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."

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."

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Pakistani Journalist attacked in Mississauga

BY MOHSIN ABBAS

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

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.

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.

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

Pakistani Journalist found dead six months after he went missing

Dear Friends,

It was shocking news for me in Canada. This morning when on the other side of the phone line my friend Shaheen told me that our good friend Hayat Ullah's dead body was found in the tribal areas of Pakistan. I always pray for all reporters, who are working on the frontline in the conflicted zones. At the same time I realize that how lucky we are in Canada, where we can practice our profession without any fear of police encounters. As you know I was reporting in the same country few years back. You cannot imagine how much torture and punishment were given to reporters in that lawless region.
Those butchers handcuffed my friend and kept him without food for many weeks.
His hands were cuffed on his back. Even I am living in Canada for few years but I still feel handcuffs on my hands whenever I hear any news that my friend journalist are being killed or tortured by authorities or Tribe Leaders.

Reporters Without Borders said it was sickened by the discovery of the body of journalist Hayatullah Khan in the tribal zone of North Waziristan more than six months after he went missing. He had been shot several times in the head.
Five armed men abducted Khan, a reporter on the Urdu-language daily Ausaf and photographer for the European Press Photo Agency (EPA), in Mir Ali on 5 December 2005.
His abduction came days after he contradicted Pakistani army claims that the death of Hamza Rabia, a leading Arab militant in al-Qaeda, and four others on 1 December was the result of an accidental munitions explosion. On the basis of photographs he took at the scene, Khan said Rabia was killed by a US missile. Villagers said the explosion was caused by a missile fired from a plane or a drone.
"The death of Hayatullah Khan leaves a very bitter taste," the press freedom organisation said. "Even if there is nothing to clearly identify the killers, many people have accused the Pakistani secret services of responsibility for the abduction of this journalist, who came from the tribal areas".
"If the authorities want to avoid the finger of suspicion being pointed at them, they should urgently carry out a rigorous and impartial investigation," it added.
"Sadly the campaign which international organisations organised, with his family and members of the Tribal Union of Journalists (TUJ), did not succeed in our rescuing Hayatullah Khan. This case must prompt us to tirelessly defend journalists in the Pakistani tribal areas who are caught in the middle of the conflict".
Khan’s body was found on 16 June in the mountainous region of Khaisor, four kilometres south of Mir Ali. A Pakistani official based in Mir Ali confirmed to Reporters Without Borders that the body had been identified and returned to his family.
One source told Reporters Without Borders that there were bullet wounds to Khan’s head. "He was handcuffed, looked very weak and wore a long beard, which made it seems as though he had been through a very hard time in captivity."
"As friends and colleagues, we are shocked by his death," said Sailab Mehsud, President of the TUJ. During the six months he was missing, many Pakistani journalists had made it clear they suspected the military secret services of involvement.
Pervez Shaukat, President of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, had in February, accused the authorities or harassing those who were campaigning for Khan’s release. One government source told journalists in Peshawar, "The more noise you make, the more you prolong Hayatullah’s captivity."
After the US authorities were accused of holding the journalist, US Consul in Peshawar, Mike Spangler, said on 10 May that the United States had "read the reports on the disappearance of Hayatullah Khan (...), but is not in possession of any information about him."
He was arrested in an arbitrary fashion by US forces in 2002 when he was trying to cover al-Qaeda and Taliban activity in the border region. In 2003, the Pakistani military also harassed him the following year after he wrote about the misuse of army vehicles in Mir Ali.

The work of journalists in the Kashmir and Tribal zones Pakistan remains as dangreous as ever (RSF)

