The spokesperson said the present government is committed to the security of media houses and working journalists in the country and is taking all necessary steps to create a congenial atmosphere where media persons could perform their obligations in accordance with their professional requirements and without any fear, says a press release.

The spokesperson further said that Senator Pervaiz Rashid, Federal Minister for Information, has also written a letter to all the four chief ministers for provision of adequate security to media houses and working journalists.

He said the federal government, on its part, has constituted a committee to address all security related issues concerning media houses and working journalists.The committee has held four meetings so far and follow-up meeting would be held soon to further streamline the plan of action and to intensify measures regarding the provision of safety and security of the journalists.

The spokesperson said Pakistan is successfully fighting a war against terrorism and the whole world has acknowledged the sacrifices of Pakistan in the global war. “Instead of appreciating the efforts of Pakistan and its government against this menace, the allegations and objections of Reporters without Borders are unfortunate,” the spokesperson concluded.

The News

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns the government’s failure to respond to a wave of attacks on media outlets throughout Pakistan in recent weeks and the absence of effective measures to protect news organizations and journalists.

In the latest attack, two individuals on a motorcycle threw a homemade bomb at the bureau of the TV news channel Express News in Sargodha, in the eastern province of Punjab, on 7 December, injuring a security guard and damaging one of its vehicles.

Express News is regarded as a liberal news organization and has been the target of previous attacks that were claimed by the Taliban.

The Sargodha attack came just six days after militants threw a grenade at the Din News channel’s bureau in the Punjabi capital of Lahore, injuring an employee and two policemen. They also scattered Islamic State leaflets threatening to continue attacking media outlets until they “revert to neutral journalism” and “side with truth that is Sharia and Islam.”

The attackers fled on a motorcycle and since then no arrests have been made.

An arson attack on Gawahi Television, a Christian Web TV station in the southern city of Karachi, on 24 November destroyed its studios and computer equipment. The station had been the target of threats, which were reported to the Karachi authorities. Surveillance cameras had been installed, but they were also destroyed by the fire.

Three Dunya News employees were injured when militants on a motorcycle threw a grenade at the TV station’s bureau in the northeastern city of Faisalabad on the evening of 20 November. After the attackers fled, pamphlets of Islamic State’s Khorasan branch were found at the scene.

“We deplore the lack of action by the authorities, who are displaying a complete absence of political will to protect the media,” said Benjamin Ismaïl, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk.

“Extremist groups had threatened all of these media outlets. The local authorities should have taken energetic measures to protect their staff. It is time that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government reacted and responded to the calls from media defence NGOs and Pakistani journalists’ unions.”

RSF urges the Pakistani authorities to:

Allocate more material and human resources to monitoring and protecting news media staff
Organize the reinforcement of the security of media premises (guards, surveillance cameras, entrance barriers and so on)
Establish an effective alert system that allows the police to intervene quickly in the event of an attack.

According to some Pakistani journalists, the extremist groups are stepping up their attacks on media outlets with the aim of getting them to resume covering the activities of these groups. After an attack on a Peshawar school in December 2014 that killed more than 100 children, the authorities banned the Pakistani media from covering the activities of militant and terrorist groups.

Ranked 159th out of 180 countries in the 2015 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index, Pakistan is one of the pilot countries of the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity.

Reporters Without Borders

According to this index, Finland tops the list of the countries with a free media, followed by two other Scandinavian countries – Norway and Denmark.

Eritrea is at the bottom along with Turkmenistan and North Korea.

China, Cuba, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan are also at the bottom.

The United States dropped from 20 in 2010 to 49 in 2015, four steps above Haiti, Burkina Faso, Namibia and El Salvador. Suriname, Samoa and the eastern Caribbean rank higher than the United States.

Frequent police and public attacks on journalists, coercion to reveal sources and the government’s failure to pass a law protecting journalists caused this fall.

Pakistan is ranked 159 on the list of 180 countries.

The report points out that last month, a Pakistani parliamentary committee approved a draconian law for controlling the Internet.

Reporters Without Borders notes that the latest draft of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act “undermines civil liberties in Pakistan and flouts freedom of the media and information”.

It also notes that the bill contains provisions that would allow the government to censor any content without referring to judge, to use overly broad criteria to criminalise many online activities, and to gain access to Internet user data without any judicial control.

The report also noted that there has been a resurgence of violent attacks on media groups that criticise the military, including the ISI. During 2014, non-state actors also continued to target journalists, the report adds.

The report points out that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf also attacked journalists who criticised its activities.

Two journalists were gunned down in October, bringing the number murdered since August to four.

In July, unidentified gunmen torched a cable TV operator in Karachi.

