CHAPTER 1
There has been a major deterioration in the state of the print media in general and the working conditions for journalists in particular in Pakistan this past year. Murders, kidnappings, arrests, imprisonments, tortures, attacks, imposed news blackouts – Pakistani journalists have seen it all this year. In a rollercoaster year that has seen their freedoms shrinking, they have been charged with some of the most serious crimes anyone can be tried in Pakistan – such as blasphemy, which carries the death penalty, and sedition, which punishes with life imprisonment.
For the Pakistani print media, the culprits have been varied – Islamists, sectarian parties, robbers, elected public representatives – but the authorities have emerged as the wrongdoer-in-chief by far, representing a worsening of the environment in which journalists can practice their profession, as enshrined in and guaranteed by the constitutional, to their natural potentials, in safety and without fear or favour.
Contrastingly, the electronic media in the country, in the same period, has seen a drastic improvement with the policy of liberalisation of the airwaves set in motion by the military government of President General Pervez Musharraf in 2002 and carried forward by the elected government of Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali, bringing in more and more private players in both the radio and television sectors.
About 60 private FM radio licenses had been issued by early 2004 and about a dozen private Pakistani TV channels had been accorded permission to go on air while literally hundreds of foreign channels promised in Direct-to-Home (DTH) bouquets by both the state and private sectors – massively increasing the number of alternative sources of independent information for Pakistanis who until recently had just the propagandist state-owned television and radio to rely on.
While the recent developments on the electronic media front are a cause, in large measure, for celebration, those in the print sector are grounds for antagonism and call for demonstration from all sectors of society in general and the government in particular the commitment to upholding complete journalistic freedoms so that the print media can play to its maximum potential as the guardian of public interest and act as an agent of accountability, and therefore, good governance.
MURDER : In the period between 3 May 2003 and 3 May 2004 – the third of May being the International Press Freedom Day – two journalists were murdered in Pakistan . The first was Amir Bux Brohi, 30, correspondent for Sindhi daily Kawish and Kawish Television News (KTN) channel, known for his reports on rights violations by police and powerful local figures in Sindh province. He was shot dead on 3 October 2003 in Shikarpur by three gunmen. Brohi was stopped as he returned from the local police headquarters and shot at close range. The second was Sajid Tanoli, 34, a reporter for daily Shumaal (North), who on 29 January 2004 was killed by Khalid Javed, the nazim (mayor) of Mansehra in the North West Frontier Province . Javed shot Tanoli five times in broad daylight on one of the town's streets and fled. Tanoli was killed after he wrote an article about an allegedly illegal liquor business (banned in the province) run by Javed. In neither case have the culprits been arrested, tried or punished.
BLASPHEMY: On 8 July 2003, a court in Peshawar in North West Frontier Province convicted a sub-editor of English daily The Frontier Post, Munawar Mohsin, in a blasphemy case and sentenced him to life imprisonment with a fine of Rs 50,000 ($900). Mohsin was held responsible for publication of a blasphemous letter in the Post on 29 January 2001, which triggered violent protests. Blasphemy is punishable by death under Pakistani law but the maximum sentence has never been applied.
ARRESTED: On 26 August 2003, the police arrested six journalists under terrorism laws during a visit of President General Pervez Musharraf to Hyderabad city of Sindh province. They were charged with disturbing the peace and committing violent acts. The journalists were covering a demonstration staged by a local women's group to coincide with the arrival of Musharraf at Mehran University in Jamshoro, where he addressed a meeting of vice-chancellors. The journalists – Nadeem Panwar, Hakim Chandio, Sharif Abro, Irfan Burfat, Shahid Khushk and Haji Khan Sial – were freed a few days later after journalists covering Sindh provincial legislature proceedings staged a walkout to protest the arrests and provincial ministers issued directives to release them.