Pakistan - Annual report 2006
President Pervez Musharraf alternately directed his ire on the media challenging his alliance with the United States and the investigative press that exposes corruption and abuse of power. The work of journalists in the tribal zones and Kashmir remains as dangerous as ever.
In May 2005, parliament adopted contradictory amendments to the law on electronic media. They liberalised the sector, but gave the authorities the right to seize equipment, withdraw licences, initiate investigations and to make arrests without a warrant. Any infringement of the law could mean up to three years in prison. In November police applied the law, closing Mast FM 103 radio for relaying a special programme on the earthquake from the Urdu service of the BBC World Service.
Although badly shaken by Jihadist terrorism, Pakistan has a dynamic and pluralist press. The English-language publications are freer of control than the popular Urdu newspapers. But investigative journalists are constantly targeted by military security services, which have no hesitation in harassing anyone they find troublesome. This was the case with Rashid Channa, a journalist with the daily Star, kidnapped for several hours in Karachi.
On the other hand, a special court in Quetta dropped charges in March against journalist Khawar Mehdi whom the army had held secretly and tortured for several weeks for having accompanied two French reporters to the Afghan border in 2003. Gen. Musharraf accused the journalist, who was forced into exile, of having betrayed his country for a few dollars.
Two correspondents for the foreign press were killed in the tribal zones and the murder investigation has gone nowhere. Journalists must deal both with threats from the Taliban and the surveillance and the obstruction of the military. In December, a correspondent for two national dailies was abducted in mysterious circumstances in Waziristan, after he contradicted the official version of the death of an al-Qaeda leader.
The local press operates with difficulty in Kashmir, which was shaken by a major earthquake on 8 October 2005. After largely facilitating access for hundreds of Pakistani and foreign journalists, the army in December imposed restrictions on the movement of reporters and a BBC team was sent back from a remote region.
More generally, the authorities take a dim view of investigations by foreign journalists. In August, three film-makers, two Swedes and one Briton of Afghan origin, were held for two weeks for filming near a military base. Despite a thaw in relations with India, a journalist from New Delhi was expelled in July.
Confronted by a radical press that fosters jihadism, the authorities launched a major operation in Karachi in July to shut down hate media. But searches and arrests also affected less radical journalists.

CHINESE BLOGGER STILL DENIED LAWYER AS HE ENTERS FOURTH MONTH IN DETENTION

The Public Security Bureau's formal refusal on 17 May to allow detained blogger and documentary filmmaker Hao Wu access to a lawyer on national security grounds is "absurd," Reporters Without Borders said today, as Hao began his fourth month in detention."Hao's case is emblematic of the PSB's methods," the press freedom organisation said. "It is farcical to treat this blogger as a threat to national security. Is there any serious possibility that letting a prisoner of conscience have a lawyer might destabilise the Chinese government?"A formal request for Hao to be defended by a lawyer was filed with the PSB by his sister, Na Wu, who has reported on her blog (http://spaces.msn.com/wuhaofamily): "It appears that all efforts to seek legal help have reached a dead end."According to the authorities, Hao is currently under "house arrest." He cannot receive visits or telephone his family. The PSB is also still refusing to tell him why he has been arrested. But it has reportedly undertaken to make a statement to the family by August, which would be six months after his arrest.Hao had a blog called Beijing or Bust in which he wrote under the pseudonym of Beijing Loafer. He was also the North-East Asia editor of the website Global Voices, to which he contributed under the name of Tian Yi. He was arrested on 22 February while preparing a report on China's underground protestant churches.Global Voices has set up a Hao support site: http://ethanzuckerman.com/haowu

Please don't let history repeat itself.

Dear Friends it was very shocking news for me once i learned one more writer is facing risk of life in Iran. I request all of you to show up at the vigil for Iranian scholor. Vigil for the imprisoned Canadian-Iranian Scholar Ramin JahanbeglooThe ad-hoc committee for the freedom of Ramin Jahanbegloo asks all Canadians togather on Sunday, May 14, 2006 at 4:00pm in front of OISE, 252 Bloor St. West(right next to St. George subway station), to demand the immediate release ofthis Canadian-Iranian academic currently held in Iran?s Evin prison.Iranian-Canadian academic, Ramin Jahanbegloo, was arrested on 27 April atTehran's MehrabadAirport. He is now believed to be held incommunicado in EvinPrison, in Tehran, where he is at risk of torture or ill-treatment.The Canadian government is believed to be making representations on his behalf.However, Zahra Kazemi, another Canadian-Iranian national, died in custody inhospital in June 2003 allegedly as a result of torture after being detained inEvin Prison. To date, no one has been brought to justice in connection with herdeath.Amnesty International, PEN Canada, and his colleagues in Canadian and Europeanuniversities are extremely concerned over the arrest and detention of RaminJahanbegloo and demands that he be released immediately and unconditionally.Please visit the following web page for updates on his recent arrest andcurrent situation:

We also call on Iranian government to disclose the reasons for his arrest. Wealso seek assurances that Jahanbegloo not be tortured while in custody and thathe receives any medical attention that may be required.

Newspaper van attacked and burned down in Pakistan

Sialkot Pakistan:

April 24, 2006

Pakistan Press Club (PPC) today condemned the attack on newspaper delivery van in Pakistan.
In Pakistan’s tribel area Southern Wazirastan, Tehsil Mir Ali Monday morning, local Taliban burned down the newspaper bundles coming from Peshawer. And they warned the newspapers that they should stop writing about Taliban as a terrorist.

