A British documentary film-maker has gone missing after setting out to interview Taliban leaders in Pakistan's lawless tribal area.
Two former senior members of Pakistan's intelligence agency, who were acting as guides, are believed to have been abducted at the same time.
Asad Qureshi was making a film in North Waziristan, the most dangerous tract of the tribal belt that borders Afghanistan. There were unconfirmed reports that a second Briton was working in the team.
One of the missing former officials from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is Colonel Imam, the officer credited with creating the Taliban in the 1990s.
Pakistani military offensives have cleared most of the tribal zone of Islamist militants but North Waziristan remains a stronghold for the Taliban and al-Qaida and a continuing source of anxiety for western governments.
Qureshi is a British national of Pakistani descent and an experienced film-maker. He has been working as a freelancer since moving to Pakistan five years ago. He has made previous trips into extremist-held areas in Waziristan.
According to a former member of the Pakistani parliament, with whom the team stayed en route at the edge of the tribal area, there were two British nationals working on the film.
"Both had British passports," Javed Ibrahim Paracha said. The team stayed in his house in the town of Kohat on the night of 25 March. "They could have been picked up by American agencies or the Taliban." Paracha said they planned to visit the main town of Miram Shah the next day, but it is not known how far they travelled. The Foreign Office said it was not aware of the presence of a second Briton.
Travelling with Qureshi were two well-known former Pakistani intelligence agents, who have long-established links with militants. Retired ISI brigadier Colonel Imam, whose real name is Sultan Amir Tarar, and former ISI official Khalid Khawaja both worked with the mujahideen resistance to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, in the 1980s.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "Officials at the British High Commission in Islamabad are urgently investigating reports that a British national is missing."
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
Reporter probably held by army after being kidnapped by Taliban
Reporters Without Borders urges the Pakistani authorities to explain what has happened to Mohammad Rasheed, a freelance reporter who is probably being held by the army. It is believed he was arrested after being held for several days by a Taliban group in North Waziristan. “I don’t know where he is; his entire family is very worried,” his wife told Reporters Without Borders.
“The authorities must quickly say what they know about the possible detention of this journalist, whose only apparent ’crime’ is to have been kidnapped by the Taliban,” Reporters Without Borders said. “By detaining him in this manner, the army is exposing him to new dangers as he could be accused of being an informant. This is not the first time the army and intelligence services have acted in this way, and it is unacceptable.”
Rasheed, who is from Rawalpindi, was apparently arrested by Pakistani soldiers after being released by Taliban at the army checkpoint in Mirzael, in the Bannu region, on 4 January. Military personnel told his wife he would “soon be at home again.”
When Reporters Without Borders contacted Pakistani army spokesman Athar Abbas on 5 and 7 January, he said he "heard" about the Rasheed case.
His wife has appealed to the journalistic community to support her efforts to get him freed. The last phone call she received from him was on 28 December, when he was still being held by the Taliban.
The Taliban announced they were holding Rasheed on 29 December, two days after he was seized by gunmen while filming in the market in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, which is part of the Tribal Areas. Journalists based in the Tribal Areas negotiated his release with the Taliban group led by Hafi Gul Bahadar.
The Taliban in North Waziristan have banned all journalists who are not from the area. Journalists are suspected of being spies and face possible execution. The army, for its part, is also obstructing the work of foreign and Pakistani journalists in the Tribal Areas, especially South Waziristan.
Another journalist Rehmatullah Shaheen of the Baloch Daily Tawar newspaper was held incommunicado by the police from 8 to 15 December in the southwestern province of Balochistan. He is still detained. At least two other journalists are currently detained in Pakistan.
“The authorities must quickly say what they know about the possible detention of this journalist, whose only apparent ’crime’ is to have been kidnapped by the Taliban,” Reporters Without Borders said. “By detaining him in this manner, the army is exposing him to new dangers as he could be accused of being an informant. This is not the first time the army and intelligence services have acted in this way, and it is unacceptable.”
Rasheed, who is from Rawalpindi, was apparently arrested by Pakistani soldiers after being released by Taliban at the army checkpoint in Mirzael, in the Bannu region, on 4 January. Military personnel told his wife he would “soon be at home again.”
When Reporters Without Borders contacted Pakistani army spokesman Athar Abbas on 5 and 7 January, he said he "heard" about the Rasheed case.
His wife has appealed to the journalistic community to support her efforts to get him freed. The last phone call she received from him was on 28 December, when he was still being held by the Taliban.
The Taliban announced they were holding Rasheed on 29 December, two days after he was seized by gunmen while filming in the market in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, which is part of the Tribal Areas. Journalists based in the Tribal Areas negotiated his release with the Taliban group led by Hafi Gul Bahadar.