KIDNAPPED: On 4 March 2004, Shahbaz Pathan, a correspondent for daily Halchal, in Sukkur in Sindh province, was kidnapped by armed bandits as he played badminton with friends. He was taken, along with one of his friends, to the nearby Shah Belo forests, which is reportedly infested with bandits. Shahbaz and his brother Asad, who is the general secretary of the Sukkur Press Club, had produced a documentary on the activities of the bandits.
INTIMIDATION BY RELIGIOUS GROUPS: On 18 September 2003, two journalists from Pakistan 's tribal areas bordering Afghanistan – Nasrullah Afridi, correspondent for daily Mashriq, and Aurangzaib Afridi, correspondent for daily Subah – were detained and roughed up by Tanzeem Ittehad-e-Ulema, a fundamentalist organisation outlawed by the government, for reporting about their activities. They were freed after pressure from influential persons and have continued receiving threats. They have been warned “to fear for your lives if you don't give up the idea of free press in the tribal areas.” On 29 February 2004, hundreds of protestors from religious groups demonstrating against private TV channel Geo for airing an allegedly controversial episode of a popular religious programme attacked the Karachi Press Club, seriously wounding a guard and causing serious damage to the premise and property. Dozens of protesters scaled the press club's walls, broke windows, beat up guard Mohammed Rafiq and ransacked the premises. Several journalists took cover in a room on the first floor. The protestors then tried to reach the premises of nearby Jang Group, the parent company of Geo TV, but were stooped by the police.
INTIMIDATION BY THE AUTHORITIES: On 25 February 2004, Arif Nizami, editor of the daily The Nation and executive editor of daily Nawa-i-Waqt announced the government has banned the placement of government advertisement in newspapers belonging to the Nawa-i-Waqt group of publications, one of Pakistan's largest media organisations. Nizami claimed the ban was a result of his group of publication's opposition to government policies and said “negates the government claims that the Pakistan media is freed.”
ATTACK: On 24 February 2004, a bomb exploded outside the offices of Jang, the flagship publication of the country's largest media group, in Quetta in Balochistan province, blowing out windows in neighbouring buildings. No one was injured in the blast at the Urdu-language daily. An unknown group calling itself Balochistan Liberation Army claimed responsibility but gave no reason for the attack.
NEWS BLACKOUT: On 10 July 2003, the authorities in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, imposed curbs on the media as part of its series of measures to deal with ethnic and sectarian tensions caused by a recent bomb explosion that killed dozens of people at a Shia mosque. An official notification banned newspapers from publishing news, articles, statements, photographs, editorials and cartoons that could “fan ethnic and sectarian tensions.” It asked editors, printers and publishers to submit all such material to the public relations director for scrutiny before publication.
SEDITION: On 15 August 2003, the police arrested Rasheed Azeem, correspondent for daily Intikhab, joint editor of Roshnai, a quarterly journal focusing on human rights, and president of Jhalawan Union of Journalists, in Balochistan province, for allegedly committing sedition. According to Javed Gharshin, a police official at the Crime Branch, Quetta, the arrest came on the orders of an intelligence agency after Azeem, affiliated with Balochistan National Party (Mengal faction), distributed in Khuzdar city a poster “depicting the army beating up Baloch natives.” Azeem remains in custody after being denied bail by the local court.
By far the most high-profile case of violation of media freedoms in Pakistan in the past year was that of Pakistani journalist Khawar Mehdi Rizvi, who was charged, among other things, with sedition, which carries a maximum punishment of life imprisonment, for abetting foreign journalists in preparing an allegedly fake film “showing Pakistan in a bad light,” as the authorities put it. On 16 December 2003, Rizvi was arrested along with two French journalists, Marc Epstein and Jean-Paul Guilloteau, of the newsweekly L'Express, from Karachi. Rizvi was acting as a fixer for the French journalists. They had just returned from Quetta, the capital of the Balochistan province, which borders southeast Afghanistan, the stronghold of the Taliban. The authorities seized all filmed material from the journalists.
