journalists marched from Peshawar Press club to Governor House, where they staged a sit-in and chanted full-throated slogans against KP government, police and Sindh government. Speaking on the occasion, KhUJ president Nisar Mehmood strongly deplored the killing of three workers of private TV channel in Karachi and atrocity of police on a senior journalist in the line of duty. He said that media persons have continuously been tortured by police and killed in terrorists’ acts elsewhere in the country. The office-bearers vohttp://www.pakistanpressfoundation.org/front-page/74859/khyber-pakhtunkhwa-journalists-demand-protection-for-media-persons/wed that the protest campaign will continue till the full assurance by government to provide protection to the community members, and active steps for prevention of such incidents in the future.
Earlier, a meeting was also held under the auspices of Khyber Union of Journalists at Peshawar Press Club, which decided to complete boycott coverage of government functions, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly, and police programmes, till taking of stern action against the cop, who tortured a senior journalist in the premises of provincial assembly the other day.
It was also decided to observe black-day on Monday, across the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and to hold rallies and demonstration against the atrocity of police. The meeting also condemned the killing of three workers of a private TV channel in Karachi, demanding the Sindh government to take steps for arrest of their killers. On the occasion, a committee was also constituted, which will be take up the issue with relevant authorities.
Three years have passed since the murder of Geo TV journalist Wali Khan Babar in Karachi. While no justice has been found in Babar’s case, his death has not been forgotten. Journalists Beena Sarwar, Umar Cheema, and Malik Siraj Akbar along with CPJ’s Bob Dietz commemorated the anniversary of Babar’s death on Monday during a HuffPost Live discussion: “Pakistan’s Press in Peril?”
One by one, individuals connected to the investigation have been murdered or silenced. “Wali Khan Babar’s case looks like a Hollywood movie, where at least seven people have been murdered; anyone who helped in providing any information to the authorities, anyone who was an eyewitness was also eliminated,” said Akbar, who is editor-in-chief of The Baloch Hal.
Babar’s murder trial is proceeding at a glacial pace, and little progress has been made. “In the end, we’re still waiting for a result to a trial–a trial whose venue was supposed to have been moved several times and really it’s just been inconclusive and it has been stalled because it ran up against this political wall and wall of violence,” said Dietz, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator.
Sarwar, a prominent journalist and filmmaker, provided a wider backdrop for Babar’s unsolved murder. She said the targeting of journalists is just part of the larger culture of impunity in Pakistan, where many crimes go unsolved and unpunished–including the assassinations of Pakistan’s first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan in 1951and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007. “It is linked to the lack of due process, where policemen are deployed more for protecting VIP convoys. They are not allowed, they are not empowered, they are not enabled to carry out investigations. They are ill-equipped, they are not well paid, they don’t have ways to really deal with the situation. This is all part of the system that needs to be changed,” Sarwar said.
Cheema, an investigative journalist who drew worldwide attention for speaking out about his own abduction and beating in 2010 and was honored with CPJ’s 2011 International Press Freedom Award, said Babar’s murder trial will ultimately be “a test case for all of us.”
Karachi: In an email sent allegedly by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan media wing, the group claimed responsibility for the recent attack on a media organization in Karachi. They warned that they will now target media houses and hinted at future attacks
Express Tribune
KARACHI: Chairman of Pakistan Press International and Secretary General of the Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF), Owais Aslam Ali said that the perpetrators of violence against journalists and media workers enjoy almost absolute impunity in Pakistan, which is seriously hampering press freedom in the country.
This he said while answering to various questions asked by Ifex in connection with its International Day to End Impunity campaign. Two other A. Rehman, Secretary General of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and Shahzad Ahmad, the Country Director of Bytes for All Pakistan also shared thoughts and experiences regarding impunity in Pakistan.
Owais Aslam Ali said that according to figures, 55 journalists have been killed in Pakistan in the last ten years, and 36 of them were deliberately targeted and murdered because of their work. For every journalist who has been deliberately targeted and murdered, there are many others who have been injured, threatened and coerced into silence. He added that many journalists have been forced to migrate from danger zones due to alarming increase in violence and threats, moreover intimidation has forced others to self-censor, particularly in the conflict areas. Security issues remain the biggest threat for journalists in Pakistan.
Replying to a question about women reporters facing different types of risks, Owais Aslam said that reporting remained almost exclusively a male domain especially in rural and conflict areas. However,
situation in the newly emerging television sector is slightly better, as women reporters are accompanied by a team including cameramen and producers, which provides more security. Still the public sexual harassment or molestation of women by men is endemic in Pakistani society, and no steps have been taken by the media employers, unions or press clubs, except mere lip service, to encourage women to enter the field of reporting in substantial numbers.
Owais Aslam said that in March 2013, PPF played its due role at the International Conference on Safety and Security of Pakistani Journalists: Promoting Collaborative Approaches to Combat Impunity, which resulted in the formation of the Pakistan Coalition on Media Safety (PCOMS). PCOMS supports the UN Action Plan Against Impunity as well as its focus on Pakistan as one of the pilot countries, and aims to help, support and reinforce its implementation. PPF also agreed to host the Secretariat of PCOMS.
A. Rehman said that impunity poses one of the most serious challenges to the rule of law in Pakistan and to citizens’ basic rights. Officials almost always get away with extra-judicial killings. Enforced disappearances are a major issue in Pakistan, and no state functionary has been prosecuted. He said that HR defenders face serious challenges in Pakistan and three activists working for the HRCP have been killed. Two have had to be relocated.
Shahzad Ahmad said that many state authorities as well as non-state actors in Pakistan enjoy impunity, and nearly all of them are opposed to the ideals of freedom of expression, whereas vague laws, court jurisdiction issues and weakening writ of the government in several conflict areas contribute to their impunity. Expression in digital spaces is curtailed by the authorities, using excuses like national security, morality and religious harmony.
Owais Aslam said that registration, investigation and prosecution of criminal cases against the perpetrators of violence against media; establishment of an independent commission for monitoring of cases of violence and intimidation; imparting training to journalists especially those in rural areas; development of “operating procedures” by media organizations and sensitization of the owners and editors to the realities and threats being faced by journalists would help ending the culture of impunity in Pakistan.
These experts were of the opinion that ending impunity in Pakistan is a big challenge and UN Plan of Action can prove effective only if the government is forced to abide by it. Sensitization of all stakeholders including the government, law enforcement agencies, media organizations, civil society organizations etc is necessary to end the culture of impunity.
Click the link below for more Information:
INTERNATIONAL DAY TO END IMPUNITY