According to details local Taliban burned down all the English and Urdu newspapers in the central square of Mir Ali.

Taliban Commander Sadiq Noor’s supporters said to the residents of Mir Ali that Newspapers were quoting them as terrorist so they would not tolerate that and would do every thing possible to stop these newspapers.

Two days ago local Taliban Commander Sadiq Noor’s spokesman Moulana Tariq Jameel announced that in tribal areas the government servants, military officials, and supporters would be shot to death the moment they saw them.

Pakistan's Baloch Voice TV MD went missing

Pakistan’s first Baloch language TV’s Managing Director went missing from Karachi. According to details Munir Mangal MD for the first ever baloch language TV “Baloch Voice: went missing from Karachi on April 7. He arrived from Bahrain to Karachi on April 7 after that he went missing.
According to his sister Aziza Mengal, who lives in Khuzdaar that on April 7 when he arrived from Bahrain to Karachi air port he was arrested by secret services.
His sister told on Phone that he was not allowed to met any relative and neither any one no where he is at the moment.
She fears that he is being tortured mentally and physically. Even though he have no she told he never had any relationship with any political party.

Radio Booster blown up in Pakistan

Sialkot (Pakistan), March 21, 2006: Pakistan Press Club (PPC) today condemned the attack on radio station in Pakistan. A radio booster was blown up in this South Waziristan Agency headquarters town on Sunday night March 19. Officials said the explosion, which took place at about 1:30am, had destroyed the aerial transmission unit and antenna of the radio station.The radio station had suspended its broadcasts after the explosion, AFP quoted senior producer Humayun Khan as saying.The government had installed the low frequency radio station in Wana in July 2004, which regularly broadcast programmes in Pashtu language.The radio station was installed to counter the propaganda of the militants and educate local people about development schemes in the area near Afghan border.The radio booster had come under attack soon after its installation in 2004. Militants blow up radio tower in Pakistani tribal town.



ISLAMABAD March 21, 2006: The journalists covering Senate proceedings on Monday March 20 staged a walkout at the upper house to protest, what was termed as, administrative harassment of a fellow journalist working in Karachi.The government later assured the mediapersons that it would launch an inquiry into the matter and take action if necessary.The protesting journalists informed the deputy chairman Senate, Mir Jan Mohammad Jamali, and Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Raza Hayat Harraj, who visited the press gallery that their colleague Rashid Channa, a reporter in Star Karachi, had been receiving threats for last few days and his house was also burgled last week.The journalists demanded that the government should investigate the matter and take suitable action against those harassing their colleague.They also raised the issue of some 20 local journalists who were taken to Basha dam site by some northern areas officials, arrested, and then left stranded in Mansehra.Mr Harraj said the interior minister had been informed about the case of Karachi journalist, while the matter pertaining to northern areas would be conveyed to Kashmir Affairs Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat for necessary action.
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Pakistani Authorities blocked 12 websites, including Blogger.com

Journalists in one of the most dangerous zone for reporters are concerned about the decision of the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA), to block access to twelve websites which posted the cartoons of the prophet Mohammed which appeared in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten.
The PTA on 28 February ordered Internet Service Providers to block the website blogspot.com (or blogger.com), taking down thousands of weblogs hosted by this tool.
“We believe that the decision to ban a website should only ever be taken by a judge, at the end of a fair trial. It is moreover unacceptable that the order to block a site should go through the PTA, which while apparently aiming at one blog hosted by blogger.com, led to the filtering of all websites sharing the same domain name,” said the organisation.
This order from the PTA comes around ten days after a petition calling on the government to ban the spread of “blasphemous content” through the Internet, was submitted to the Supreme Court. The court on 2 March formally asked the government to take such a step.
The bloggers network Global Voices, which revealed the case on its site, has been posting information about campaigns launched by bloggers to condemn the filtering.
Local access providers have applied the PTA decision by blocking access to all sites whose URL incorporates blogspot.com, that is all sites hosted by this service. It is however technically possible to ban access solely to a blog causing a problem.

