Legend Pakistani Poet Ahmed Faraz house vacted by force and Police in Islamabad,Pakistan

ISLAMABAD:
Capital police got evacuated the house of legend Urdu poet and chairman National Book Foundation Ahmed Faraz despite a stay order issued by Supreme Court, here on Monday.
The famous poet Ahmed Faraz is recently on foreign visit and he has got stay order from Supreme Court against the orders of evacuation of his house by the housing ministry.
In his absence, Capital police harassed the household women and threw the belongings of legend poet out of the house. The house is situated in F-6/3 of the capital.
A National Book Foundation source claimed that the action has been take on the direction of Federal Minister for Housing Safwan Ullah and the house was reportedly vacated to be allotted to the sister of Federal Minister for Ports, Babar Ghauri.

Although Ahmed Faraz a known poet and in his seventies is also entitled to it.
But as Ahmed Faraz told reporters , who is in London at the moment and sick , that Federal Minster Syed Safwan Ullha wanted to allot the house to a known one and acted so rudely. It is shameless act on the behalf of Syed Safwan Ullha to behave like this and treat a known and an old cultural personality like this.
Although Prime minister Shukat Aziz phoned Faraz before this act and assured him that no body will do this shameless act , but one of his minister did it. Now we wait and see what action his taken against him.

Press photographer gunned down by lone sniper on Jolo island

Pakistan Press Club (PPC) today condemned the fatal shooting of news photographer Gene Boyd Lumawag by a lone sniper yesterday while on assignment for the local news agency Mindanews on Jolo island, an Islamist bastion in the southern Philippines. The gunman escaped and no arrests were made.
Lumawag's death brought to nine the number of journalists killed in the course of their work so far this year in the Philippines, making it the world's most dangerous country for the press after Iraq.
"Once again we are dismayed by the death of a journalist in the Philippines," Reporters Without Borders said. "The investigations into each of these terrible murders must be pursued to the end if they are to stop. As in the other case, the authorities must explore all leads and the police must be given all the resources they need to find out who killed Lumawag."
Aged 26, Lumawag was preparing a report on Aid al-Fitr, the Muslim festivity that marks the end of Ramadan. He was hit by a 45mm bullet in the forehead as he was heading towards the pier in the town of Jolo to photograph the sunset. He was working with another journalist from Mindanao island who was managed find refuge in a church and was not hurt.
Army investigators told Mindanews they thought the shooting was the work of members of an "urban terrorist group" linked to Abu Sayyaf, an Islamist group fighting for an independent Islamic state in the southern Philippines. Abu Sayyaf has been blamed for many attacks and kidnappings and is alleged by both the Philippine and US authorities to be linked to Al-Qaeda.

Pakistan:Punjab Police raids FM-103 office, stops broadcast

LAHORE: Pakistan Press Club (PPC) the national organisation of journalists representing journalists nationwide, has today backed its affiliate in Pakistan.

Pakistan Press Club (PPC) condemned the sealing of FM-103 radio station by police in Lahore, Pakistan today.
Lahore Police on Saturday evening raided the FM-103 radio office, arrested the telephone and computer operators and stopped the Lahore office’s broadcast.Police also took away the radio office’s computers, mixer and other equipment and sealed the office. The arrested are Noman Ahmed and Abdul Ghafoor.“We have suspended the FM-103 radio broadcast in connection with the case registered under MPO-16 (Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance) against the radio station on November 9. FM-103 authorities have continued violating MPO-16, so we have had to suspend its broadcast,” Civil Lines Station House Officer (SHO) Arshad Kanju said.Police arrested FM-103 Programmes Manager Afaq Shah and Administration Manager Farhat Abbas Shah on November 9 and registered a case against them under MPO-16. The case stated that five men protested against the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC), the government, government hospitals and doctors in front of the PIC building. Police later identified two of the five protestors as Mr Bokhari and Mr Shah.Police produced both men before the Cantonment Area Court on November 10 and sought their physical remand. Magistrate Ishrat Ali Khan instead allowed a one-day judicial remand. The next day, Cantonment Area Special Judicial Magistrate Shahid Fareed granted bail to both FM-103 staff members.FM-103 officials have called the accusations false and baseless. “Nobody demonstrated. We did broadcast a report against the PIC and are conducting an inquiry against the report,” FM-103 Station Director Shafqatullah said.FM-103 officials said, “Certain bureaucrats are pressuring FM-103 to stop broadcasting BBC Urdu Service news bulletins. Sealing the office and arresting staff members is a cheap way of coercing the radio station. This is like suppressing the freedom of expression. We will address a news conference tomorrow (Saturday) to tell the truth.” However, sources told PPC that FM-103 had been at loggerheads with the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) over broadcasting BBC Urdu Service news bulletins from its stations.PEMRA authorities had been sending notices to FM-103 to stop its news bulletins, as it was against the agreement they had signed. FM-103 officials said they had a constitutional right to broadcast the bulletins. The radio station took the matter to court and got a stay order against the halting of the news bulletins, sources said, adding that the court later vacated the stay order.“The court’s order can be considered an indirect warning by the government to FM-103 to stop broadcasting BBC Urdu Service news bulletins or it will face the circumstances, such as the arrest of their staff,” sources added.Meanwhile, Pakistan Press Club (PPC) President Mohsin Abbas condemned the sealing of the FM-103 office, calling it an attack on the freedom of expression.

FM-103 Radio Employee kidnapped and Murdered in Pakistan

KARACHI(Pakistan):
Pakistan Press Club(PPC),a media rights organization, demanded the arrest of killer of FM-103 Radio Karachi Journalist Faraz Ahmed, who was kidnapped and murdered.

Noted human rights activist Baseer Naveed’s son, who was missing since Monday, was found murdered in the Shahrah-e-Faisal area, family members said.

Faraz Ahmed, 21, was student of M A (previous) of philosophy department in Karachi University. He was doing part-time job at a local FM channel with his father.

“We did not see him after he did his programme on the radio Monday evening,” Mr Naveed, a senior journalist and an active trade union activist, said.

He said the young man sometimes would go out for a night or two with his friends without informing the family, which was why the family was not bothered and did not file any missing report with the police. According to Mr Naveed, he came out of his office of the FM-103 located near Shahrah-e-Faisal and was walking towards an open plot nearby when he saw someone lying at a secluded place. The father saw it was the mutilated body of his son.

It is assumed that Faraz was kidnapped immediately after he left the radio’s office located along main Shahrah-e-Faisal after doing a programme on the second death anniversary of poet Jon Elia.

Faraz was also an amateur actor and had performed in street theatres and dramas, a family friend said. The decomposed body was taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for autopsy. “Here we waited for more than three hours for the medico-legal officer to perform the autopsy, but none of them turned up to do the job,” a family friend said.

He said the JPMC’s medico-legal section treated the bereaved family callously and they were forced to remain with the body for hours before something was done.In recent two weeks it wasfifth attack on media in pakistan.

Two Pakistani Journalists are arrested

Lahore (Pakistan):
11/9/2004

Pakistan Press Club (PPC) president Mohsin Abbas has called for the release of Farhat Abbas Shah and Afaq Shah of the FM Radio 103 Lahore, Punjab Pakistan. They were arrested by Punjab police yesterday in Lahore district of Punjab province.

Police in Pakistani province Punjab have arrested Journalist and well known Urdu poet of the country Farhat Abbas Shah and his one co worker radio presenter Afaq shah .Both of them are working for an independent radio station in Lahore.
According to a senior police officer in Lahore they were arrested for broadcasting a disputed news story about Punjab institute of cardiology .They were accused to be causing that police were unable to maintain order in the city.
Station House Officer(SHO) for the police station Civil Line Inspector Arshad Hayat reported in first information report(FIR) that they were arrested under the section of 144.According to this article more than five people were not allowed to be gathered.
Secondly they were accused of violating the Section 16 of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO).

According to First information report (FIR) five people were coming from Kashmir road towards Mall road, while they arrived at the gate of Alhamra Hall gate number one .they started shouting loudly slogans against government, doctors and government hospitals. They were saying that current government and government hospitals and doctors have failed to relief the people.
Police inspector accused in report that they were found violating the section 16 of the (MPO) and it was not good for the peace in the public.
According to police report they were broadcasting the failure of government, doctors and government hospitals on their FM radio 103 and causing trouble in public.
According to First information report of police they claimed that police tried to arrest five of them but three of them were able to run away but only farhat abbas shah and syed afaq shah were arrested.
According to Fm radio manager Awais Bajwa police lied in their (FIR) report .Programme manager was arrested at the building of radio station situated at Agerten road Lahore and he was roughed by police too. when the in charge current affairs and news Farhat Abbas Shah learned about his arrest and went police station Civil Line he was arrested too.Farhat Abbas Shah have been published more that 52 books and one of his book” After the Evening” was published more than 12 editions.
Both journalists were kept in police station .By mid night they were brought to police station. According to friends of Farhat Abbas Shah his clothes were dusty and it looked like he was tortured by the police badly.