Also in July, unidentified people bombed the home of the Peshawar bureau chief of a Pakistani television channel.

In May and June, a journalist was attacked in Multan and trucks carrying newspapers were torched.

In June, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority temporarily closed the transmission of a television channel in various areas.

Dawn

The message is headlined, “The Global war of ideologies and the behavior of media: To the heads and members of the organizations working for the rights of media members around the world” and lays out the TTP’s anger with Pakistani media coverage of the military’s anti-insurgency campaign in Waziristan, ongoing since early June.

The campaign is known as Zarb-e-Azb, which translates into “strike of the Prophet’s sword,” and the army calls it a “comprehensive operation.” The offensive is bloody, as will be the case when military forces go into civilian areas to root out insurgents. There has been a fairly high death count, lots of destruction of homes, and a large number of displaced civilians. The proverb “When elephants fight, it is the grass that gets trampled,” is especially true in this conflict.

Not for the first time, Pakistan’s military has made independent media coverage of the fighting extremely difficult, though not impossible. Because of the restricted coverage, the TTP is accusing the Pakistani media of betraying its journalistic mission by behaving “towards us in this battle in such a way that is even against its own principles. To spread false and baseless news, make propaganda against us on behalf of our enemies and playing the role of war propagandists,” the Taliban considers to be “irresponsible, thoughtless and criminal behavior.”

My interpretation is that the TTP is losing the media battle to present its side of the conflict, and is not pleased with the situation. Given that the fighting doesn’t look to end any time soon, and the government is dominating the news flow from the battlefield, the TTP is threatening to take its frustrations out on Pakistani journalists in an attempt to reverse the information war it is losing.

The threat to us, and Reporters Without Borders and our other sister groups, is not as menacing as the threat directed toward journalists in the TTP’s message. It seems to signal that there will be more attacks on the media, most likely in the near future: “This message is aimed at making you aware that if we get engaged in attacking them [the media] then no crying and sobbing will be heard and we think accomplishing our legitimate and decent mission without attending to criticism of any criticizer is our appropriate right.” In other words, media support groups like CPJ shouldn’t start complaining when the TTP starts attacking journalists. The apparent threat to us and our international colleagues seems clearest with the statement, “We want to remind you that we always remember our enemies.” We should not criticize the TTP by “crying and sobbing,” that is to say, by doing our job of supporting Pakistani journalists.

The TTP has always been media savvy, if not always media friendly. Their spokesmen are readily available and return calls quickly, and the groups maintain websites and social media accounts for both publicizing their victory claims and recruiting. This sort of message is not unlike them.

For their part, Pakistani journalists have long been under pressure from every group with a political or criminal agenda in the country–the military and intelligence agencies, the many militant groups (including the TTP), political parties, local strongmen, and criminal thugs. We have written about how journalists are under constant threat no matter what their political slant, and how they can be harassed, abducted, beaten, and killed with near-perfect impunity.

So as a service to our Pakistani colleagues in the media we will pass along this latest threat, one in a steady never-ending stream of threats, from a group with the power to wreak real mayhem and murder. For almost all of colleagues, it’s not the first time they will be threatened. And just as journalists in Pakistan will keep doing their jobs, CPJ will keep on publicizing the attacks on them from any quarter, drawing attention to the increasingly unstable situation in which they find themselves.

Committee to Protect Journalists

Reporters Without Borders condemns today’s bombing of the home of Jamshed Baghwan, Express News TV’s bureau chief in Peshawar. It was the third attempt to target Baghwan and his family with an explosive device since March and the latest in an 11-month-old string of attacks on Express Media group personnel and installations, some of which have been claimed by the Taliban.

Left in a milk pack in front of the house by men on a motorcycle, today’s home-made bomb damaged the outside of the building but caused no injuries when it was set off by a timer at 11 am.

“We are outraged by this latest murder attempt targeting an Express News journalist and his family,” said Benjamin Ismaïl, the head of the Reporters Without Borders Asia-Pacific desk. “We urge the authorities to react quickly and to assign security personnel to protect their home.”

“My family members and I are all safe, thank God,” Baghwan told RWB. “More than one kilogram of explosives was used in the attack. Today’s blast was bigger than the previous ones.”

Asked who he thought was behind the bombs, Baghwan said: “The enemy is unknown. I am clueless as to why these elements are targeting my house. I see no reason to believe that these attacks are unrelated to my profession.”

Although no group has claimed the bomb attacks on Baghwan’s home, the police think the same people were behind them, and that the motive may have been to put pressure on him and other journalists.

