{"id":8253,"date":"2019-12-17T16:34:42","date_gmt":"2019-12-17T11:34:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pakistanpressfoundation.org\/?p=97340"},"modified":"2019-12-17T16:34:42","modified_gmt":"2019-12-17T11:34:42","slug":"rights-bodies-ask-govt-for-concrete-action-against-attacks-on-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/rights-bodies-ask-govt-for-concrete-action-against-attacks-on-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Rights bodies ask govt for concrete action against attacks on media"},"content":{"rendered":" $\"Rights$

KARACHI: In a joint appeal, members of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and other rights organisations have called upon the government to take concrete action against threats, intimidation and harassment against journalists and to unequivocally condemn attacks on the independent media in Pakistan.<\/p>\n

In the letter addressed to President Arif Alvi, Prime Minister Imran Khan and Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari, the rights organisations expressed concern over recent attacks on the independent media in Pakistan.<\/p>\n

On Dec 3, the letter read, a mob of about 50 unidentified people gathered outside the Islamabad office of Dawn, blocking access to the premises for nearly three hours and shouting slogans against the newspaper. The protesters, it added, accused the newspaper of damaging the \u2018national interest\u2019 \u2014 ostensibly because Dawn had published a report identifying the man responsible for fatally stabbing two people in London on Nov 29, as belonging to Pakistani ethnicity.<\/p>\n

The letter drew attention to a larger demonstration held outside the Karachi Press Club on Dec 4 \u2014 by a group called the \u2018Tehreek-i-Tahafuz Pakistan\u2019 [Movement to Safeguard Pakistan] \u2014 which repeated demands for the publisher and the editor of Dawn to be hanged and for the newspaper to be shut down.<\/p>\n

It added that on Dec 6, a third protest was held in Islamabad outside the newspaper\u2019s bureau office, with about 100 protesters burning copies of Dawn.<\/p>\n

Members of the FIDH said that no other newspaper had been consistently targeted in this manner. They expressed concern about security of Dawn editor, as well as that of other Dawn employees and the journalist community in general.<\/p>\n

On Dec 4, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan received information that the Defence Housing Authority had blocked the distribution of Dawn\u2019s copies in Lahore.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese developments are cause for serious concern. The pressure on the media in Pakistan \u2014 and especially on Dawn \u2014 is rapidly taking a dangerous turn. We are concerned that the government has tacitly enabled the intimidation and harassment of the media in cases where news reports were deemed \u2018against the national interest\u2019,\u201d the letter said.<\/p>\n

The rights organisations urged the Pakistani authorities to uphold their constitutional obligations to protect the life and liberty of journalists. \u201cWe call on the Pakistani authorities to fulfil their commitment to protecting the independence of the media, and to safeguard the right to freedom of opinion and expression by ensuring that persons or groups responsible for inciting violence against journalists for carrying out their duty are held accountable under the law,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

Dawn<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"