Contact:

Mohsin Abbas
President
Pakistan Press Club (PPC)
www.pakistanpressclub.com
www.pakistanpressclub.blogspot.com
E mail: dailypakistan@yahoo.com
Phone: +1-416-669-4770

Press panel slams Israel for curbs on media

GENEVA: The International Association of Press Clubs (IAPC) has protested in an open letter to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, the constraints placed on the press in Palestine.According to a report in The Khaleej Times on Friday, the association issued the statement after several incidents were reported by journalists working in the occupied territories. It was signed by director of the Press Club de France and IAPC President Michel Fernet and director of the Dubai Press Club and IAPC Secretary General Mona Al Marri.Among the serious violations cited by journalists was the incident of Israeli troops shooting at BBC reporter Orla Guuerin and at the armoured car of NBC correspondent Dana Lewis. Ms Lewis was also arrested and briefly held by the Israelis. The Israeli government’s press office revoked the press credentials of two Abu Dhabi TV journalists and threatened legal action against CNN and NBC for broadcasting from Ramallah. Israeli soldiers also fired rubber bullets and threw grenades at a convoy of journalists waiting near Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s compound for a meeting between the Palestinian leader and US special envoy Anthony Zinni.The members of the association called for Israel to guarantee the safety and well being of journalists working in Palestine, as well as for freedom for journalists to perform their work without intimidation and for editorial freedom within accepted international journalism guidelines for correspondents in Palestine.

Pakistan is 150th in 3rd Annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index

Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières) announces its third annual worldwide index of press freedom. Such freedom is threatened most in East Asia (with North Korea at the bottom of the entire list at 167th place, followed by Burma 165th, China 162nd, Vietnam 161st and Laos 153rd) and the Middle East (Saudi Arabia 159th, Iran 158th, Syria 155th, Iraq 148th).In these countries, an independent media either does not exist or journalists are persecuted and censored on a daily basis. Freedom of information and the safety of journalists are not guaranteed there. Continuing war has made Iraq the most deadly place on earth for journalists in recent years, with 44 killed there since fighting began in March last year.But there are plenty of other black spots around the world for press freedom. Cuba (in 166th place) is second only to China as the biggest prison for journalists, with 26 in jail (China has 27). Since spring last year, these 26 independent journalists have languished in prison after being given sentences of between 14 and 27 years.No privately-owned media exist in Turkmenistan (164th) and Eritrea (163rd), whose people can only read, see or listen to government-controlled media dominated by official propaganda.The greatest press freedom is found in northern Europe (Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Iceland, the Netherlands and Norway), which is a haven of peace for journalists. Of the top 20 countries, only three (New Zealand 9th, Trinidad and Tobago 11th and Canada 18th) are outside Europe.Other small and often impoverished democracies appear high on the list, such as El Salvador (28th) and Costa Rica (35th) in Central America, along with Cape Verde (38th) and Namibia (42nd) in Africa and Timor-Leste (57th) in Asia.Reporters Without Borders compiled the index by asking its partner organizations (14 freedom of expression organizations in five continents), its 130 correspondents around the world, as well as journalists, researchers, jurists and human rights activists, to answer 52 questions to indicate the state of press freedom in 167 countries (others were not included for lack of information).Too many Asian countries at the bottom of the listFor the third year running, North Korea is bottom of the list. Reporters Without Borders has just published a report of a fact-finding mission that describes how journalism is forced to serve the cult of personality of dictator Kim Jong-il. Dozens of journalists have been "re-educated" for often minor supposed professional "errors."At the other extreme is New Zealand, in 9th place, which is the top-listed non-European country. News diversity is respected in this Pacific democracy and the government does not interfere.At the bottom end is Burma (165th), whose military rulers have banned the privately-owned media from speaking freely and thrown in prison journalists supporting opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The press is also cowed in Vietnam (161st) and Laos (153rd).China still scores very low (162nd) despite the growth of print and broadcast media, since the ruling Communist Party has used violence to indicate the lines that must not be crossed. The country is the world's biggest prison for journalists, with the most recent victim a Chinese correspondent for the US daily the New York Times. Despite promises made when Beijing was awarded the 2008 Olympic Games, the locally-based foreign media is still closely monitored.No let-up in violence:Violence against the media continues to undermine freedom in many Asian countries. Nepal (160th) and Bangladesh (151st) rate very low due to incessant violence there. The governments are partly to blame but political groups, especially the Maoist rebels in Nepal, as well as organized crime also persecute journalists.Countries such as the Philippines (111th), India (120th) and Indonesia (117th) figure in the bottom half of the index despite having free and lively independent media, since killings and physical attacks on journalists, along with outdated laws, still prevent a full flowering of the press.Violence against the media in India rarely comes from the authorities but from political activists and in Kashmir from armed groups. The authorities in the Indonesian province of Aceh and the army in Pakistan's tribal areas have sealed off these areas to the media. Pakistan (150th) dropped about 20 places because of this and increased army pressure on the local press.The Maldives (157th) lost ground in this year's index because of a crackdown on journalists and pro-democracy activists by longtime President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.Delicate situations:The situation in Afghanistan (97th) improved markedly however, with growing news diversity and the media daring to tackle sensitive topics. But threats to journalists, especially from provincial warlords, remain very real.In Japan (42nd), the media is diverse and powerful, but the system of kisha clubs still deprives foreign and freelance journalists of access to a lot of information. In South Korea (48th) and Taiwan (60th), the government is not always tolerant of opposition media.

KhUJ demands end harassing journalists

Sialkot(Pakistan):
PPC- Khyber Union of Journalist (KhUJ) has demanded from Federal government to stop immediately harassing and distressing of local journalist through a secret agency of the government. The Majlis-e-Aamal of KhUJ in a unanimous resolution adopted in Peshawar on October 25, strongly condemned the step taken by the secret government agency of teasing journalist. The meeting called it as restriction on free press and called it totally injustice. Sajjad Haider President of the KhUJ chaired the meeting. The KhUJ regretted that the secret agency officials called local journalists in their office and stressed them not to publish Al-Qaeda related news report, which the reporters got from their own sources. The meeting explained that restriction on journalists not to print such reports means creating hurdles in carrying out journalistic duty freely. Through another resolution, the meeting demanded of police department not to use the word journalist with two arrested accused, namely Tariq Khattal and Shakeel Qarar, who were put behind bar in corruption charges few days ago. The meeting also explained that the KhUJ already disown the two accused and using the word of Journalists for both of them will affect other genuine journalists. The meeting stressed that journalist word should not be use onward for them. On the un-time death of young Sub-Editor of Urdu daily Al-Akhbar, the Malis-e-Aamla meeting showed grief and sorrow. KhUJ demanded of provincial government to provide financial assistance to the family of deceased Sub-Editor on the basis of brotherhood. During the meeting the members prayed for the departure souls of deceased of APP reporter Ayaz Khan brother, mother of Nadir Khuwaja, reporter in Urdu daily Pakistan Peshawar, and father of Naeem Akhtar, photographer in daily Khabray.

Journalists still barred from South Waziristan

Sialkot(Pakistan)
Pakistan Press Club (PPC) today condemned a continuing ban on journalists entering the South Waziristan Tribal Area adjoining the border with Afghanistan, although the Pakistani interior minister undertook a week ago to let journalists into the area.'Despite the government's promises, the Pakistani armed forces maintain an unacceptable de facto news blackout in South Waziristan,' the organisation said.A group of journalists consisting of Sailab Mehsud, the president of the Tribal Union Journalists, Alamgir, Anwar Masood and Irfan Siddiqui of ARY TV, and Sheikh Rehmatullah, Irfan Khan and Shaukat Khattak of Geo TV was denied entry to the Tribal Areas at the Jandola checkpoint on September 21. After being turned back, they staged a protest sit-in at the checkpoint for several hours.At a news conference onSeptember 16, interior minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao had promised that the government would allow Pakistani and foreign journalists to enter South Waziristan's Wana area.Since March, it has been virtually impossible for the news media to cover Pakistan's military operations against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in South Waziristan.