The Taliban in North Waziristan have banned all journalists who are not from the area. Journalists are suspected of being spies and face possible execution. The army, for its part, is also obstructing the work of foreign and Pakistani journalists in the Tribal Areas, especially South Waziristan.
Another journalist Rehmatullah Shaheen of the Baloch Daily Tawar newspaper was held incommunicado by the police from 8 to 15 December in the southwestern province of Balochistan. He is still detained. At least two other journalists are currently detained in Pakistan.
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
FIVE KEY PROBLEMS FOR MEDIA COVERAGE OF FEBRUARY'S LEGISLATIVE ELECTIONS
Despite President Pervez Musharraf's reassuring statements, Pakistan's media are not free to provide proper coverage of the legislative elections scheduled for 18 February because of a climate of censorship that is sustained by the permanent threat of fines, closures of news media and arrests of journalists, Reporters Without Borders said today.
The government has introduced a series of regulations that drastically restrict the broadcast media's ability to cover the election campaign. The ban on Geo News, the freest and most popular of Pakistan's TV broadcasters, proves that press freedom has not been guaranteed for the polls. At the same time, journalists are exposed to great dangers, with the security forces being responsible for most of the violence.
Reporters Without Borders has identified five key problems:
1. The censorship imposed by the print and broadcast media ordinances
The government decreed amendments to the ordinances on the print media (RPPO 2002) and the broadcast media (PEMRA 2002) on 3 November which, inter alia, make it possible to sentence a journalist to three years in prison for defaming or making fun of the president. At the same time, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) issued a code of conduct that severely limits editorial freedom. The dozens of privately-owned radio and TV stations that were suspended at the start of November were forced to sign the code in order to be allowed to resume broadcasting.
Many journalists have told Reporters Without Borders that both military and civilian authorities often directly intervene with media executives and editors. The PEMRA sent a letter to radio and TV station owners on 11 December banning them from broadcasting news programmes and talk shows live and brandishing the threat of fines, prison sentences and bans for those stations that broadcast criticism of the government before the elections.
Reporters Without Borders calls for the repeal of the two ordinances and the code of conduct.
2. The unacceptable ban on Geo News
The TV news station Geo News and the sports channel Geo Super are no longer accessible in Pakistan. The government wants to force this broadcast group, the county's most popular one, to censor itself, to sideline some of its journalists and to eliminate some of its programmes. According to a Gallup poll carried out in September, Geo TV was watched by 35 per cent of Pakistan's viewers, ahead of the government station PTV and far heard of ARY. Using the network of correspondents of Jang and The News, two daily newspapers that belong to the same group, Geo TV was able to broadcast the results of the 2002 elections before the government media.
Reporters Without Borders calls for the immediate lifting of the ban on Geo News.
3. The violence and intimidation by police and government supporters
At least 30 journalists were seriously injured in 2007, and at least 120 were arrested. Three police officers were punished in connection with the violence in Islamabad on 29 September but impunity prevails in most attacks on journalists. There have been more cases of journalists of journalists being injured by police since the lifting of the state of emergency, notably on 17 December in Islamabad.
Harassment also takes the form of fraudulent complaints and lawsuits. For example, 34 journalists in the southern province of Sindh, of whom 19 work for the daily Kawish or the television station KTN, are accused of taking part in the rioting the followed Benazir Bhutto's assassination. "They brought a complaint against me because of my critical articles," Javed Kalroo of the newspaper Tameer-e-Sindh told Reporters Without Borders. "I had nothing to do with the riots. "At least 10 of these 34 journalists have already been arrested and face the possibility of long jail terms under an anti-terrorism law.
Reporters Without Borders demands the end of violence and threats by the security forces against the media.
4. The lack of guarantees for journalists' safety
Six journalists were slain in suicide bombings or contract killings in 2007. One of them was a TV journalist who was killed in the first suicide bomb attack on Benazir Bhutto in Karachi. A cameraman was killed when the security forces stormed the Red Mosque in Islamabad. This is the highest death toll for the Pakistani press in 10 years. Pakistani became the most dangerous Asian country for the media in 2007.
Reporters Without Borders firmly condemns bombings against civilians, including journalists, and calls for the murders of journalists to be investigated.
5. The lack of balanced news reporting on PTV, the government station
Pakistan's only national, terrestrial-broadcast TV station, PTV is directly controlled by the government and systematically plays up the statements and activities of President Musharraf and other government leaders. It has been forced to modernise its style since 2002 because of competition from privately-owned cable TV stations, but its coverage of the legislative elections has been heavily biased in favour of Musharraf's followers.
