20 September 2006
ATTACKS ON JOURNALISTS RAISE ALARM
A series of attacks on journalists in Pakistan in the past week, including a murder, have prompted the Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) to express serious concerns over press freedom in the country.
On 15 September 2006, reporter Maqbool Hussain Sail was shot to death by masked gunmen in Dera Ismail Khan, Northwest Frontier Province. Sail, 32, worked for the Online International News Network and was on his way to interview the leader of the local branch of the Pakistan People's Party. It has not known whether Sail was killed because of his work as a journalist. According to CPJ, police are investigating the case, but have made no arrests.
According to CPJ, eight journalists have been murdered for their work in Pakistan since 2002, four of them in the tribal areas. Only one of these cases - the murder of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl - has been thoroughly investigated.
In the most recent case - that of journalist Hayatullah Khan, whose body was found on 16 June - Pakistani authorities have refused to make public the findings of two separate official inquiries into the murder.
Meanwhile, in other recent attacks, three journalists were brutally assaulted by police on 17 September while covering a public rally by a religious organisation in Lahore, reported PPF, IFJ and CPJ. ARY TV reporter Wadood Mushtaq, ATV correspondent Nazir Awan and ATV cameraman Zahid Malik received multiple injuries.
On 13 September, gunmen opened fire on the home of reporter Shakil Anjum in the province of Punjab, injuring his son and nephew, reported RSF. Anjum is a reporter for "The News". He suspected a local politician, about whom he had written in one of his articles, of ordering the attack.
On the same day, C.R. Shamsi, deputy editor of the daily newspaper "Ausaf", was assaulted by aides of the federal labour minister in Islamabad. Shamsi had approached the minister outside his office to inform him of planned national protests by journalists over unpaid wages, according to RSF. Shamsi's ear drum was seriously injured.
RSF also reports that Mushtaq Ghuman, a reporter for the "Business Recorder" in Islamabad, has received threatening phone calls following an article he is writing about the prime minister.
Visit these links:
- PPF: http://www.pakistanpressfoundation.org/
- IFJ: http://www.ifj.org/default.asp?Index=4211&Language=EN
- CPJ: http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/asia/pak26july06na.html
- RSF: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=18916
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