Killing of Journalist Sparks IFJ Concern Over “Wave of Hatred” in Belarus

Sialkot:Pakistan
The International Federation of Journalists today called for an independent investigation into the killing of an opposition journalist in Belarus and warned that the regime of Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko was in danger of “unleashing a wave of hatred” against opposition voices as protests continued over controversial elections at the weekend. The family of Veronika Cherkasova said today that the body of the 44-year-old journalist, who has worked for independent media outlets for the past 15 years, was discovered by her stepfather Vladimir Melezhko last night. He said she had many stab wounds. Cherkasova was working most recently for the newspaper Solidarnost, a trade union newspaper, which she joined in May 2003. Trade unionists in the country have raised the alarm over the killing because the paper’s editor-in-chief Alexander Starikevich was allegedly sacked from the newspaper of the Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus, after the Government managed to establish their control over the Federation. Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary, said that he had asked the Belarus Association of Journalists, the IFJ affiliate in the country, for a full report amidst concerns that the killing may be linked to recent clashes between opposition protesters and police. “We are worried at the prospect of a wave of hatred being unleashed against democratic opposition. Violence against journalists is very often the result when an atmosphere of intimidation overtakes society,” said White. “We need a full and independent investigation of this killing and those responsible brought to justice.” The IFJ says that the street violence since Sunday’s controversial referendum, in which 77 percent of those who voted apparently agreed to scrap the two-term limit on presidents, allowing Lukashenko to maintain his ten-year grip on power, has resulted from angry confrontations between police and opposition protestors. Despite official claims about the election result, international observers and an independent exit poll suggest the voting was neither free nor fair. Thousands of young Belarusians have held noisy protests and on Tuesday evening police detained at least 30 people as a crowd of about 300 students marched protesting over the election. Associated Press photographer Sergei Grits, who was covering the event, also was briefly detained and released. The IFJ international executive board is meeting in Brussels this weekend and will discuss what steps to take to support journalists in the country.

Promises and the Press

ith 37 years in power, Togolese President Gnassingbé Eyadéma is Africa's longest-serving head of state. Even after the country introduced multiparty elections more than a decade ago, Eyadéma and his ruling party, Rassemblement du Peuple Togolais (RPT), managed to dominate politics and muzzle opposition voices in this West African nation. The RPT's ironfisted tactics and numerous human rights abuses led the European Union (EU) to suspend cooperation with Togo in 1993. But in Brussels in April 2004, the Eyadéma regime surprised the international community by pledging 22 democratization reforms in a bid to get EU economic sanctions lifted. The government promised this broad array of political, press, and electoral reforms in exchange for lucrative EU aid that, even in its initial phase, would be worth tens of millions of euros.The European Commission (EC) launched a two-year evaluation period this summer while the government took steps to improve press freedom. In August, the Togolese Parliament unanimously passed amendments to its harsh Press Code, removing criminal penalties for some press offenses. Togolese journalists say the Brussels commitments mark a tremendous opportunity, but many remain deeply skeptical given Eyadéma's record. He broke his pledge not to run again for office last year, winning the June 2003 election amid fraud allegations. Also in 2003, CPJ named Togo one of the world's 10 worst places to be a journalist.Press advocates have urged the EC to stay in close contact with local journalists during the evaluation period, and to hold Togo's leaders accountable. "It's a question of lobbying, because the government is extremely sensitive," says Daniel Lawson-Drackey, former secretary-general of the Independent Journalists Union of Togo. "For the government, the most important thing is to restart international cooperation. Now, the changes to the Press Code must be applied to the letter." uman rights organizations have cited Togo's 2000 Press Code as one of the worst in Africa. It imposed prison sentences of up to five years for "insulting the head of state" and as much as three years for "defaming" the courts or the armed forces. In the past, officials used the code to harass and jail journalists, and to seize thousands of copies of private publications. In the run-up to the 2003 elections, the Eyadéma regime shuttered media outlets, blocked news Web sites, and jammed the frequency of Radio France Internationale. The reforms passed in August would impose stiff fines rather than imprisonment for publishing what is deemed false or defamatory—including defamation of public figures and institutions. The changes would also ban the Interior Ministry from seizing and closing newspapers without judicial oversight, although a judge could still order copies of a publication destroyed. Unlike the adoption of the 2000 Press Code, cooperation between the government and the media has marked the new reforms. The amendments followed the recommendations of a commission of local journalists and media representatives established by the communications minister. Some local journalists say that coverage of political events improved after amendments were passed; Web sites that were regularly blocked inside Togo are now accessible. Still, several press offenses would carry criminal penalties of up to one year in prison, including publishing news deemed to incite crime, theft, destruction of public or private property, or ethnic or racial hatred, and "crimes against the internal or external security of the state." And beyond the letter of the law, press advocates say, the long-term prognosis depends heavily on the government's behavior. Eyadéma's record offers reason for doubt. he early 1990s were promising times for Togolese journalists. After more than 20 years, the Eyadéma regime finally began licensing private media and allowing multiparty democracy. Within a few years, new political parties emerged, and dozens of new publications launched. Some were pro-RPT, but many more criticized the country's leadership.That did not sit well with a regime unaccustomed to opposition. "The government came to power without a [private] press," says Pedro Amuzun, publisher of the private weekly Crocodile. "So when the press emerged, they felt threatened, and they systematically barred the way. These were people who really did not like criticism."Lawson-Drackey, who is also a journalist with the private radio station Nana FM, says the government did not understand the role of a free press. "They called our criticism ‘insults,'" he explains. "But they don't understand that the role of the press is to criticize." Soon enough, journalists faced reprisals: The RPT fought criticism with harassment, lawsuits, and attacks on newsrooms, while the government passed the punitive 2000 Press Code. Matters worsened for the press during the 2002 parliamentary elections. Because Eyadéma and the RPT tightly control the state media, the political opposition had to rely on the private press as its primary outlet. Unwilling to brook often strident criticism in private newspapers, the government augmented the Press Code's already harsh penalties in the run-up to the poll. he government has long been acutely sensitive to newspaper coverage, even though Togo's literacy rate is only 60 percent. Analysts point out that the Eyadéma regime is fiercely intent on projecting to the world a positive image, much of which emerges from newspapers."The international community suspended cooperation, and there is no money," says Pierre Sabi, publisher of the private La Matinée and an RPT supporter. "So the government's priority is to get this cooperation back. ... That is why they are so concerned with what the newspapers say." Until recently, that meant retaliation against reporters and editors who dared to tarnish the country's international image. But the government seems to have shifted its strategy, loosening its hold on the domestic press to persuade EU leaders to loosen their purse strings. Whereas the RPT resorted to repressive tactics to curb negative press in the past, no journalist has been imprisoned and no newspapers seized in the last year. "We don't intend to imprison journalists," Communications Minister Pitang Tchalla says. "The proof is that there are none in prison today. We wanted journalists to know that we had reached a redline, and I think that [the Press Code] had its intended effect." ive of the 22 pledges the government made in Brussels relate to improving freedom of expression and information, including making the Press Code consistent with international standards; ensuring the political independence of the country's media regulatory agency, the HAAC; and guaranteeing all political parties equitable access to public media. In August, the European Commission, which had sent a mission to Togo's capital, Lomé, in June to evaluate the reforms, laid out a "road map" of steps the Togolese government needs to take, says Antonio Logreco, a member of the EC delegation. Scheduling multiparty elections by the end of 2004, for example, triggers 40 million euros (US$49 million) in EU aid for further democratic reforms. As much as 100 million euros (US$123 million) could be made available over five years if Togo fully meets EC criteria, he says. Local journalists, while welcoming the changes, see many potential pitfalls. Provisions describing criminal press offenses remain vague and could be used to crack down on antigovernment opinions. And the fines assigned to the newly decriminalized offenses, which range up to 5 million CFA francs (about US$9,300), are exorbitant and could spell bankruptcy if applied to local publications.Press advocates also note that the government has long used a variety of "soft" tactics to control the media. Low salaries for journalists and low revenue from private advertising leave reporters and media owners vulnerable to bribes from government officials and politicians; chronic financial problems have also fostered what is known locally as the "combat press," publications that are financed to attack political enemies. "Newspapers lack funds, and authorities buy off the press by giving them money," Lawson-Drackey says. "Almost all of Lomé's newspapers are vulnerable."Such problems, local journalists say, will be solved only when authorities reduce financial burdens on the press by lowering taxes on such items as paper and phone services; fostering a climate in which businesses are not afraid to advertise in critical newspapers; and providing support for journalist training. ress Code improvements will not guarantee greater liberty if authorities circumvent the code, as they have in the past. In 2003, officials imprisoned three journalists for a month for "attempting to publish false information" when the journalists were found with photos of alleged election disturbances. The Press Code does not contain that charge. One of the journalists was fined 500,000 CFA francs (US$865). Two were tortured, CPJ sources say.And while the government has promised political parties equitable access to the state media—the only media with a nationwide reach—there is reason to be wary of this guarantee as well. Before the 2003 presidential elections, the RPT promised to open the state media to opposition parties. But the promises came with a hitch: The HAAC required all political messages to be vetted before being aired on the state broadcasters or appearing in Togo Presse, the state newspaper and Togo's only daily. Opposition candidates complained that their messages were censored. Local journalists say the international community will be instrumental in keeping the government on the path to reform. The EU, they argue, must communicate with independent journalists throughout the reform process."To legislate these reforms is not yet to practice them," warns Franck Assah, a reporter for Crocodile and Togo correspondent for the Panafrican News Agency. "I'm an optimist, but I still have many doubts."John Zodzi, a Togolese journalist and local correspondent for Reuters, says that in the past "whenever a newspaper was seized, the international community didn't intervene." Now, he says, "the European Union is a guarantor—it's up to the EU to intervene."