Gitmo thug: Osama said he's prophet

A Pakistani millionaire held at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay testified that he met Osama Bin Laden twice and the Al Qaeda leader called himself "a prophet."
The testimony of Saifullah Paracha was included in thousands of pages of transcripts released Friday by the Pentagon because of a successful Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by The Associated Press.
Paracha, a New York Institute of Technology graduate, testified in English. He said he owns seven businesses, including a news agency, a construction agency and a manufacturing company in Pakistan, and travel agencies in New York, Chicago, Washington and San Francisco.
In 1999, Paracha said, he met Bin Laden in Afghanistan. The following year, he returned to Afghanistan to interview Bin Laden for his news agency, Universal Broadcast Ltd.
"He delivered [preached] the Koran, and said he was a prophet," Paracha said. "He said very nice things, very impressive."
But Paracha denied all the accusations raised in the January 2005 tribunal, conducted to determine whether he was properly classified as an "enemy combatant." Those accusations included money laundering for Al Qaeda, plotting to smuggle explosives into the U.S. and recommending that nuclear weapons be used against U.S. soldiers.
Paracha's son, Uzair Paracha, faces up to 75 years in prison after his November conviction in New York for providing material support to terrorists.

BBC reporter Arrested in Pakistan.

Sialkot: Pakistan
March 06, 2006.

Pakistan Press Club (PPC) today urged the Pakistani Government to act against military officials arresting and threatening journalists working in tribal areas.
The threats to journalists especially foreign correspondents are unacceptable,”Mohsin Abbas said, and we call on military authorities to take steps to deal with those who harass and arrest reporters who are working in tribal areas.

Today (Monday) morning BBC Correspondent Haroon Rasheed was arrested in Wazirastan area of Pakistan and kept in the military custody for few hours. Also two other western journalists were not allowed to enter the area. In this area for past three days military is fighting with Taliban warlords. There had been a lot of causalities in the region.

Haroon Rasheed is BBC correspondent from Peshawar Pakistan. He was arrested on Monday morning at a security check post near Meran Shah.

These are the fiercest clashes between security forces and pro-Taliban militants since the army went into the lawless area more than three years ago.
The number of dead has gone up to 73, including five soldiers and a civilian, after three days of clashes between the army and militants, the army says.


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Authorities told no reason for arresting Haroon Rasheed. After his release he was ordered to leave the area. For few months military is not allowing reporters to enter North and south Wazirastaan. Especially The reporters from foreign media outlets are not allowed in the region.

The amazing DIY village FM radio station

The amazing DIY village FM radio station

Raghav's childhood friend Sambhu is the radio jockey (Photos: Prashant Ravi)
It may well be the only village FM radio station on the Asian sub-continent. It is certainly illegal.
The transmission equipment, costing just over $1, may be the cheapest in the world.
But the local people definitely love it.
On a balmy morning in India's northern state of Bihar, young Raghav Mahato gets ready to fire up his home-grown FM radio station.
Hundreds of villagers, living in a 20km (12 miles) radius of Raghav's small repair shop and radio station in Mansoorpur village in Vaishali district, tune their $5 radio sets to catch their favourite station.
After the crackle of static, a young, confident voice floats up the radio waves.
"Good morning! Welcome to Raghav FM Mansoorpur 1! Now listen to your favourite songs," announces anchor and friend Sambhu into a sellotape-plastered microphone surrounded by racks of local music tapes.
For the next 12 hours, Raghav Mahato's outback FM radio station plays films songs and broadcasts public interest messages on HIV and polio, and even snappy local news, including alerts on missing children and the opening of local shops.
Raghav and his friend run the indigenous radio station out of Raghav's thatched-roof Priya Electronics Shop.
Ingenious
The place is a cramped $4-a-month rented shack stacked with music tapes and rusty electrical appliances which doubles up as Raghav's radio station and repair shop.

I just did it out of curiosity and increased its area of transmission every year
Raghav MahatoHe may not be literate, but Raghav's ingenuous FM station has made him more popular than local politicians.
Raghav's love affair with the radio began in 1997 when he started out as a mechanic in a local repair shop. When the shop owner left the area, Raghav, son of a cancer-ridden farm worker, took over the shack with his friend.
Sometime in 2003, Raghav, who by now had learned much about radio mechanics, thought up the idea of launching an FM station.
It was a perfect idea. In impoverished Bihar state, where many areas lack power supplies, the cheap battery-powered transistor remains the most popular source of entertainment.
"It took a long time to come up with the idea and make the kit which could transmit my programmes at a fixed radio frequency. The kit cost me 50 rupees (just over $1)," says Raghav.
The transmission kit is fitted on to an antenna attached to a bamboo pole on a neighbouring three-storey hospital.
A long wire connects the contraption to a creaky, old homemade stereo cassette player in Raghav's radio shack. Three other rusty, locally made battery-powered tape recorders are connected to it with colourful wires and a cordless microphone.