While the authorities initially denied they were holding Rizvi, they said the French journalists were in custody for visa violations – they had not been issued visas for Quetta, but for Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi only – and accused the duo of faking a report about armed Taliban activities along the Pakistani border with Afghanistan.
On 12 January 2003, Epstein and Guilloteau were freed after pleading guilty of visa violations and paying Rs 200,000 ($3,500) in fines announced by a court in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province. They were initially handed six-month prison sentenced which were converted into fines on an appeal. The authorities still denied knowledge of the whereabouts of Rizvi, the Pakistani journalist assistant of the French journalists.
On 24 January 2004, the authorities finally conceded they were holding Khawar Mehdi Rizvi and formally charged him with sedition, conspiracy, and impersonation in an anti-terrorism court in Quetta. The maximum penalty for the charges is life imprisonment. Rizvi is charged with violating the sedition law under Pakistan's Penal Code, Section 124-A, which is defined as using speech that “brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards, the Central or Provincial Government established by law.” The authorities said Rizvi aided the two French journalists in preparing an allegedly fake film about militant activity Pakistan, which had put the country in a bad light.
After a concerted worldwide campaign by Pakistani and foreign journalists – over 3,000 journalists and media workers signed a worldwide petition drawn up by a committee campaigning for his release ( www.freekhawar.org ) – Rizvi was finally granted bail on a surety bond of Rs 200,000 ($3,500) by Judge Hashim Kakar of the anti-terrorism court, who also ordered his release. Rizvi was freed on 29 January 2004. He has been allowed to live in his hometown Islamabad but will have to appear in person at each court hearing in Quetta, over 1,000 km away.
The whole Rizvi case raises troubling questions about the very nature of the work of media persons in Pakistan, putting in doubt the extent of who they can work with, what kind of work they can do, discriminatory trial treatment, pre-judgment as well as aspersions on both their professional work and personal life even before a court of law has had a chance to try an accused.
For instance, even though arrested together in the same case, the French journalists were tried only for violating visa rules and not for making the allegedly fake film about Taliban militant activities, for which Rizvi is being tried. So while the makers and sponsors of the allegedly fake film are let off with relatively small fines, the “abettor” – Rizvi – is slapped with a far graver charge of sedition, which can potentially land him in jail for life if found guilty.
The authorities initially denied even knowing about the whereabouts of Rizvi even though state-run Pakistan Television (PTV) had shown the Pakistani journalist with officials in security uniform. After over 100 days in custody, the authorities admitted they were holding him, charging him and presenting him in an anti-terrorism court. Under Pakistani law, the authorities must present before a magistrate within 48 hours anyone they have arrested to seek permission to interrogate. In the over 100 days of detention, Rizvi was neither produced before a magistrate nor allowed access to his family or a lawyer in violation of fundamental law of the land.
While he had no recourse to defend himself, Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf personally cast doubt on the professional qualities of Rizvi on 29 December 2004, much before the authorities even conceded they were holding him. Musharraf told representatives of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society: “This freelance journalist has done terrible harm to the national interest in making this fake film on the Taliban and for only 2,000 dollars. If he had come to me I would have been able to give him 3,000 dollars not to make this film.” The authorities even questioned Rizvi's credentials as a journalist even though he has worked for The News, one of Pakistan's largest newspapers, TF1, France 2, Le Monde, Libération and Arte.
Rizvi appeared in court with two other men, Allah Noor and Abdullah Shakir, accused of filming what police said was a fictitious Taliban camp, conducting an interview with a man who they claimed was a middle-ranking Taliban commander. Rizvi and the French journalists say the interview is genuine; the authorities say it is a fabrication. They allege that Rizvi intentionally hired Noor and Shakir to impersonate members of the Taliban in video footage made by the French journalists. This footage of Noor and Shakir has been shown on state television, PTV.
After being freed on bail, Rizvi said he had not broken the law and had “simply done my job as a journalist.” He thanked everyone who had campaigned for his release, especially fellow journalists in Pakistan and all over the world. “I now know the true value of press freedom and will continue my work as a journalist with renewed vigor,” he added.