Courtesy CPJ.ORG
(Adam Posluns, former Africa researcher for CPJ, conducted a mission to Togo in 2003. Alexis Arieff is CPJ's Africa program researcher.)

Journalist Death Toll Reaches Eight in the Philippines

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the global organisation representing over 500,000 journalists worldwide, has today called for the Philippines Government to investigate the murder of journalist Eldy Gabinales and to halt the growing journalist death toll. According to information provided by the IFJ affiliate, the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP), radio commentator Eldy Gabinales, also known as Eldy Sablas, was killed today, 19 October 2004 in Tandag, Surigao del Sur. An unidentified assailant shot Gabinales three times from behind in the head and body at approximately 10am as he rode his tricycle from a supermarket. While not confirmed, the NUJP has suggested one motive behind the shooting was his vocal opposition to the alleged illegal drugs trade and illegal gambling in his town. He often expressed these views as host of “Singgit sa mga Lungsuranon (Cry of the People)" program over local Radio DXJR-FM. Gabinales is the 57th journalist to be killed in the Philippines since 1986 and the eighth to be killed this year. “How many more journalists have to die before the Philippines Government makes concrete changes to ensure the protection of journalists?” asked IFJ President Christopher Warren from Geneva today. The IFJ reiterates its call for the Philippines Government to make a public commitment to journalists’ safety and to take every step necessary to ensure that those responsible are brought to justice. “Government rhetoric about press freedom and journalists’ safety is not enough,” said Warren. “Democracy and justice demand that when we lose one of our colleagues, a full investigation takes place,” said Warren “It is imperative that the Government acts now and proves to the international community that they are serious about press freedom and journalists’ safety,” said Warren.

Media ignoring press freedom violations in Israel/Palestine conflict

While Middle East news coverage is mostly focused on Iraq these days, "gross violations of press freedom" in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are continuing and media are not paying enough attention to them, says a new report released by the International Press Institute (IPI).
The IPI Intifada Report documents attacks on the press that have occurred since the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising, began in September 2000. It finds that the Israeli government has been responsible for close to 90 per cent of the violations.
IPI says the overwhelming majority of victims are Palestinian journalists. Twelve journalists have been killed in the past four years, of which 10 were Palestinian.
In all but a handful of cases, the perpetrators have gone unpunished. No one has been punished for any of the killings of journalists. IPI says this has encouraged a "climate of impunity in which Israeli soldiers, police officers and settlers, as well as Palestinian police and militants, are given implicit, or even explicit, authority to commit press freedom violations."

Pakistani Information minister warns newspapers

PESHAWAR (Pakistan)

Information and Broadcasting Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has warned media to avoid portraying terrorists as heroes of Islam and Pakistan, saying it went against national interests.Briefing newsmen at the press club on October 12, Minister said harbouring terrorist groups in the country was a crime, which could not be condoned, as we are a part of the international anti-terrorist movement. He warned the news media if someone portrayed terrorist as heroes, he would be tried under the Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Act, 2001, which stated: "A person commits an offence if he prints, publishes or disseminates any material, whether by audio or video cassettes or by written, photographic, electronic, digital, wall chalking or any other method, which incites hatred." The media has strongly reacted against the warning of the Federal Information and Broadcasting Minister. In an immediate reaction the Council of Pakistan Newspapers Editors (CPNE) has strongly protested against the statement of the Federal Information Minister.A CPNE spokesman pointed out that Pakistani newspapers perform their professional obligations and patriotism by providing correct information and news to the masses. He expressed concern over the ban threat to the newspapers and other media organisations on part of the minister and pointed out, that it was the prime responsibility of the newspapers to inform the masses of the events happening within the country.CPNE said if the government thinks its image is being tarnished, it should try to better its governance rather than blaming the media or restraining it to cover the events. It shows the government in fact wanted to adopt revengeful measures against these newspapers criticizing its performance. The same news items were also being published and aired by the foreign media organisations. The spokesman said the non-publication of national news items in Pakistani newspapers would not only tarnish the image of the print media and its credibility but also would restrict the ‘right to know’ on part of the masses which is a violation of the basic human rights inscribed in Article 19 of the Constitution. The CPNE spokesman reiterated the resolve that the CPNE would combat all steps aimed at suppressing the freedom of press as any curbs on the freedom of press or freedom of the expression would ultimately result in restricting the political, social, industrial, cultural and moral growth of the society.

Attack on journalist in Ghotki, Sukkur

SUKKUR - A journalist and his staff member were attacked by four police gunmen in his office on September 14, 2004.According to the details, two days back, Allah Waraio Bozdwar a journalist had an argument with Taluka police officer Niaz Chandio. As a result, Niaz Chandio came to his office with four armed gunmen and beatup and injured Allah Waraio. He and his computer operator, Mr. Nasir Sheikh were injured.Mr. Pervaiz Abro, President of Ghalib Latif Press Club Sukkur, stated that the attack on Mr. Allah Waraio was a result of his news items about corruption of the police force in Ghotki.The journalists of Sukkur held protest demonstrations against the attack and met Mr. Aftab Halepoto, DPO Ghotki, and demanded immediate investigation into the matter.He promised the journalists that a fair inquiry and punishment to the guilty within four days. But no action has so far been taken.Mr. Aftab Halepoto later appointed an inquiry officer for investigation. The civil society organizations and journalists continuing the demands against the attack and demanded immediate action.

Attacks on Media inPakistan - Reporters without Borders 2004 Annual Report

Area : 796,100 sq. km.
Population : 149,911,000
Languages : English, Urdu (off.)
Type of state : Islamic federal republic
Head of state : President (Gen.) Pervez Musharraf

