BRUSSELS: Leading European newspapers, media organisations\nand broadcasters including the Voice of Germany have raised major questions in\ntheir articles about the 50-day-long illegal incarceration of Mir\nShakil-ur-Rahman, Editor-in-Chief of Jang-Geo Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In their write-ups, they have raised serious questions about\ngovernment interference, the method of interrogation and the arrest of an\naccused without investigation and despite his co-operation with the NAB\nauthorities, terming it a gross violation of human rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, the European journalists, and those associated\nwith the arts and culture have strongly protested against the unjustified\nillegal arrest of Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman and demanded his immediate release.\nExpressing solidarity with Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, the founding president of the\nBrussels Press Club, Maria Laura Franciosi termed it absolutely condemnable act\nto arrest a newspaper editor to pressurise the editorial policies. The Radio\nDeutschland’s culture journalist Antje Stiebitz also strongly criticised the\nlong unlawful detention of the Editor-in-chief to force him to toe the\ngovernment line. Dr Ewout Klei, Editor \u201cDekanttekaning\u201c the Netherlands,\ndescribed in his detailed article how the Geo TV and the Jang Group of\nnewspapers are facing enormous pressures since a long time and the arrest of his\neditor is continuation of the same policy to silence any independent, critical\njournalistic voice in Pakistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marjan Lucas, a peace and human rights activist from the\nNetherlands, said Geo TV is a great independent voice of the country. Afghan\njournalist from Brussels, Lialuma Sadid and G. Goris, editor of the Belgian\nmagazine MO, called for immediate release of the Jang-Geo Group’s Editor\nin-Chief. also demanded release of Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman. The Brussels-based\nPalestinian journalist and filmmaker Dr Ahamed Frassini said he is aware of\nthese tactics because he himself faced all that in the Israeli prisons. The\nPakistani-Norwegian filmmaker Asim Rafiqi urged authorities to free\nEditor-in-Chief Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman without delay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier, the Foreign Office of the European Union had raised\nthe issue of arrest with Islamabad. It had also expressed concern that Mir\nShakil-ur-Rahman might fall victim to coronavirus due to carelessness and\ninattention as the virus is spreading in Pakistan and across the world,\nespecially in situations where more than 50 per cent of the victims are people\nover the age of 65.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

BRUSSELS: Leading European newspapers, media organisations and broadcasters including the Voice of Germany have raised major questions in their articles about the 50-day-long illegal incarceration of Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, Editor-in-Chief of Jang-Geo Group. In their write-ups, they have raised serious questions about government interference, the method of interrogation and the arrest of an accused without investigation […]<\/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\/8973"}],"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=8973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8973\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}