The radio station is a repair shop and studio rolled into oneThe shack has some 200 tapes of local Bhojpuri, Bollywood and devotional songs which Raghav plays for his listeners.
Raghav's station is truly a labour of love - he does not earn anything from it. His electronic repair shop work brings him some two thousand rupees ($45) a month.
The young man, who continues to live in a shack with his family, doesn't know that running a FM station requires a government licence.
"I don't know about this. I just began this out of curiosity and expanded its area of transmission every year," he says.
Local hero
So when some people told him sometime ago that his station was illegal, he actually shut it down. But local villagers thronged his shack and persuaded him to resume services again.
It hardly matters for the locals that Raghav FM Mansoorpur 1 does not have a government license - they just love it.

Raghav makes his living from repairing electronic goods"Women listen to my station more than men," he says. "Though Bollywood and local Bhojpuri songs are staple diet, I air devotional songs at dawn and dusk for women and old people."
Since there's no phone-in facility, people send their requests for songs through couriers carrying handwritten messages and phone calls to a neighbouring public telephone office.
Raghav's fame as the 'promoter' of a radio station has spread far and wide in Bihar.
People have written to him, wanting work at his station, and evinced interest in buying his 'technology'.
"But I will never share the secret of my technology with anyone. This is my creation. How can I share it with somebody who might misuse it?" he asks.
"With more powerful and advanced chips and equipment I can make a kit which could be transmitted up to 100km or even more."
A government radio engineer in Bihar's capital, Patna, says it is possible to use a homemade kit to run a FM radio station.

The station is a rage with listeners in the area"All it needs is an antenna and transmitting equipment. But such stations offer no security. Anyone can invade and encroach such locally made transmitters," says HK Sinha of India's state-run broadcaster All India Radio (AIR).
But people in Mansoorpur are in awe of Raghav's radio station and say it gives their village an identity.
"The boy has intense potential, but he is very poor. If the government lends him some support, he would go far," says Sanjay Kumar, an ardent fan of his station.
But for the moment Raghav FM Mansoorpur 1 rocks on the local airwaves, bring joy into the lives of the locals.

Pakistani Women of the Year

Mohsin Abbas

Toronto, Oct 30, 2005

Mukhtar Mai, the Pakistani woman who won international fame for speaking out against her gang rape ordered by a village council in her country, is in the US to receive an award for courage from American fashion magazine 'Glamour', which has chosen her the 'Woman of the Year 2005'.Mai, who arrived in Chicago and would attend several functions there to raise funds for the earthquake victims in Pakistan, would be presented the award at a star-studded function here on November 2.The magazine has selected her 'Woman of the Year 2005', an honour bestowed in earlier years to, among others, former first lady and now Senator Hillary Clinton and former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.Thirty-six-year old Mai had angered Pakistani government for her outspokenness and decision to visit the US and at one stage authorities in her country had taken away her passport which was returned after international hue and cry and sharp criticism from human and women rights groups.The gang rape was ordered by the council of village in Pakistan in June 2002 in retaliation for alleged affair of her brother with a woman from a higher caste.Braving social stigma, she lodged a police complaint and spoke out against the council. Legal proceedings against her alleged rapists are still going on in Pakistan's Supreme Court.
Once, a docile inhabitant of a remote village in southern Punjab province of Pakistan clutched a worldwide repute, in a spur of moment, when her story of gang-rape hit the headlines of the media, not only in Pakistan but the world-over.
The print and electronic media raced with a swift pace to disseminate the news item in an atypical way. This scenario eventually, took-out Mai from a state of isolation and placed her onto the horizons of the Orb with her visit abroad, the first-ever in her life.
After the ill-fated episode, she had to face by the orders of an influential tribal assemblage [Jirga], not only that Mai now speaks to media with full command and confidence in a skilled and distinctive oratory style, she has also gained physical vigour and verve with a lustrous and glowing hale and hearty face as well as is well-acquainted with the usage of modern gadgets like the mobile phones, which is of-course her right like others cell-phone users, without any problem in any mode or manner.
Former US President Bill Clinton will introduce her to the star-studded event at Lincoln Centre in the New York City on November-2.
Mukhtar Mai says that she would donate $5,000 of the $20,000 prize for earthquake relief, while the rest would be spent to expand the two schools she runs for girls in Meerwala, a remote village in southern Punjab.
“I’ve gained a lot of strength from building the school. I would not be alive today if I had not gained this strength, and I have more faith in Pakistan because of this,” she said.
Hectic Schedule
Mukhtar Mai, who was chosen as ‘Person of the Week’ by ABC last Friday, is scheduled to attend several seminars and meetings in the US at which she is expected to appeal for help to Pakistan in its hour of need.
Several American and Canadian documentary filmmakers are expected to follow Mai during her stay here.
She is also likely to visit Washington to urge Congress to stand up for women’s rights in Pakistan and pledge an additional $50 million in humanitarian aid to her country, but specifically for earthquake-affected women and children.
In a letter to Mai, Glamour editor-in-chief Cindi Leive explained that the magazine honoured the women who had struggled for the cause of women. Mai was invited to visit the US till November-5.
"We look for strength. We look for persistence, a woman of the year is someone who believes that women can do whatever they set their mind to, and Mukhtar illustrates those qualities better than anybody," said Cindi Leive.
Beacon of Light
Her case attracted international attention, and using donations from her well-wishers she has since set up a school for girls in her rural community.