Pakistan's ubiquitous security services harassed journalists who investigated subjects that irritated the president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf. They did not hesitate to arrest two French reporters and their Pakistani fixer who had just prepared a report on the Taliban. At the same time, the authorities continued to liberalise the broadcast media.
Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup, is able to rely on the military's Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to monitor, intimidate, manipulate, arrest or torture Pakistani and foreign journalists who enquire into a sensitive issues. Granted another five years as president in a 2002 referendum marred by irregularities, Musharraf authorised the secret detention and torture of Khawar Mehdi Rizvi, a fixer for the French magazine L'Express, in 2003 after Rizvi assisted an investigation into a Taliban group on the Afghan border.Investigative journalist Amir Mir was fired from the Weekly Independent in June 2003 as a result of pressure by Musharraf, who accused him of tarnishing Pakistan's image. Mir's car was set on fire in November. Newspaper editor Rehmat Shah Afridi was condemned to death after criticising the behaviour of a government anti-narcotics agency that is controlled by Gen. Musharraf and financed by the United States. He was convicted on a drug-trafficking charge trumped up by the intelligence agencies.Despite these serial violations, Musharraf repeatedly proclaimed his support for press freedom. He did indeed permit the creation of new, privately-owned broadcast media, but this was for fear of being left behind by neighbouring India, where the independent press is growing fast. His ministers, especially information minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, also said the government had no intention of obstructing journalists in their work.What the authorities tolerated least were reports about the presence of Taliban and Al Qaeda members in Pakistani territory. Foreign journalists found it very difficult to obtain permission to visit border regions especially those near Peshawar or Quetta and the security services kept anyone going there under close surveillance. In October, the Pakistani army invited the press to follow part of its operations in one of the tribal areas on the "embedded journalist" model used for the invasion of Iraq.The authorities also used advertising revenue as a weapon to limit criticism. In April, the government gave the information department sole responsibility for assigning state advertising, on which many print media are largely dependent for their survival.On the other hand, the government continued to liberalise the media market. Cross ownership of print and electronic media was made possible in July. Information minister Ahmad announced the creation of ten new cable TV channels and the launch of a three-channel satellite package by the state-owned Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV). It was widely recognised that the privately-owned cable television company, Geo TV, which assigns much of its broadcast time to news, was becoming increasingly influential. Experts said it was quite independent in its handling of the news, especially compared with the state-owned PTV. Gen. Musharraf is believed to have tolerated Geo TV in order to bring Pakistani viewers back to a national channel after many of them, especially during the Kashmir war in 1999, began watching privately-owned Indian channels which are freer in their news coverage. There were limits to this liberalisation, as Geo TV was not given a licence for terrestrial broadcasting and has to broadcast from base in Dubai.The liberalisation of the airwaves was defended by the chairman of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), Mian Muhammad Javed. "The media create knowledge and ensure transparency," he said. The information minister announced on 30 December that the PEMRA was going to grant 13 new licences in the coming months. But most of the press groups that applied for radio and TV licences had to face very extensive bureaucratic procedures and political constraints. The range of banned content goes from "anti-national" reports to Indian songs.The federal authorities continued to impose restrictions on cable TV operators. In March, they were banned from offering Indian channels on the grounds that the new privately-owned Pakistani channels needed to be protected from competition. The cable operations reacted by ceasing to distribute certain regional and international channels in August. After several weeks, the authorities agreed to negotiate.In general, television is becoming more and more influential compared with the English-language print media, which reach less than two per cent of the population. The Urdu-language newspapers, for their part, have a combined circulation of three million, also quite low for a population of 150 million.As elsewhere in Asia, community radio is developing despite the bureaucratic hurdles. Former information minister Javed Jabbar criticised the obstacles to the creation of new radio stations in April. There are only 25 stations in Pakistan and less than half of their programming is in regional languages. The authorities granted a score of new radio licences in May.The constraints on press freedom and the safety of journalists are considerable in some part of the country such as the tribal areas and Kashmir. The local authorities and traditional chiefs threaten correspondents who report abuses, many of which are committed under emergency provisions. The new government in North-West Frontier Province, which is led by a coalition of religious parties, announced its intention of eliminating "obscenity and vulgarity" especially in cable TV programming and cinema.
A journalist killedA journalist was murdered in 2003, but at the end of the year it was still impossible to say if his death was linked to his work.Amir Bux Brohi was on his way to his office in Shikarpur (in the north of the southeastern province of Sindh) on the evening of 3 October 2003 when he was stopped by three men, who fatally shot him and fled. He was the correspondent of the Sindhi-language Daily Kawish and the KTN television channel. He had been a reporter in Shikarpur for 12 years and according to Ahmed Raza, the Daily Times's correspondent in Hyderabad, he was known for covering human rights violations by the police and members of the local elite. His family said he had been threatened several times.His murder sparked heated reactions. Journalists demonstrated in the province's major cities and then throughout the rest of the country to press demands for the authorities to do everything necessary to arrest the perpetrators and protect reporters. Journalists in Sindh even went on hunger strike. On 14 October, the press boycotted the workings of the federal parliament in Islamabad. The information minister promised arrests within five days.But doubts emerged about the motive for the murder. Brohi's father accused a family member of being the instigator. Investigators discovered that money was transferred from Brohi's account to that of a family member a few days before the murder. Brohi came from a very poor family but had accumulated a degree of wealth as a result of his contacts. This had given rise to jealousy within his family and among members of his tribe, and his murder could therefore have been personally motivated. Shahnawaz Brohi was arrested as a suspect on 11 December but was released on bail the next day. He was not even questioned by the police officers in charge of the investigation, Brohi's father said.
New information about journalists killed before 2003The accused perpetrators of the October 2002 murder of Shahid Soomro of the Daily Kawish appeared before a jirga (traditional assembly) in Kandkhot (in the southwestern province of Balochistan) on 28 January 2003. Wahid and Mohammed Ali Bijarani, the brothers of local politician Mir Mehboob Bijarani, were alleged to have shot Soomro because of his articles about recent electoral abuses by the Bijarani clan, which dominates politics in Kandkhot. The assembly concluded with Soomro's widow and five children being awarded 1.65 million rupees (about 25,000 euros) in damages (a third of which was special compensation for "murder of a journalist"). Traditional assemblies are used in this part of Pakistan to settle conflicts, including those involving murder, in order to avoid overly heavy punishments for those accused.Fazal Karim, one of the main suspects in the January 2002 kidnapping and subsequent murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl of the Wall Street Journal, was placed in pretrial custody on a charge of drug possession on 16 April in Thatta district (in Sindh province). According to several sources, Karim was arrested in Karachi in July 2002 by Pakistani security officials and the CIA at the same time as other suspects in the Pearl case. Karim's lawyer claimed that he was then held secretly and illegally by the police for nearly eight months. Qari Abdul Hai, the presumed leader of the Islamist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, was arrested in Muzaffargarh (near the central city of Multan) on 29 May. Although suspected of participating in Pearl's abduction, he was not charged in connection with the case. He was instead taken to court for the alleged murder of six Shiites in 1994, for which he faces the death penalty.US government officials told the Wall Street Journal in October that alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was also thought to have been directly involved in Pearl's murder. New information, which investigators insisted on keeping secret, reportedly showed that it was Mohammed who cut Pearl's throat. Although many Pakistani newspapers carried these allegations, the Pakistani officials in charge of the investigation said they were not in a position to confirm them. The Pakistani judges in charge of hearing the appeal of the four Islamist militants already convicted of Pearl's murder postponed a court hearing on 21 October for the sixth time since December 2002 because of the defence lawyer's absence.
Two journalists kidnappedAkhtar Baloch, a journalist and member of the local section of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) in the southeastern city of Hyderabad, was kidnapped on 23 March 2003 as he was returning from an HRCP meeting in Thandi Sharak. His abductors blindfolded him, took him somewhere, questioned him for three days about his personal life, his work as a journalist and his contacts in India, and then released him. He said they did not use physical torture. Family members said they suspected a Pakistani intelligence agency was responsible.Muneer Rajar of the Daily Kawish, the most important newspaper in the southeastern Sindh region, was kidnapped by four men in Hyderabad as he was going home on 23 April. They bundled him into a car, blindfolded him, tied his hands and took him to place where he was held for five hours. While there, an officer with the security forces ordered him to stop criticising the local authorities. Rajar had written about human rights violations on several occasions.