Baghwan also expressed dismay at the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government’s failure to protect him. “No-one from the government side has contacted me since these bombs started going off outside my home. I’ve not been provided any security nor has the information minister expressed any solidarity with me.”

The attacks on Express News began in August 2013, when shots were fired at its headquarters in Karachi. It was the target of shots and bombs again in December. Three of its employees were shot dead in Karachi in January. And, on 28 March, shots were fired at a car carrying star programme host Raza Rumi, killing his driver and injuring his bodyguard.

Some of these attacks have been claimed by Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, which said it acted to combat the negative coverage it was getting from Express News and other media.

Pakistan is ranked 158th out of 180 countries in the 2014 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.

Reporters Without Borders

The Reporters Without Borders Asia Desk in-charge has said that a remedy must be found to counter the dangers faced by the staff of Jang and Geo.

“In our view, the prime minister and the government must take some solid steps to provide protection to journalists. We have already reacted to the notice issued by Pemra to Geo,” he said.

In an interview with this correspondent in Paris, he said, “In Pakistan there are laws and an authority to regulate the media and they should work in accordance with the prescribed rules, and the rules should be implemented in accordance with democratic principles. It is totally against principles if five members of Pemra recommend the closure of Jang and Geo. Moreover, it is never commendable to threaten the media on one pretext or the other. We are reviewing the situation in the wake of pressure on Geo and the Jang Group from different angles.”

He said: “It is more than one month but no progress seems to have been made in the assassination bid on senior anchorperson Hamid Mir. People should be kept on board in this connection. We are waiting for the report of the commission in this regard.”

He said that he was confident that the Supreme Court would provide justice to Jang and Geo. He said that they were much concerned with the situation.

The News

The order was rapidly disowned by PEMRA in a press release that said it was issued following a meeting yesterday of only five PEMRA members that did not comply with Rule 3(4) of PEMRA Rules 2009, under which at least seven of PEMRA’s 12 members must attend a meeting for it to be validly convened.

The release added that the decision that PEMRA took at an earlier, valid meeting on 9 May to “refer the [Geo Television] case to the Ministry of Law for legal opinion” was therefore still in effect.

The case was referred to PEMRA last month by defence minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif, who was seeking legal redress against Geo News for reporting allegations that Pakistan’s intelligence agencies were behind a shooting attack on Geo News anchor Hamid Mir in Karachi on 19 April.

“The hasty decision by three PEMRA members that was immediately disowned is indicative of a desire by certain government representatives to use any means, including illegal ones, to ban Geo News from broadcasting,” said Benjamin Ismaïl, the head of the head of the Reporters Without Borders Asia-Pacific desk.

“We urge PEMRA not to yield to pressure from the intelligence agencies and the defence ministry, and to ensure that the law protects freedom of information.”

Mir has been the target of repeated threats, intimidation and prosecution as a result of his coverage of the activities of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s leading intelligence agency, in the southwestern province of Baluchistan.

He shared his fears with Reporters Without Borders and his brother, Amir Mir, saying that if he was the target of any attack, “the ISI and its chief, Lt. Gen. Zaheerul Islam, should be held responsible.”

After Mir’s brother repeated Mir’s statements on Geo News in the wake of the 19 April attack, the TV station was accused of broadcasting unpatriotic accusations and was the target of smear campaign in the following weeks.

The climate for employees of the Jang/Geo media group has deteriorated dramatically, with journalists working for Geo News and the newspaper Jang receiving repeated threats, including death threats.

A note left at the Jang printing press on 5 May accused Jang and Geo News employees of being “anti-Pakistan, anti-Islam, anti-Army” and threatened Jang with “serious consequences” if it did not close its Peshawar offices. Employees were also told to “quit and leave the traitor group immediately.”

The Sunni Ittehad Council, an Islamic political party, announced on 15 May that it regarded Geo News as “haram” (forbidden) and called for its prohibition for broadcasting “blasphemous” content.

Pakistan is ranked 158th out of 180 countries in the 2014 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.

Reporters Without Borders

The world body said last year 71 journalists were killed, while another 826 were arrested.

More than 2,000 journalists were threatened or physically attacked last year.

Finland tops the World Press Freedom index for the fourth straight year, closely followed by Netherlands and Norway, like last year.

Pakistan is still deemed the “most dangerous country in the world” for working journalists.

On the freedom index the United States is number 46 on the list of 180 countries. Haiti is number 47. Cape Verde comes in at number 24 and Britain is 33. Russia is number 148, Cuba is 170 and China is ranked at number 175.

The World Press Freedom Index spotlights the negative impact of conflicts on freedom of information. Reporters Without Borders, the sponsors of the index, said some countries have been affected by a tendency to interpret national security needs in an “overly broad and abusive manner to the detriment of the right to inform and be informed.”