GOOD NEWS : As far as justice for the media in a case of attack against it goes, the only good news came on 8 January 2004 when a sentence of life imprisonment was awarded by a local court in Karachi in Sindh province to Aziz Qureshi, the accused in the bombing of the advertising office of daily Nawa-i-Waqt in Karachi three years earlier. Four people, including a woman who was reportedly carrying the bomb, died in the blast in the Nawa-i-Waqt office on 6 November 2000. Qureshi was arrested on 2 March 2002 and pleaded guilty.
CHAPTER 2
Clear Signals for Pakistan's Broadcast Media
The impact of media in Pakistan on public policies historically has been dismal since the country is largely uneducated and the people's access to independent media has remained highly restricted. Independent sources of information in Pakistan have traditionally been severely restricted, thereby stunting the development of a society rooted in modernity and preventing the public making informed choices to improve their lives.
Education or lack thereof is the key in Pakistan's dismal socio-economic ratings. A low capita income has meant that the country's literacy levels remain low and crucial sectors impacting development of a society, including media, have remained mired in backwardness. The media in Pakistan, particularly electronic media (radio and television) has been slow to improve or expand because there has been little or no incentive in reforms and the alternative sources of information not developed.
However, things are changing dramatically. Even though 2003 was a slow year in the extremely short history of Pakistan's free but fledgling broadcast sector (privatized under the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority Ordinance just in 2002), its broad promise not unfolding as fast as was expected. However, the promise still holds and for 2004 the prognosis for broadcast development is very good.
The trend shows overall slow growth in the sector but there is a discernable pick-up in its pace. No stops, but yes, some protracted waits. But this phenomenon is not unique to Pakistan. Obstacles to deregulation in Year One anywhere are common. Stress between newly empowered or disempowered government departments – such as the processes of licensing of radios and allocation of frequencies being handled by separate departments in Pakistan – is more common than perceived.
With the progress visible on the ground, it is reasonable to expect a considerable increase in the number of radio stations and even terrestrial television stations in 2004 and 2005. Around the 3 May 2004 mark – third May is International Press Freedom Day – about 60 private FM radio licenses had been issued in Pakistan – of which only a dozen were on air – all of which are expected to be up and running by the dawn of 2005 even as the number of licenses were expected to cross the magical 100 figure.
The broadcast scene watchers also expect the first of over a dozen private Pakistani TV channels to be given terrestrial licenses by 2005 – the first in the country to get them – marking a major step forward in the way a largely illiterate population will get independent information from and transforms itself into an informed society, thereby improving lives.
This well placed optimism is tempered, however, by a concern pointed out by none other than the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority. In its latest annual report, it warns that if spectrum allocations are not generous and faster paced, the broadcast sector growth will be stunted. It urges a greater share of a limited spectrum bandwidth for media, currently controlled by security agencies.
This is really the crux of the problem and needs urgent attention of the authorities if the broadcast sector is to deliver on its promise. Experts recommend concerted efforts by the stakeholders to work on media law policy development and implementation to help overcome this and other challenges.
There are other reasons for slow growth of the sector. One is competition. It appears that in the short time since the deregulation of the airwaves began in Pakistan, the state operators have scrambled to harness audience, market and financial shares in the sector. The state radio, for instance, has assembled an entirely new market research team to find and determine real figures for radio program development. It has also increased the amount of advertising it is able to sell on the air and is expanding its reach of its hip FM station 101 listening posts across the country. This in many cases has seen establishment of new transmitters or additional FM relays at existing transmitter locations.
What does this mean? It appears the authorities have sought to advance the state media agenda inside a limited window before substantive commercial and community based broadcasters enter the competitive sector. After all this is the first time that state controlled media will compete for listeners. They are being given a small opportunity to advance and accommodate that before they lose most of their audience share.
