KARACHI: The International Press Institute (IPI), in a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan, has expressed extreme concern over the continued detention of Mir Shakilur Rehman, editor-in-chief of the Jang Media Group.<\/p>\n

The IPI is an umbrella group of editors, media executives and journalists working for press freedom.<\/p>\n

In his letter to the prime minister, the IPI\u2019s deputy director Scott Griffen said Mr Rehman had spent over a month in prison following his arrest over allegations related to a land deal.<\/p>\n

Despite his deteriorating health, Mr Rehman was denied bail by the Lahore<\/p>\n

High Court on April 7, even though there were no charges filed against him, Mr Griffen wrote.<\/p>\n

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has informed the court that it is still investigating the allegations.<\/p>\n

The IPI said the handling of Mr Rehman\u2019s case by NAB was alarming as it had come at a time when independent media was under severe political and financial pressure.<\/p>\n

The government, it regretted, had stopped publishing advertisements in several independent media outlets, including the Jang group, starving them of much-needed revenue.<\/p>\n

The letter reminded the prime minister that when he came to power in 2018, there was a glimmer of hope that independent media would be able to flourish in the country. The information minister announced soon after that the government had given the state-run media complete editorial control over content.<\/p>\n

However, it added, recent developments demonstrated that press freedom continued to be under threat in Pakistan.<\/p>\n

The IPI\u2019s deputy director recalled that in December, protesters had laid siege to Dawn\u2019s Islamabad office, followed by similar protests outside its offices in Karachi and the city\u2019s press club.<\/p>\n

The IPI said it was worried that the \u201ccontinued media persecution\u201d was designed to convey a clear message \u2014 any criticism of the government and the ruling party would have dire consequences for the survival of an independent press in Pakistan.<\/p>\n

Mr Griffen urged Prime Minister Imran Khan to take immediate action for the release of Mr Rehman and to ensure that press freedom remains a cornerstone of Pakistan\u2019s democracy.<\/p>\n

Newspaper: Dawn<\/a><\/p>\n

Related link: The News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KARACHI: The International Press Institute (IPI), in a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan, has expressed extreme concern over the continued detention of Mir Shakilur Rehman, editor-in-chief of the Jang Media Group. The IPI is an umbrella group of editors, media executives and journalists working for press freedom. In his letter to the prime minister, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[4],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8855"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8855\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}