The group said the trend was a “growing threat worldwide” and endangering freedom of information in countries regarded as democracies.

In a joint message by Secretary-Genera Ban Ki-moon and Irina Bokova, Director-General of UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), said UN bodies are already working together and with other partners under Unesco’s leadership to create a free and safe environment for journalists and media workers around the world.

World Press Freedom Day, which was designated as May 3 in 1993 by the UN General Assembly, is being marked in about 100 countries.

DAWN

The press is caught in a vice between the Taliban which has stepped up its attacks and the security forces who continue in their old ways of harassing journalists. The country has scores of privately owned television and radio stations, putting it on the path of an information revolution comparable to that experienced by India about ten years ago. The media is increasingly belligerent in its coverage of political and socio-economic problems, despite the huge risks.

PAKISTAN PRESS FREEDOM BAROMETER 2013

3 Journalists killed
0 media assistants killed
0 journalists imprisoned
1 media assistants imprisoned
0 netizens imprisoned

The Taliban offensive and the political upheavals shaking the country have led to ever harsher repercussions for journalists. More journalists have been killed so far in Pakistan in 2009 than in any other country. There has been an upsurge in attacks on the media and press clubs in the tribal areas, but also in Balochistan and sometimes in the big cities.

Though the 1973 Constitution guarantees press freedom, the law still contains a number of articles allowing journalists to be sentenced to prison terms for offences including “defamation”, “immorality” and insulting Islam or the sovereignty of the country. Even though no journalist is currently in prison for this reason, it is not unusual for reporters to be “questioned” for several hours by the secret services.

President Asif Ali Zardari, who heads a government loyal to the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), has put an end to the policy of harassment and systematic censorship of General Pervez Musharraf. But when faced with political tension, the authorities always have the same reflex of resorting to censorship. They deemed it necessary in March 2009 to block television news channels Geo News and Aaj while they were covering demonstrations by lawyers.

Authorities in Islamabad have abolished some draconian edicts inherited from Pervez Musharraf, but they have not, for example, given its independence to the broadcast media regulatory authority.

Journalists have been forced into self-censorship in the Swat valley where the government agreed to the application of Sharia law demanded by the Taliban in exchange for a halt to the fighting there. They have fallen victim to the terror sown by the Taliban through their illegal FM radios. It was in this valley that journalist Mosa Khankhel was brutally murdered in 2009, while he was actually covering the peace agreement.

The very few journalists in the tribal areas are at the mercy of the Taliban who try to get them to report favourably on their “Jihad”, while the army and local authorities react badly to any news reports suggesting failings in the “war against terror”. Scores of journalists in the district of Bajaur, caught between a rock and a hard place, have fled the war. Those who remain are threatened. One journalist threatened with death through a fatwa pronounced on him said, “I cannot leave my home for fear of being kidnapped or killed. I am living cut off from the world.” Tracts have been circulating in the Waziristan tribal area threatening to kill those who work for foreign media.

The international press is kept away from these border areas infested with Jihadists and gangsters. Indian journalists are not always welcome in Pakistan, as evidenced by ill-treatment meted out by soldiers in plain clothes to a team from NewsX in Lahore in February 2009.

The Pakistan army, particularly the secret services secrets (ISI and Military Intelligence) threatens journalists who report on abuse of authority and on disappearances, particularly those of hundreds of Balochistanis that occurred under the Pervez Musharraf regime. It is difficult to investigate safely in Balochistan, Pakistani Kashmir and the tribal areas. Baloch journalist Javid Lehri was held and tortured by military police, while Baloch businessman Munir Mengal was secretly detained for nearly two years by military intelligence for trying to set up the satellite television channel Baloch Voice.

The situation is deteriorating in Balochistan where Islamist groups and sometimes the security forces target supporters of the Baloch cause like Jan Muhammad Dashti, editor of the daily Asaap, published in Quetta, who escaped a murder attempt at the start of 2009. His newspaper is denied all government advertising.

There has been total impunity in cases of murder of physical assault on journalists. No assailant has faced any police questioning for at least the past four years. The authorities have refused to release the results of an investigation carried out by a judge into the kidnapping and murder in the tribal areas of photographer Hayatullah Khan.

The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) regularly condemns the appalling salaries and conditions of journalists, which can undermine their independence.

As news websites grow in popularity and influence, the government makes use of a harsh law to punish “crimes” committed online, particularly the posting of content that is hostile to it. It blocks some opposition websites and in particular those involving the Baloch community.

Pakistan Press Foundation