Despite the slow pace, t here are two strong direct indicators that show a continuing commitment to expand the broadcast sector: (1) A statement (and therefore a reiteration of support for the policy of liberalizing the airwaves) by Federal Information Minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmed in late 2003 that there will be 100 private radio stations and 10 private TV stations on air in Pakistan by the end of the fiscal year 2003-04. Fiscal year in Pakistan ends on June 31. (2) The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority has conducted a detailed study, published in its latest annual report, to determine the minimum number of private radio stations that can be feasible in Pakistan. One finding: The number of radio stations justified in Pakistan on the basis of per capita income, population and human development index [in comparison with Brazil, Indonesia, Turkey and UK] is 834.
These are positive indicators and what makes 2004 and 2005 an exciting time is the assured development of the broadcast media in Pakistan for the first time. While the print media in the private sector is well established, a new era is shaping up in the broadcast media (radio and television) sector of the country that promises to bring great dividends for both the state and the people provided the conditions are right.
The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority is a relatively new entity with the ambitious responsibility of ensuring that the broadcast sector thrives in an enabling environment for all stakeholders – the private and public broadcasters and the consumers. It has already taken its first firm steps towards this overarching goal by issuing licenses for private radios in two phases and is getting ready to issue more in the third phase while terrestrial television licenses are likely to follow close behind.
Like elsewhere in the world, the more radio and television stations in the private sector there are in Pakistan, the greater will be the independent and reliable sources of information, education and entertainment. Plurality and diversity of a country's media is the surest sign of an informed citizenry and a tolerant and empowered society. Hence Pakistan's recent decision to open up the broadcast media sector for private ownership and thereby enlarge the realm of freedom and independence of media is a major cause for celebration by all citizens.
However, with freedom comes responsibility. The level of freedom and independence of the media in any country depends on three main factors: 1) Fair regulation, 2) Presence of able managers and ability to be economically viable, and 3) The degree to which professionalism and responsibility are exercised. These are fairly serious challenges to willingly meet for Pakistan's private broadcast media since this is a new territory for them. Radio and television broadcasting have special technical constraints.
The potential number of radio and television channels in any country is limited by the size of the frequency spectrum. Someone must therefore decide who may broadcast over which frequency. The result is necessarily a degree of regulation. Hence the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority. Although regulation of broadcasting is required, such control should be as limited as possible if it is to support free communication. Broadcasting works best when it promotes, rather than inhibits, the independence of public and private broadcasters.
Again, for broadcasters in Pakistan, the problems of independence are much greater than for the print media, and the political impact of broadcasting is likely to be even more important. There will be degrees of freedom in producing and broadcasting programs over which the regulator and the broadcaster are going to differ and therefore the laws and accompanying rules and procedures will need to be consensual and enabling.
Legal challenges arising from content and compliance issues will come back to haunt both sides again and again if an enabling environment is not created and a variety of voices and opinions not encouraged. Award of licenses to FM radio licenses is a step forward and it is hoped that all those awarded a license will also be allocated frequencies at the earliest to get the broadcast sector going and realising its immense potential.
CHAPTER 3
Chronology of Violations
27 May 2003
Police prevented journalists from covering a protest by opposition legislators near the Punjab provincial legislature in Lahore. The next day the journalists boycotted proceedings of the Punjab Assembly, which was called off after ministers Chaudhry Iqbal and Raja Basharat expressed regret over the incident and promised action against the police officers responsible.
30 June 2003
A large police posse raided the office of Urdu language monthly journal Shahrag-e-Pakistan in Lahore, detaining editor-in-chief Khalid Mehmood Shah in the magazine office for two days. According to Shah, about 70 policemen attacked his office, searching for his brother, the spokesman for opposition political leader Shahbaz Sharif. He says the leaders of the raid roughed him up for the magazine's alleged critical stance against the government.
