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

Speaking on the occasion, participants said journalists from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas have been performing their professional duties with unflinching resolve and under dangerous conditions. However, they have not been appreciated for their commitment and hard work. They urged the relevant authorities to ensure journalists from Fata are treated fairly.

According to the speakers, most journalists in Fata have worked consistently to highlight the problems faced by the people of the tribal areas on a national and an international level. They demanded the government put an end to the discriminatory attitude towards journalists of the tribal areas. Speakers asked the government to provide facilities to journalists who work in the war-torn belt and to address the challenges they encounter on a day-to-day basis.

One participant stated, “Countries with an independent media will strengthen democratic principles and ensure prosperity.” The event was attended by journalists, lawyers and members of various political parties.

Express Tribune

The Amnesty International report on attacks on journalists in Pakistan released last week offered a precise summing up of the national media’s tribulations. Recalling that at least 34 journalists had been killed during the post-Musharraf period and the culprits were at large except in one case, Amnesty concluded that “Pakistan’s media community is effectively under siege”.

The effect the killing of the journalists and the threats to many others had on the people’s right to be adequately informed of events and trends that affect them was thus described: “Journalists, in particular those covering national security issues or human rights, are targeted from all sides in a disturbing pattern of abuses carried out to silence their reporting. Covering almost any sensitive story leaves journalists at risk from one side or another — militants, intelligence agencies or political parties — putting them in an impossible position.”

The Amnesty report derived its title A bullet has been chosen for you, from a warning the head of one of the two Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists factions had received. It underlined one of the major causes of the journalists’ misfortune — a most regrettable split in their union that must be healed at the earliest.

A similar question was put to Pakistan by a US assistant secretary of state while releasing a press freedom report: “How can you be free when some of your best journalists are targeted and killed?” The US report put Pakistan at number 141 in a list of 197 countries, ahead of Afghanistan and Somalia but trailing the largest Saarc neighbours — India and Bangladesh.

At the same time, the International Federation of Journalists called upon the Pakistani government to end impunity for perpetrators of violence against journalists. EU missions in Islamabad also expressed concern over the “steadily deteriorating environment for the media in Pakistan”.

It is clear that attacks on the media are harming Pakistan as a whole. Lack of reliable information will create insurmountable problems for both the rulers and the ruled. The government, political parties and the security agencies must ensure an environment free from coercion and threats, not as a favour to journalists but to save themselves from the terrible consequences of ignorance.

Concern over security matters was not the only issue in reports about the media last week. During the ongoing confrontation between the security agencies and a section of the media, journalists were being targeted by some politicians, public figures, clerics, militants and ordinary citizens. While some of this criticism is apparently inspired by ulterior motives, media leaders would do themselves and the people wrong if they failed to analyse citizens’ complaints against them. They must ponder over the attacks on their right to freedom of expression.

The questions being asked now usually arise when people feel that the media is using its freedom to report half the truth and not the whole of it. Are the people unhappy about the degree of power to control their minds the monopoly houses enjoy or are trying to secure?

The people also get angry when they believe, rightly or wrongly, that the media is using its freedom and privileges to further its own interests and not paying due attention to the plight of ordinary citizens. The media is perhaps in need of redefining the parameters of its freedoms and responsibilities and removing any cause of the citizens’ alienation. The media needs public support and respect not only to win the battles its calling will always force it into but also to remain true to its ideals.

And finally, the pats on the back the media has received. While speaking on the occasion of Martyrs’ Day, army chief Gen Raheel Sharif lauded the media’s role in moulding public opinion on national security and added that the military “believes in freedom of the media, responsible journalism and appreciates its sacrifices”. The same day Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was quoted as saying that the government, politicians, the military and media would together solve the problems facing the country.

The only difference is that while the army chief was making a policy statement and drawing a line between responsible journalists and irresponsible ones (who have provoked the military), the prime minister was responding to questions the media persons under attack are asking almost every passer-by.

Whatever the prime minister may or may not have meant, journalists should be wary of playing the role of collaborators that political leaders now and then offer them. While they may continue to offer their advice to whoever can profit by it, their real function is to mediate between authority (of any hue or shade) and the people. They would compromise their independence if they moved too close to authority.

Indeed, some of their present trials appear to have been caused by quite a few journalists’ attempts to cuddle up to the establishment. The media persons should offer all institutions the regard due to them but their only honourable station is by the side of the people, especially those who have no voice of their own or are unable to articulate their aspirations. A genuine media thrives not by seeking favours from the government but by spurning them.

DAWN

Leaders called upon the government to arrest those responsible for the murder of 30 journalists in different areas of the province.

They said journalists would not compromise on the freedom of press and expression and vowed to continue the struggle for the rights their community.

They said it was the responsibility of the government to provide protection to the media personnel.

DAWN

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

Shan Dahar, reporter of “Abb Takk” TV channel was shot on the night of December 31 in Badh, in Larkana district of Sindh province of Pakistan.  He was shot in his back and was taken to the hospital where he remained unattended until he succumbed to his injuries in the early hours of January 1.  He is survived by two minor daughters.

In a statement, PPF Secretary General Owais Aslam Ali said despite compelling evidence pointing the cause of his killing being his reporting on use of fake medicines in local hospitals, police report declared his death as accidental.

The PPF statement said the flawed police report could sabotage any hope for proper investigation and  prosecution for the assailants and called on the government to formally order credible reinvestigation of the attack.

Dahar’s family feels frustrated that despite verbal promises, police reinvestigation has not yet started.

The statement also called for public release of the reports of the medical committees to investigate criminal negligence of hospital where Dahar lay unattended despite frantic pleas by his sisters for hospital doctors to go to the hospital to treat his life threatening wounds.

The PPF Press Freedom Award carries a cash award of Rs. 100,000 (US dollars 1,000).

PPF