Reporters Without Borders wants PTV to give fair election campaign coverage to all the political parties.
"The legislative elections will not be free unless the government immediately rescinds the restrictions imposed on the media," Reporters Without Borders said. "The violence by the police and acts of intimidation by the intelligence services are also unacceptable. It is up to President Musharraf to take concrete measures to ensure that the 18 February elections are free and fair. As things stand, they are not."
Chief election commissioner Qazi Mohammad Farooq's promise to "all political parties that the elections will be fair, free and transparent" and information minister Nisar Memon's statement on 1 January that the government and media must "work as a team" to ensure a favourable climate for the elections are not sufficient.
A broadcast ban was imposed on at least 45 privately-owned satellite TV stations on 3 November by means of a simple verbal order to cable TV operators. Two privately-owned radio stations were also closed down. Most of these stations are now back on the air, but most of them were forced to drop programmes, sideline journalists or stop carrying foreign programming in order to get permission to resume broadcasting.
The political parties are split on this issue. Farhatullah Babar, the spokesman of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party, said PTV's coverage of the election was "partisan" but the privately-owned TV stations were doing a good job. He condemned the electoral commission's failure to ensure that the media are balanced and to prevent them from being pressured. "The government manipulates coverage by means of coercion and intimidation," he said to Reporters Without Borders.
Tariq Azeem, the spokesman of the Pakistan Muslim League (Q), which supports Musharraf, paid tribute to PTV and said it had given air time to all the candidates. "The privately-owned media cover our activities but they give more time to the opposition parties because there are more of them," he said, adding, "the government does not manipulate coverage of the elections."
Zahid Kahn, the spokesman of the Awami National Party (whose strongholds are in the Pashtun areas of Pakistan), said PTV assigned virtually 80 per cent of its air time to the government and its supporters while the privately-owned media were afraid of being overly critical. "When we are invited to take part in talk shows, they ask us to be polite because they are under pressure from the authorities."
"The Pakistani media may appear very lively but it is clear the criticism has been toned down in recent weeks, especially in the editorial sections," an Islamabad-based diplomat said. "The TV station owners lost lots of money during the November ban," a TV journalist said on condition of anonymity. "They cannot afford to be banned again, so they censor themselves." Kashif Abbasi, the host of a TV talk show that was dropped by ARY, was quoted by the New York Times as saying: "News is not being covered objectively, but according to the wishes of the government."
The government has introduced a series of regulations that drastically restrict the broadcast media's ability to cover the election campaign. The ban on Geo News, the freest and most popular of Pakistan's TV broadcasters, proves that press freedom has not been guaranteed for the polls. At the same time, journalists are exposed to great dangers, with the security forces being responsible for most of the violence.
Reporters Without Borders has identified five key problems:
1. The censorship imposed by the print and broadcast media ordinances
The government decreed amendments to the ordinances on the print media (RPPO 2002) and the broadcast media (PEMRA 2002) on 3 November which, inter alia, make it possible to sentence a journalist to three years in prison for defaming or making fun of the president. At the same time, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) issued a code of conduct that severely limits editorial freedom. The dozens of privately-owned radio and TV stations that were suspended at the start of November were forced to sign the code in order to be allowed to resume broadcasting.
Many journalists have told Reporters Without Borders that both military and civilian authorities often directly intervene with media executives and editors. The PEMRA sent a letter to radio and TV station owners on 11 December banning them from broadcasting news programmes and talk shows live and brandishing the threat of fines, prison sentences and bans for those stations that broadcast criticism of the government before the elections.
Reporters Without Borders calls for the repeal of the two ordinances and the code of conduct.
2. The unacceptable ban on Geo News
The TV news station Geo News and the sports channel Geo Super are no longer accessible in Pakistan. The government wants to force this broadcast group, the county's most popular one, to censor itself, to sideline some of its journalists and to eliminate some of its programmes. According to a Gallup poll carried out in September, Geo TV was watched by 35 per cent of Pakistan's viewers, ahead of the government station PTV and far heard of ARY. Using the network of correspondents of Jang and The News, two daily newspapers that belong to the same group, Geo TV was able to broadcast the results of the 2002 elections before the government media.
Reporters Without Borders calls for the immediate lifting of the ban on Geo News.
3. The violence and intimidation by police and government supporters
At least 30 journalists were seriously injured in 2007, and at least 120 were arrested. Three police officers were punished in connection with the violence in Islamabad on 29 September but impunity prevails in most attacks on journalists. There have been more cases of journalists of journalists being injured by police since the lifting of the state of emergency, notably on 17 December in Islamabad.