8 July 2003
An additional district and sessions court of Peshawar in North West Frontier Province convicted a sub-editor of English daily The Frontier Post, Munawar Mohsin, in a blasphemy case and sentenced him to life imprisonment with a fine of Rs 50,000 (US$900). Judge Sardar Irshad held Mohsin responsible for publication of a blasphemous letter in the Post on 29 January 2001, which triggered violent protests. Blasphemy is punishable by death under Pakistani law but the maximum sentence has never been applied.
10 July 2003
The government of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, imposed curbs on the media as part of its series of measures to deal with ethnic and sectarian tensions caused by a recent bomb explosion that killed dozens of people at a Shia mosque. An official notification banned newspapers from publishing news, articles, statements, photographs, editorials and cartoons that could “fan ethnic and sectarian tensions.” It asked editors, printers and publishers to submit all such material to the public relations director for scrutiny before publication.
23 July 2003
The government banned distribution of the international magazine Newsweek, saying it contained material “against Islam and the holy Quran.” A notification issued to this effect, and mentioned in the press, directed customs authorities to seize all copies of the magazine's 28 July 2003 edition. Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told BBC in an interview the action had been taken because “the article could create anxiety among Pakistanis, hurt their sentiments and infuriate them.” He said the action was approved by Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali.
15 August 2003
Police arrested Rasheed Azeem, correspondent for daily Intikhab, joint editor of Roshnai, a quarterly journal focusing on human rights, and president of Jhalawan Union of Journalists, in Balochistan province, for allegedly committing sedition. According to Javed Gharshin, a police official at the Crime Branch, Quetta, the arrest came on the orders of an intelligence agency after Azeem, affiliated with Balochistan National Party (Mengal faction), distributed in Khuzdar city a poster “depicting the army beating up Baloch natives.” Azeem remains in custody after being denied bail by the local court.
17 August 2003
The Pakistan government protested with the United States for the investigation of Nayyar Zaidi, a Washington correspondent for Urdu daily Jang, the flagship
publication of Pakistan's largest media group, by the US Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI). A letter signed by Deputy Chief of Mission at Pakistan Embassy in Washington Mohammed Sadiq and sent to the State Department said Zaidi is a “very senior and respected journalist who has represented his
newspaper in Washington for more than two decades” and that “the State
Department is well aware of his credentials.” According to Zaidi, three FBI agents – Chris McKinney, Heather Grow and Michelle Crest – visited his home in Prince
County, Virginia, on 20 February 2003 while he was away. They tried to
interrogate his 15-year-old son, Zain Zaidi, who telephoned him, but when he
arrived home the agents had left. They left a telephone number for Zaidi to
contact them. When Zaidi called the number, agent McKinney asked him to come to the FBI's Washington field office, where the agent asked him several questions about his personal, social and religious activities. The agent had asked him to bring his telephone notebook because he claimed that Zaidi's home telephone was used to make calls to 10 telephone numbers in Pakistan, India, China, the Netherlands and Thailand. The numbers “brush off” against those already under investigation for links to the events of 9/11, McKinney said. When Zaidi met the three agents at the field office, they released two numbers in Pakistan and China. Zaidi says the number in Pakistan is very similar to one of his newspaper's fax numbers, to which he sends news stories. The Pakistani number was officially investigated by the embassy and turned out to be a disconnected
number for a bankrupt textile company. One of the agents, Grow, refused to disclose all 10 numbers to Zaidi, saying she felt very uncomfortable doing so. Zaidi offered to cooperate with the FBI, but refused to give them his
telephone notebook and records unless the agents had legal grounds for
making the demand. Zaidi says that after the initial investigation, the FBI did not contact him for several months. However, on 8 August, two different FBI agents visited his home while he was away and left a message for Zaidi to call them. He called them on 11 August and left three messages, but the FBI never called back.
21 August 2003
Mahmudul Haq, the municipal administrator of Sheikhupura town in Punjab province, filed police cases against nine local journalists, including local press club president, Rana Sarwar, and secretary-general, Azeem Yazdani, claiming they had “interfered in official affairs.” Haq was reacting to articles published alleging that he and his city council staff members were involved in corrupt activities, including allegedly illegal charging for parking from the public at a local park.