Six journalists imprisonedMunawar Mohsin, who edited the readers' letters section of the daily Frontier Post, was condemned to life imprisonment and fined 50,000 rupees (750 euros) on 8 July 2003 by the North-West Frontier Province district court for "selecting" and "publishing" a letter that allegedly insulted the Prophet Muhammad and was therefore blasphemkus and a violation of the criminal code. Two other members of the newspaper's staff, news editor Aftab Ahmad and head of computing Wajeehul Hassan, were acquitted, but an arrest warrant was issued for editor in chief Mahmood Shah Afridi, already a fugitive from the police. Mohsin's lawyer filed an appeal two days later before the Peshawar high court claiming that the letter's publication was not deliberate and that the judge violated article 465 of the code of criminal procedure concerning mentally disturbed defendants. Mohsin's brother told the press that Mohsin was disturbed and had been a heroin addict prior to his arrest. Mohsin was arrested in Peshawar on 29 January 2001, the same day that the offending letter appeared in the newspaper, signed by someone identified as Ben Dzec. Its publication sparked violent protests in Pakistan during the following days, in the course of which extremists ransacked the Frontier Post's premises. The authorities had reacted by banning the newspaper for two months.Rasheed Azam, a journalist with the local newspapers Intikhab and Asap and a human rights activist in the southwestern province of Balochistan, was arrested on 12 August after distributing a poster showing a solder beating demonstrators. During the police investigation, reference was also made to his articles criticising federal policy towards Balochistan and he was reportedly beaten in the course of interrogation sessions. Both a lower court and the high court rejected requests for his release on bail.The family of Rehmat Shah Afridi, a former editor in chief of the dailies Frontier Post and Maidan who has been condemned to death, reported in September that they were very worried about his state of health. They said he had lost a lot of weight and had not been allowed to received the treatment he needed for his heart ailment. Arrested on 2 April 1999, he was convicted on 27 June 2001 of drug trafficking and possession and was sentenced to be hanged. Afridi still claims he is innocent. It appears he was framed by the US-funded Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) in revenge for the reports he often ran in both of his newspapers accusing the ANF of corruption, drug trafficking and illegal arms sales. He was tortured following his arrest and placed in the death row in Kot Lakhpat prison in Lahore (in Punjab province). Until recently, he was never let out of his cell and had no mattress. Family members asked the Punjab interior minister in September to give orders for him to receive the treatment he needs. The minister said he would be moved to a centre that specialised in cardiology, but the promised transfer had not taken place by the end of the year. The appeal he filed after his conviction has never been heard.Two French journalists working for the French news weekly L'Express, reporter Marc Epstein and photographer Jean-Paul Guilloteau, were arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency on 16 December in Karachi on a charge of violating regulations governing the "circulation of foreigners." They had press visas for Pakistan but, because their investigative reporting required discretion, they had not requested the necessary special permits for a trip they made to Quetta in the province of Balochistan with their Pakistani fixer Khawar Mehdi Rizvi. As a result, they faced up to three years in prison under the 1946 Foreigners Act.Rizvi was kidnapped the same day in Karachi by military intelligence officers. He was detained in a different place from the French journalists and his name was not even mentioned on their charge sheet. It subsequently emerged that the military tortured him badly. The police meanwhile confiscated Epstein's computer and notebook and Guilloteau's digital camera memory cards and videotapes.A judge refused to release Epstein and Guilloteau on bail on 20 December and they were transferred in handcuffs to Karachi prison. Rizvi's brother meanwhile said he had been trying for five days to get information about Rizvi and voiced concern and anger about his "disappearance." At the same time, the newspaper Jang reported that an employee of a Rawalpindi mosque had also been arrested for "complicity" with Rizvi in the preparation of what the authorities portrayed as a bogus report.A report put together by the state-owned PTV claimed that Rizvi paid Afghans to pose as Taliban fighters training. Various sources described the PTV report as a crude mix of Epstein's video footage interspersed with reconstruction and fabricated statements. The two French journalists were freed on bail on 24 December but were ordered to stay in Pakistan pending trial. The same day, Rizvi's lawyer obtained a writ of habeas corpus from the Sindh high court for the authorities to produce Rizvi in court before the end of the year. However, a Federal Investigation Agency representative denied to the court on 30 December that the agency was holding Rizvi. At the end of the year, Rizvi was still secretly held by the authorities in very harsh conditions.
At least 12 journalists detainedOn 3 May 2003, police raided the office of Muhammad Faiz, the correspondent of the daily Mashriq in the northwestern city of Charsadda, struck Faiz and arrested him. Journalists took to the streets of Charsadda a few hours later in protest. Faiz was released after eight hours, but remained under police surveillance. He said the police insulted him all the time he was held but did not beat him. Three days prior to his arrest, Faiz wrote an article criticising the local police for their attitude toward the local population.Six reporters and three photographers were detained in Jamshoro (in the southeastern province of Sindh) during a visit by President Musharraf on 26 August. They were struck and arrested by police while covering a women's demonstration. Nadeem Panhwar of the Daily Kawish, Sharif Abroo of the Daily Koshish, Hakim Chandio of the Daily Ibrat, Ifran Barwat of the Tameer Sindh, Shahid Khushk of the Daily Unmat and Haji Khan Sial of the Daily Jang were placed in custody in different police stations in the area. They were released the next day but remained charged with making "anti-Pakistani" statements.Nasrullah Afridi and Aurangzeb Afridi, correspondents for the Peshawar-based, Urdu-language dailies Mashriq and Subah, were detained for several hours on 18 September in a private prison run by the fundamentalist Organisation for Ulema Unity (Tanzeem Ittehad-e-Ulema) in the Khyber Agency part of the Tribal Areas. Respectively president and vice-president of the Tribal Union of Journalists in the Khyber Agency, they had just filed reports on the abduction of two persons from Lahore by Tanzeem Ittehad-e-Ulema. They were released after several hours as a result of pressure from influential persons, but were ordered to come to a meeting with the organisation. They refused to attend and thereafter received threats that they should fear for their lives if they did not "give up the idea of a free press in the Khyber Agency." In a previous report, Nasrullah Afridi had described Tanzeem Ittehad-e-Ulema as an illegal group, recalling that it had been banned for the past five years. Nonetheless, it has an armed wing comprising 3,000 persons in the Tribal Areas and imposes it own law in the region.
At least 27 journalists physically attackedJournalists were beaten by members of the secret service while covering a ceremony in honour of the president's wife, Begum Sehba Musharraf, in Alhamra (in Punjab province) on 18 January 2003. The Punjab Union of Journalists staged a march through the provincial capital of Lahore two days later in protest.Sami Paracha, the daily Dawn's correspondent in Kohat (in the south of northwestern Peshawar province), was abducted and attacked on 18 April. A group of men came to his home to take him to a reception by the mayor, but they took him by force to a hospital where they threatened him, beat him and locked him inside a bathroom. He was rescued after calling the police with his mobile phone. He believed the attack was a reprisal for a report he wrote about the privileges received by a local gang leader, Pir Habib Shah, when he was treated in the hospital.Ten journalists covering a demonstration in Lahore (the capital of the eastern province of Punjab) were struck by four members of the local police on 28 May. The city's journalists staged a demonstration outside the Punjab assembly in protest and called a two-day boycott of parliamentary activities to press demands for the punishment of the policemen involved. Two provincial ministers apologised to the press and promised that the police would be sanctioned.Anwarullah Khan, the daily Dawn's correspondent in the Bajaur Agency part of the Tribal Areas, was attacked by three armed henchmen of tribal chief Nawabzada Mohammad Idress Khan as he left his office on 2 September.Geo TV correspondent Muhammad Ejaz Khan and daily Jang correspondent Haji Muhammad Ajmal were injured by a bomb in the centre of the western city of Quetta on 10 November. They had rushed to the site of an initial explosion when a second bomb went off in the same place. Khan was hospitalised in Karachi with eye injuries. Ajmal was only slightly hurt.Police beat Abid Nawab, Yasir Nawab and Muhammad Naeem of the weekly Ayubi and searched their office in Faisalabad on 22 November after they ran a report about police involvement in a case of extortion. Four policemen were suspended after a complaint was filed with the Pakistani Human Rights Commission.
At least six journalists threatenedThe News correspondent Amjad Warraich and his wife were robbed in their home in Lahore by masked intruders on 11 February 2003. The police made no arrests, although Warraich thought the robbery may have been linked to threats he had received in the preceding weeks in response to reports he had written about certain officials. A member of the intelligence agency had warned him at the start of the year not to write articles that could cause him "problems," while an official advised him not to write political articles for the Weekly Independent.Ilyas Mehraj, the owner of the Weekly Independent, received a threatening phone call on 10 March from Punjab home secretary Ejaz Shah, who accused him of working against "the national interest." The newspaper focuses on politics and is very critical of the army. Shah, who is the region's former intelligence director, told Mehraj to back off he wanted to avoid jeopardising his weekly and his own life, and Shah cited the case of Rana Sanaullah Khan, twice arrested and tortured for criticising the government. Following these threats, the Punjab government stopped placing advertising with the newspaper, stripping it of an important source of income. More than 100 journalists demonstrated in Islamabad on 3 April in protest against these punitive measures.In May, the authorities announced that the Weekly Independent was being investigated for "publishing articles hostile to the army, the President, the Prime Minister and Pakistan." The magazine's three most recent issues had carried articles referring to conflicts between Musharraf and the prime minister, and between Musharraf and the army. Editor Amir Mir wrote in an editorial on 12 June that it was not easy to keep a newspaper going in a country where the army dominates political life and security officials call newspaper editors and owners to tell them what they may or may not publish. Mir resigned the next day, after several months of pressure from the authorities to change the magazine's editorial line. The magazine claimed that Musharraf had himself chaired a meeting in Lahore at which it was decided that concrete measures should be taken against the Weekly Independent, including the withdrawal of official advertising. Messages were also indirectly conveyed to the magazine's investors and staff by Tariq Aziz Warraich, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, three associates of the president. The day he resigned, Mir said he would rather go than carry on being subjected to all sorts of pressure aimed at making the magazine bow to the government.Khalid Mehmood Shah, the editor of the opposition monthly Sharhag-e-Pakistan, was harassed by police in his office in Lahore or 30 June. About 70 police ransacked the monthly's premises claiming to looking for Shah's brother, the spokesman of opposition leader Shahbaz Sharif. Armed policemen then