Harassment also takes the form of fraudulent complaints and lawsuits. For example, 34 journalists in the southern province of Sindh, of whom 19 work for the daily Kawish or the television station KTN, are accused of taking part in the rioting the followed Benazir Bhutto's assassination. "They brought a complaint against me because of my critical articles," Javed Kalroo of the newspaper Tameer-e-Sindh told Reporters Without Borders. "I had nothing to do with the riots. "At least 10 of these 34 journalists have already been arrested and face the possibility of long jail terms under an anti-terrorism law.
Reporters Without Borders demands the end of violence and threats by the security forces against the media.
4. The lack of guarantees for journalists' safety
Six journalists were slain in suicide bombings or contract killings in 2007. One of them was a TV journalist who was killed in the first suicide bomb attack on Benazir Bhutto in Karachi. A cameraman was killed when the security forces stormed the Red Mosque in Islamabad. This is the highest death toll for the Pakistani press in 10 years. Pakistani became the most dangerous Asian country for the media in 2007.
Reporters Without Borders firmly condemns bombings against civilians, including journalists, and calls for the murders of journalists to be investigated.
5. The lack of balanced news reporting on PTV, the government station
Pakistan's only national, terrestrial-broadcast TV station, PTV is directly controlled by the government and systematically plays up the statements and activities of President Musharraf and other government leaders. It has been forced to modernise its style since 2002 because of competition from privately-owned cable TV stations, but its coverage of the legislative elections has been heavily biased in favour of Musharraf's followers.
Reporters Without Borders wants PTV to give fair election campaign coverage to all the political parties.
"The legislative elections will not be free unless the government immediately rescinds the restrictions imposed on the media," Reporters Without Borders said. "The violence by the police and acts of intimidation by the intelligence services are also unacceptable. It is up to President Musharraf to take concrete measures to ensure that the 18 February elections are free and fair. As things stand, they are not."
Chief election commissioner Qazi Mohammad Farooq's promise to "all political parties that the elections will be fair, free and transparent" and information minister Nisar Memon's statement on 1 January that the government and media must "work as a team" to ensure a favourable climate for the elections are not sufficient.
A broadcast ban was imposed on at least 45 privately-owned satellite TV stations on 3 November by means of a simple verbal order to cable TV operators. Two privately-owned radio stations were also closed down. Most of these stations are now back on the air, but most of them were forced to drop programmes, sideline journalists or stop carrying foreign programming in order to get permission to resume broadcasting.
The political parties are split on this issue. Farhatullah Babar, the spokesman of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party, said PTV's coverage of the election was "partisan" but the privately-owned TV stations were doing a good job. He condemned the electoral commission's failure to ensure that the media are balanced and to prevent them from being pressured. "The government manipulates coverage by means of coercion and intimidation," he said to Reporters Without Borders.
Tariq Azeem, the spokesman of the Pakistan Muslim League (Q), which supports Musharraf, paid tribute to PTV and said it had given air time to all the candidates. "The privately-owned media cover our activities but they give more time to the opposition parties because there are more of them," he said, adding, "the government does not manipulate coverage of the elections."
Zahid Kahn, the spokesman of the Awami National Party (whose strongholds are in the Pashtun areas of Pakistan), said PTV assigned virtually 80 per cent of its air time to the government and its supporters while the privately-owned media were afraid of being overly critical. "When we are invited to take part in talk shows, they ask us to be polite because they are under pressure from the authorities."
"The Pakistani media may appear very lively but it is clear the criticism has been toned down in recent weeks, especially in the editorial sections," an Islamabad-based diplomat said. "The TV station owners lost lots of money during the November ban," a TV journalist said on condition of anonymity. "They cannot afford to be banned again, so they censor themselves." Kashif Abbasi, the host of a TV talk show that was dropped by ARY, was quoted by the New York Times as saying: "News is not being covered objectively, but according to the wishes of the government."
Before her assassination, Benazir Bhutto was very clear in her condemnation of the government's attacks on the freedom of the press. During a protest in defence of press freedom in Islamabad on 10 November, Bhutto said: "I have come to demonstrate my solidarity. I reject these restrictions. We believe in free speech. Our war against the dictatorship continues, we are for freedom, we are for the media."
--------------
Friday, April 20, 2007
Pakistani Journalist attacked in Mississauga
A group representing Canadian journalists has condemned an attack on a Pakistani reporter in Mississauga.