26 August 2003
The police arrested six journalists under terrorism laws during a visit of President General Pervez Musharraf to Hyderabad city of Sindh province. They were charged with disturbing the peace and committing violent acts. The journalists were covering a demonstration staged by the women's wing of Sindh Chandia Welfare Association to coincide with the arrival of Musharraf at Mehran University in Jamshoro, where he addressed a meeting of vice-chancellors. The journalists – Nadeem Panwar, Hakim Chandio, Sharif Abro, Irfan Burfat, Shahid Khushk and Haji Khan Sial – were freed a few days later after journalists covering Sindh provincial legislature proceedings staged a walkout to protest the arrests and provincial ministers issued directives to release them.
10 September 2003
Acting allegedly on the orders of the speaker of the North West Frontier Province legislature, the entire staff of the Assembly Secretariat attacked journalists covering the assembly proceedings after the latter were denied a meeting with the speaker and protested. Wielding iron bars and sticks, they damaged the motorcycles of the journalists. Police personnel stood by and did not intervene. The staff also assaulted a journalist in the speaker's chamber in the presence of Law Minister Zafar Alam despite his protestations. The journalists then boycotted the assembly proceedings.
18 September 2003
Two journalists from Pakistan's tribal areas bordering Afghanistan – Nasrullah Afridi, correspondent for daily Mashriq, and Aurangzaib Afridi, correspondent for daily Subah – were detained and roughed up by Tanzeem Ittehad-e-Ulema, a fundamental organisation outlawed by the government, for reporting about their activities. They were freed after pressure from influential persons and have continued receiving threats. They have been warned “to fear for your lives if you don't give up the idea of free press in the tribal areas.” Nasrullah is the president and Aurangzaib the vice president of the Tribal Union of Journalists.
26 September 2003
The authorities refused to accept a plea by Reporters Sans Frontieres for transfer to hospital of Rehmat Shah Afridi, former editor of daily papers The Frontier Post and Maidan, who is in jail awaiting execution for alleged possession and trafficking of drugs. Because of denial of proper medical attention, Afridi's has developed a serious heart condition and lost a great deal of weight. Afridi, who is appealing the sentence, was arrested on 2 April 1999, and on 27 June 2001 sentenced to be hanged. He says he was convicted as an act of revenge by the Anti-Narcotics Force. The two papers had frequently exposed corruption, drug trafficking and illegal arms sale.
3 October 2003
Amir Bux Brohi, 30, correspondent for Sindhi daily Kawish and Kawish Television News (KTN) channel, known for his reports on rights violations by police and powerful local figures in Sindh province, was shot dead in Shikarpur by three gunmen. Brohi was stopped as he returned from the local police headquarters and shot at close range. Eyewitnesses said Brohi quarrelled with the assailants before they pumped five bullets in his chest. The identity and the motive of the killers have not been traced or ascertained.
22 November 2003
Three unidentified assailants set fire to the car of Amir Mir, the senior assistant editor for monthly current affairs magazine Herald. The car was parked outside his house in Lahore in Punjab province. Mir claims he received a call the next day from a security agency warning him “this was only the beginning.” Mir had only recently resigned as editor of Independent, a Lahore-based weekly, under pressure from local government officials who accused the magazine of carrying articles “against the national interest.”
16 December 2003
Khawar Mehdi Rizvi, a Pakistani journalist, was arrested along with two French journalists, Marc Epstein and Jean-Paul Guilloteau, of the newsweekly L'Express, from Karachi. While the authorities denied they were holding Rizvi, they said the French journalists were in custody for visa violations and accused them of making a fake film showing allegedly fabricated militant activity on Pakistani territory by the Taliban group.