occupied the offices for 36 hours, following Shah whenever he moved from one place to another. They left on 1 July, taking diskettes and other computer material. The Council of Pakistan Newspapers Editors (CPNE) said Shah was targeted because of his criticism of the government.Jehangir Shehzad, a crime reporter with the Peshawar-based, Urdu-language Express, received death threats by telephone and fax during on October. Then, on the night of 29 October, he was chased by a car as he was going home and nearly crashed. He said he did not know the reason for these threats.On 22 November, thugs set fire to the car of leading investigative journalist Amir Mir and fired shots outside his home in Lahore, in the eastern province of Punjab. Previously the editor of the Weekly Independent (see above), Mir was now the deputy editor of the English-language monthly Herald. The government denied any involvement in these incidents, although they followed a long series of threats and acts of harassment against Mir by senior military and civilian officials, including information minister Rasheed Ahmed and the head of military intelligence in Punjab, Arslan Ali Khan. Mir was also accused by Gen. Rashid Qureshi of being an "Indian agent" because of an article he wrote in the Indian magazine Outlook.Mir told Reporters Without Borders he feared for his life : "I have received indirect messages from the authorities asking me to leave Pakistan ... I've already told my family that if anything serious happens to me, Gen. Musharraf should be held directly responsible ... I'm very afraid for my family's safety." The latest acts of intimidation came after President Musharraf told a meeting of leading newspaper editors on 20 November that the editors of the Herald and the monthly Newsline had not been invited because they ran stories that damaged Pakistan's international image. In response to a question about the presence in Pakistan of Dawood Ibrahim, the reputed head of an Indian crime organisation, Musharraf said certain Pakistani newspapers published harmful reports that supported Indian allegations and therefore damaged Pakistan's national interests. The August and November issues of the Herald had carried investigative reports by Mir on this matter.
Harassment and obstructionSome 30 gunmen wrecked the installations of cable TV operator OK Cable Network in the northwestern city of Peshawar on the night of 7 January. No arrests were made, although the installations were only 100 metres from the Gulbahar police station. Peshawar's other cable operators suspended services to their tens of thousands of subscribers in the region for two days in protest. But after talks with federal government representatives, they resumed transmissions on 9 January. Tariq Mateen, a nazim (elected mayor), destroyed the cable network in a Peshawar neighbourhood the next day with the help of Islamist activists and announced a de facto ban on cable TV. He and his followers called on the local authorities to "purge the region of this curse" so that the Pakistani people could live according to Islam's rules. There were reports of clashes between saboteurs and residents. Cable operators were warned to shut down at once.The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) received hundreds of calls every day in January protesting against the ban on Indian TV channels introduced by the federal government in 2002. On 27 January, PEMRA appealed to viewers to stop putting pressure on cable operators as the banned channels were "contrary to the national interest." The federal minister of information and media development on 17 March reiterated the government's determination to maintain the ban on Indian channels because of the danger that they would "compromise the country's future generations." The minister also wanted to restrict Pakistani cable TV to national channels in order to protect the Pakistani TV industry.Syed Anwar, an Afghan journalist with the Peshawar-based, English-language daily Frontier Post, was threatened by intelligence agents from the province of Nangarhar in eastern Afghanistan in mid-February after he wrote two reports about Hazrat Ali, Nangarhar's former police chief and military commander. In a report on 15 February, he said Ali had been arrested. The next day, he wrongly reported that Ali had been charged with drug trafficking, abduction and helping Al Qaeda members escape from the mountains of Tora Bora. Two intelligence agents from Nangarhar came to the Frontier Post's offices in Peshawar and told Ali he should expect "dire personal consequences." They also said they could deny Pakistani journalists access to Afghanistan's three eastern provinces. Anwar told Reporters Without Borders he feared for his life as a result of these threats. The Nangarhar authorities banned the sale of Frontier Post in the province on 18 February.The family of Hayatullah Khan, the correspondent of the national Urdu-language daily Ausaf in Mir Ali in the North Waziristan part of the Tribal Areas, was harassed by military officials for several weeks beginning on 3 April as a result a report about misuse of army vehicles in Mir Ali. Khan's brothers and daughter were expelled from their army-run school. The officer in charge of the school also threatened Khan. On 21 April, he relented and readmitted Khan's relatives.On 4 April, a bomb went off outside the home of Awardeen Mehsood, the correspondent of the Urdu-language national daily Khabrian and the news agency NNI, in Laddah, the main town in the South Waziristan part of the Tribal Areas. The explosion damaged the door of his home but caused no injuries. It was thought to be linked to Mehsood's reports about the activities of a youth movement that is pressing for a change in the status of the Tribal Areas. The federal authorities have promised to liberalize the laws governing this region, which borders Afghanistan, but the civilian administrator still has significant coercive powers. Mehsood, who is also one of the leaders of the Tribal Union of Journalists (TUJ), was fined 5,000 euros in 2002 for allegedly libelling the region's civilian administration.Some 10 people attacked the watchman at a cable TV operator's office in Nawan Kali, near the city of Quetta (in the southwestern province of Balochistan), on 22 April, setting fire to equipment and throwing the watchman into the flames. He had to be hospitalised. A representative of the Quetta Cable Network Association said at a press conference that it did not rule out the possibility that the assailants were Islamist activists. The operator concerned had previously received threats. The association also announced that it was suspending cable TV service in protest. The attack came after Balochistan's rulling alliance of conservative and fundamentalist parties began pressing for a ban on cable TV and the province's information minister had launched a campaign against TV "pornography." After two days, the cable operators announced that they were resuming service. In the course of negotiations with the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) and the Quetta police chief, the cable operators were told that an investigation would be carried out to identify those responsible for the attacks, and that both the cable operating company and the watchman would be compensated.The Lahore high court on 13 May banned the news media from covering judicial proceedings against President Musharraf, who was the subject of a complaint aimed at having him tried for "high treason."The government of the northwestern province of Peshawar, which is led by a fundamentalist party, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), banned male journalists from covering female sports events on 16 May. The ban was one of a large number of measures aimed at separating men from women that have been adopted by the MMA administration since it took office in November 2002.The government banned the privately-owned news media from covering a speech by President Musharraf at a conference of education ministers from South Asian countries on 19 May in Islamabad.The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) announced on 25 May that a system for automatically censoring TV programmes contrary to "Pakistani values" was in the process of being set up. The PEMRA had meanwhile just established a moral code for cable TV operators designed to protect the country's ideology and cultural values.Access to the online investigative newspaper, the South Asia Tribune, was blocked in most Pakistani cities on 30 May by the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), which controls telecommunications. The Washington-based newspaper succeeded on 3 June in setting up a new way of accessing its website by going through other servers. Editor Shaheen Sehbai said the sudden ban was prompted by several recent articles on the site that openly criticised Gen. Musharraf, especially his military support for the United States. The site also often carries reports on human rights violations by the Pakistani authorities and it has exposed several corruption scandals implicating the country's leaders.The municipal authorities of Quetta (the capital of Balochistan province) ordered editors and printers in the region to publish nothing without official approval on 10 July. The authorities feared ethnic and religious violence in the city after a bomb went off in a Shiite mosque. The authorities also banned the reproduction and dissemination of unauthorised texts, gatherings of more than four people, the use of loud-speakers and graffiti and the written dissemination of "shocking" messages. These measures were lifted a few days later.Information minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad announced on 24 July that the customs department had been instructed to seize all copies of the 28 July issue of Newsweek because of an article entitled "Challenging the Qur'an" that was an "insult" to Islam and could cause unrest. The article reported that a German linguist believed the Qur'an (or Koran) may have originally been written in Aramaic instead of Arabic and that this would explain a number of errors of interpretation about the veil, the reward for martyrs and even the Qur'an's origin. Newsweek's stringer in Peshawar (the capital of North-West Frontier Province) meanwhile fled the city for fear of reprisals.Journalists in the town of Abbottabad in North-West Frontier Province were the target of a campaign of intimidation by the local authorities in July. The fundamentalist Jamat-e-Islami, which is the ruling party in the area, tried to close the town's press club. As a result of this harassment, the club's vice-president, Amer Shahzad Jadoon, was fired from the daily Mashriq Peshawar.The home of Voice of America correspondent Mukhtar Ahmad Khan in Sawaldher (in North-West Frontier Province) was searched by police with no warrant on 18 August. They claimed they were looking for a suspect.A municipal official in Sheikhupura, in the eastern province of Punjab, on 21 August brought a complaint against nine journalists, including the president and general secretary of the town's press club, Rana Sarwar and Azeem Ahmad Yazdani, for "interference in official business." They had written about a municipal official's alleged involvement in a case of corruption.Khalid Hasan, the US-based correspondent of the Pakistani Daily Times newspaper, was the target of a campaign of defamation and intimidation by three diplomats with Pakistan's embassy in Washington in September. They accused him of lacking credibility after he questioned their professionalism and probity in a report.An anti-terrorist court judge on 2 September ordered the management of the satellite television channel ARY Digital TV, which broadcasts from Britain, to apologise on the air for broadcasting an interview with a defendant while his trial was under way. Interviewee Shaikh Muhammad Amjad, who was condemned to death, made comments which the court considered "insulting."