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) say journalist Jawaad Faizi was attacked in Mississauga on Tuesday night. Faizi works for the Mississauga-based newspaper, The Pakistan Post.Faizi was attacked in his car outside the home of his editor, Amir Arain.
Two men, one armed with a cricket bat, smashed the car windows and beat Faizi before they fled the scene.
Two men threatened him and said that he should stop writing against Islam, and against the Pakistan-based religious organisation, Idara Minhaj-ul-Quran and its leader, Cleric Allama Tahir-Ul-Qadri, Faizi said in an interview.
Allama Tahir-Ul-Qadri is a frequent visitor to Canada. Both Arain and Faizi say they have received telephone death threats.On Monday they filed a complaint with police.
"That this attack happened here in Canada is of great concern to us," said CJFE Executive Director Anne Game. "We call on the police to treat this matter extremely seriously and ensure that a full investigation into the attack is initiated immediately.
Faizi told CJFE he had many problems as a journalist back home in Lahore, Pakistan but was shocked at the attack in Canada.
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) is an association of more than 300 journalists, editors, publishers, producers, students and others who work to promote and defend free expression and press freedom in Canada and around the world.
mabbas@thespec.com
905-526-3199
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Sixteen journalists injured in Pakistan
A total of 16 journalists were physically attacked, mainly by lawyers, while covering a demonstration organised by the Karachi Bar Association (KBA) on 12 April 2007 in Karachi in protest against the dismissal of Supreme Court president Iftikar Mohammed Chaudhry, said Reporters Without Borders, condemning the violence.
It was the third time that journalists have been targeted during demonstrations in support of Chaudhry, who was accused by the government of bias in his rulings on the disappearances of political activists.
"This situation is worrying," Reporters Without Borders said. "Journalists were among the first to condemn the supreme court president's removal. "This violence must stop, and those responsible should remember the primordial role played by journalists in condemning this attack on judicial independence."
Police beat Geo TV journalists inside the station's studios in Islamabad on 16 March because they had been airing footage of lawyers covered in blood from injuries they had received from police during a demonstration in support of Chaudhry (see IFEX alerts of 20 and 16 March 2007). Seven journalists were attacked by policemen and a lawyer linked to the Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, during a similar demonstration the next day in Lahore.
During the 12 April protest, a man identifying himself as a lawyer beat a journalist after smashing one of the indicator lights of his car. Kashif Nizami, Irfan-ul-Haq, Tariq Aziz and Amer Singh were attacked and badly beaten by KBA members when they tried to express their discontent about the attacks they have been subjected to ever since they began covering these demonstrations.
Shakir Solangi of the KTN television station was beaten by a parliamentarian, Ghulam Murtuza Satti, after asking Satti to remain silent while he interviewed the president of the Pakistan People's Party, Makhdoom Amin Fahim.
The injuries sustained by the other journalists were minor.
Friday, February 16, 2007
IFJ, FMM, RSF MISSION TO PAKISTAN
A delegation of media advocacy groups, including the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Free Media Movement (FMM) and Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF), is planning to visit Pakistan from 21 to 25 February 2007 to discuss press freedom concerns with government officials.
Organised in collaboration with the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, the delegation will be comprised of local and international journalists.
The aim of the mission is to focus international and local attention on the increasingly dangerous conditions in which journalists are forced to work, and to meet with officials to find solutions to the problem.
IFJ says press freedom and the safety of journalists in Pakistan have deteriorated in recent months. Since May 2006, four journalists have been killed and four others detained and tortured by intelligence agencies. The brothers of two journalists were also murdered, and scores of other journalists physically attacked and threatened.
Organised in collaboration with the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, the delegation will be comprised of local and international journalists.
The aim of the mission is to focus international and local attention on the increasingly dangerous conditions in which journalists are forced to work, and to meet with officials to find solutions to the problem.
IFJ says press freedom and the safety of journalists in Pakistan have deteriorated in recent months. Since May 2006, four journalists have been killed and four others detained and tortured by intelligence agencies. The brothers of two journalists were also murdered, and scores of other journalists physically attacked and threatened.
For more information, contact: ifjsouthasia@hotmail.com
Visit these links:- IFEX Alerts on Pakistan: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/158/- IFJ: http://www.ifj-asia.org/page/pakistan.html- FMM: http://www.freemediasrilanka.org/- RSF: http://www.rsf.org/country-50.php3?id_mot=96&Valider=OK
Visit these links:- IFEX Alerts on Pakistan: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/158/- IFJ: http://www.ifj-asia.org/page/pakistan.html- FMM: http://www.freemediasrilanka.org/- RSF: http://www.rsf.org/country-50.php3?id_mot=96&Valider=OK
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