12 January 2003
French journalists, Marc Epstein and Jean-Paul Guilloteau, of the newsweekly L'Express, were freed after pleading guilty of visa violations and paying fines announced by a court in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province. They were initially also handed six-month prison sentence which were waived. The authorities still denied knowledge of the whereabouts of Pakistani journalist Khawar Mehdi Rizvi.
24 January 2004
Pakistani authorities finally conceded they were holding Khawar Mehdi Rizvi and formally charged him with sedition, conspiracy, and impersonation. The maximum penalty for the charges is life imprisonment. The authorities said Mehdi aided French journalists, Marc Epstein and Jean-Paul Guilloteau, of the newsweekly L'Express, in preparing a n allegedly fake film about militant activity Pakistan, which had put the country in a bad light.
29 January 2004
Sajid Tanoli, 34, a reporter for daily Shumaal (North), was killed by Khalid Javed, the mayor (nazim) of Mansehra in the North West Frontier Province. Javed shot Tanoli five times in broad daylight on one of the town's streets and fled. Tanoli was killed after he wrote an article on 26 January about an allegedly illegal liquor business (banned in the province) run by Javed. Enraged by the article, Javed filed a libel suit against Shumaal on 27 January. Two days later he shot Tanoli dead.
24 February 2004
A bomb exploded outside the offices of Jang, the flagship publication of the country's largest media group, in Quetta in Balochistan province, blowing out windows in neighbouring buildings. No one was injured in the blast at the Urdu-language daily. An unknown group calling itself Balochistan Liberation Army claimed responsibility but gave no reason for the attack.
25 February 2004
Arif Nizami, editor of the daily The Nation and executive editor of daily Nawa-i-Waqt announced the government has banned the placement of government advertisement in newspapers belonging to the Nawa-i-Waqt group of publications, one of Pakistan's largest media organisations. Nizami claimed the ban was a result of his group of publication's opposition to government policies and said “negates the government claims that the Pakistan media is freed.”
29 February 2004
Hundreds of protestors from religious groups demonstrating against private TV channel Geo for airing an allegedly controversial episode of a popular religious programme attacked the Karachi Press Club, seriously wounding a guard and causing serious damage to the premise and property. Dozens of protesters scaled the press club's walls, broke windows, beat up guard Mohammed Rafiq and ransacked the premises. Several journalists took cover in a room on the first floor. The protestors then tried to reach the premises of nearby Jang Group, the parent company of Geo TV, but were stooped by the police.
1 March 2004
In the small hours on 1 March, several unidentified armed men conducted coordinated raids on newspaper distribution points in various parts of Karachi in Sindh province. They aimed their guns at news vendors, forcibly took bundles of newspapers, set them ablaze and fled. No explanation was given and their identity has not been traced.
2 March 2004
About two dozen rioters broke into the building housing the offices of daily Jang and Geo TV, both belonging to the country's largest media group, the Jang Group, in Quetta, in Balochistan province. Administrative records, newspapers and other materials were set ablaze. The office was closed for a holiday and no one was injured. The attack came after sectarian clashes broke out in the city.
4 March 2004
Shahbaz Pathan, a correspondent for daily Halchal, in Sukkur in Sindh province, was kidnapped by armed bandits as he played badminton with friends. He was taken, along with one of his friends, to the nearby Shah Belo forests, which is reportedly infested with bandits. Shahbaz and his brother Asad, who is the general secretary of the Sukkur Press Club, had produced a documentary on the activities of the bandits.
27 March 2004
After being held by the authorities for over 100 days, during which he says he was tortured, Pakistani journalist Khawar Mehdi Rizvi was granted bail. Judge Hashim Kakar of the anti-terrorism court in Quetta, in Balochistan province, ordered his release on a surety bond of Rs 200,000 ($3,500). Rizvi was freed the next day.
________________________________________________________________________
DISCLAIMER: The views in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy of the organization he represents or its donors.
Author contact details:
Adnan Rehmat
Country Director
Internews Pakistan
[email protected] |