CPJ condemns harassment and detention of journalists

New York, May 14, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the harassment and detention of several Pakistani journalists in connection with the Tuesday, May 11, return of exiled politician Shahbaz Sharif to Lahore.Zaffar Abbas, a producer with the BBC, and Ali Faisal Zaidi, a cameraman with the BBC, accompanied Sharif on his flight from Abu Dhabi to Lahore to cover his homecoming after three years in exile. Sharif is the head of the opposition political party the Pakistan Muslim League­Nawaz Group (PML­N) and the brother of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was deposed by General Pervez Musharraf in 1999.After Abbas and Zaidi exited the plane behind Shahbaz Sharif, police immediately pulled them aside, according to Abbas. The journalists identified themselves as BBC journalists, but police confiscated Zaidi's camera equipment and Abbas' recording equipment, took their passports, and put them in a police prison truck, where they were confined for almost an hour. After their release, their equipment and passports were returned, but their tapes were not.Security forces and elite police commandos were deployed throughout the airport and sealed off the building, according to Abbas and local news reports. Several other journalists were also harassed and denied access to Shahbaz Sharif's arrival. According to the United Arab Emirates' English-language daily Gulf News, security officers asked all of the journalists waiting to cover Shahbaz Sharif's arrival to leave the airport as soon as passengers began exiting the plane.CNN producer detainedPolice also detained CNN producer Syed Mohsin Naqvi at his home in Lahore on the evening of May 10, according to local news reports. Officers claimed to have received a tip that there was a bomb in the journalist's home. They searched the premises but would not leave, despite Naqvi's request that they do so. As a result, the journalist missed a flight he had planned to take to Abu Dhabi that evening to accompany Shahbaz Sharif from Abu Dhabi to Lahore on May 11, according to the English-language daily The News. CNN confirmed that the incident occurred but would provide no other details.Authorities put Shahbaz Sharif on a plane out of the country soon after the plane landed in Lahore, according to news reports."We are outraged by these blatant press freedom violations," said CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper. "Authorities targeted and illegally detained journalists who were trying to cover an important news event. Sadly, this appears to be part of an overall deterioration of conditions for journalists in Pakistan, and we urge authorities to reverse this disturbing trend."

Media & Musharraf in Pakistan

The Press in Pakistan is not enjoying greater freedom under its president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who took over power in a military coup in 1999. Journalists still operate under pressure from the military, police, religious hard-liners, intelligence agencies, and the country’s antiquated blasphemy laws. Since parliamentary elections in October 2002, which were held with the stated goal of restoring democracy and civilian rule in Pakistan, the government has been locked in a power struggle between Musharraf’s attempts to strengthen the presidency and Parliament’s demand that he relinquish his title as head of the army and rule the country as a civilian president. Government did not keep its promise to respect press freedom. The ubiquitous security services harassed the country's journalists, while the adoption of new press laws posed a threat to the relatively critical tone of the print media. Relations between the press, police and the military regime worsened in the recent months of 2004. Sajid Tanoli, a reporter with the Urdu-language daily Shumal, was shot and killed in Manshera , Pakistan's . Police have filed murder charges against Manshera's local government head, Khalid Javed. Tanoli was killed after he wrote an article on January 26,2004 about an allegedly illegal liquor business run by Javed. Enraged by the article, Javed filed a libel suit against Shumal . Then, two days later, he shot Tanoli, who died instantly, and fled the scene. Pakistan Press Club (PPC) protested today at Pakistan's concerted efforts to stop foreign and local journalists freely covering the army's offensive against armed Taliban and Al-Qaeda supporters in the Wana region of South Waziristan. At least four journalists have been arrested and a dozen more barred entering from the area. The government's duty to ensure basic security for journalists must not be used as an excuse to prevent them independently reporting on this major operation in the fight against terrorism by arresting them, keeping them out of the area and seizing their equipment. It called on armed forces spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan to guarantee better media access to the region by giving journalists special passes. The government has barred nearly all Pakistani and foreign journalists from the South Waziristan tribal area, where the combat zone has been tightly sealed off by the military, which did however put on a helicopter tour for foreign journalists on 20 March, though not to the area of the fighting itself. Mujeebur Rehman (daily Khabrian) was arrested on 16 March while filming military operations near Wana. His digital camera was confiscated and has not been returned to him. Shaukat Khattak, reporter with Pakistani TV Geo TV, was arrested on 18 March in Dabkot while filming army activity. Despite having the right documents, he was detained for four hours, during which he said soldiers threatened and insulted him "as if I was a terrorist." A photographer for the Associated Press was turned back by troops at a roadblock about an hour's drive from Wana on 19 March. Half a dozen other journalists, including two Pakistani photographers, were not allowed into South Waziristan, which is more than 10 hours by road south of Peshawar, in northwestern Pakistan. Haroon Rashid, correspondent of BBC radio in Peshawar, and Saiful Islam, of daily Surkhab and Arab TV Al-Jazeera, were arrested at Peshawar military hospital on 21 March. They were trying to interview soldiers wounded in the South Waziristan fighting. Pakistani intelligence officials interrogated them about why they were there. All their film was destroyed and their minidisc recorders confiscated. More than a dozen journalists in Wana currently work as stringers for Pakistani and foreign media but their employers say they are not allowed to work freely. They cannot enter the combat zone and have to be very careful what they report, said one Islamabad-based foreign journalist, who said they were under pressure and sometimes reacted according to their tribal origin. Working conditions for my journalist fellows are not safe in the tribal areas. Safety and freedom are limited .Also local authorities and traditional leaders threaten correspondents who denounce their abuses, often committed in the name of Frontier crimes regulation. Government started advertising restrictions to pressure Pakistani newspapers into curtailing their criticism of officials. Two months ago the federal government discouraged its departments from advertising in newspapers belonging to one of Pakistan's leading media organisations, the Nawa-i-Waqt Group of Publications. As a result, neither the federal nor provincial government has been advertising in the following newspapers: "The Nation," "Nawa-i-Waqt" and "Ausaf" in Islamabad, "Balochistan Express" and "Azadi" in Quetta, "Ummat," the "Financial Post," the "Daily Intikhab" and "Jassarat" in Karachi, and others. Nawa-i-Waqt Group is one of Pakistan’s leading media organizations and publishes more than 10 daily newspapers and magazines. Group’s Executive Editor Arif Nizami blamed the government action on the newspaper’s critical coverage. "Our reporting about the supremacy of democratic institutions in the country pains the rulers," said Nizami. Local journalists say that this action is an attempt by the government to pressure and control independent newspapers in Pakistan.Pakistani Government’s move against the Nawa-i-Waqt Group is an example of press freedom violations in Pakistan.In the past, many of these newspapers have criticised the government of General Pervez Musharraf, and I fears that the ban is being used to weaken Pakistan's independent media by making it clear that criticism can have dire financial consequences. Media world has expressed its concern about the fate of a young reporter who was kidnapped by bandits in Sind province on 4 March 2004. The abduction of Shabbaz Pathan, correspondent for the daily Halchal, published in southern Hyderabad, was believed linked to a report by his brother, a TV journalist, on impunity enjoyed by bandits who infest the Sukkur region. Armed men seized Pathan in broad daylight as he left his Sukkur office. They were apparently taken to Shah Belo forest near Sukkur, where the bandits have hideouts. The gangsters who are holding the journalist have made a ransom demand to his family. Asad Pathan, correspondent in Sukkur for ARY TV and general secretary of the local press club, told that the kidnapping of his brother could have been linked to a recent report of his on ARY TV about activities linking local criminals to some landowners. The head of government for Sindh has ordered the police to act in the case, but police efforts have so far not produced results. Pakistani journalist Khawar Mehdi Rizvi is facing charges for allegedly faking a report for two French magazine journalists about armed Taliban activities along the Afghan border. Because he is being tried in an anti-terrorism court, Rizvi was not eligible for bail.Rizvi, 44, is reported to be weak and with lung problems as a result of bad prison conditions and torture by police and military intelligence officials during his secret detention since mid-December.he has not been allowed visitors. He was previously jailed for four years and a half in the 1980s while campaigning for democracy and against the dictatorship of Gen. Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. While you are reading these lines Mehdi is believed to be released on bail, on the order of the special anti-terrorist court in Quetta. Government should go further by dropping charges against the journalist. Rizvi however is still accused of "conspiracy" and "sedition" and he will have to attend court at each stage of the trial, although he will be allowed to live in Islamabad. The case against Rizvi is political, and that holding the trial in an anti-terrorism court is meant to send a warning to the journalism community in Pakistan.