Before leaving for USA, Mukhtar Mai said, “I am a beacon of light for women being subjected to rape, kidnapping, burning, nose or ear chopping. My school is an institution for girls of remote areas where free books, uniform and other facilities are provided to help make them aware of their rights.”Mai said she only came to know about her award from the U.S. embassy this week. "I have decided to go to New York as it is a good opportunity to motivate U.S. government officials and the American people and Pakistanis to do more for the earthquake victims."
Mai said the government did not need to worry about what she might say while abroad. "I'm a Pakistani and I have no intention of tarnishing the country's image. But I will speak on the plight of women in rural areas," she said.
Before boarding the aircraft, which is to take her abroad first-time in life Mai said she has no plans to stay in America. She said she will also use the trip to collect donations for victims of this month's monster earthquake, which killed tens of thousands of people in Pakistan and Azad Kashmir.
Mai has an appeal pending before the Supreme Court of Pakistan against a lower court's order to free 13 men accused of involvement in her rape

Another teenage girl has been gang raped by police officials

Mr.Bush Can you tell Mr.Mush

That who is going to stop

Pakistan To becoming "Polistan"

Iam so sad living in exile when I heard that another teenage girl has been gang raped by police officials at a police station. But this time it is not just in any town. The terrible incident took place in Islamabad, the country's capital. The 15-year-old girl was subjected to the crime between Tuesday and Wednesday night. Saira was travelling in a car with her mother and three other adults, including a woman, when the police stopped the car and ordered them to prove their identity. All the five occupants were taken to Shahzad Town Police Station where the sub-inspector told them that if they didn't pay Rs200,000 in "honour money" (a useful addition, this, to the terminology of crimes against women in Pakistan), they would be formally detained through implication in a sex scandal and booked under the Zina Ordinance. The second woman was also repeatedly raped. Needless to say, the five were not charged with any crime, but part of the "honour money" was nevertheless extracted: the two men were allegedly robbed by the policemen of Rs25,000 and two ATM cards they were carrying. After an uproar following the publication of the story in this paper, the four police officers involved, including a DSP and SHO, were suspended and arrested.

The city Silakot is my birth place . I was reporting for my people in this city for many years.I had witnessesd many police violations during my working years there.I was tortured and forced to go in exile in year 2002 by the same city police.

Only recently, Nazish, a 17-year-old college student from Sialkot, was raped by police officials at a police station where she had ended up after having been gang-raped for 37 days following her kidnapping in January. Gen. Pervez Musharraf ordered a high-level inquiry into that incident, particularly since policemen were involved. But the fact that an enquiry had been ordered by the president himself, did not deter last week's maniacs.

Just a day before Nazish was kidnapped, Dr Shazia Khalid was raped in Sui. The man accused of the crime was also allegedly a member of a law enforcing agency. Sadly, unless such incidents are dealt with swiftly and effectively, Pakistan's attempts to project a "soft" image to the world at large will repeatedly be obscured by its "callous" image.

Two journalists Killed in Pakistan

Two journalists killed in ambush in tribal zone of South Waziristan

Pakistan Press Club (PPC) expressed revulsion at the murder of two courageous reporters after APTN cameraman Amir Nawab Khan and reporter with Pakistan's Khyber TV, Allah Noor Wazir were killed in an ambush in Wana, South Waziristan, south-west of Peshawar. They were returning from covering a Taliban warlord's surrender to the authorities.
Repoters around the globe expressed revulsion at the murder of two journalists who died in a hail of machine-gun fire as their car was ambushed after they covered the surrender of a Taliban leader to the authorities.
The two who died, Amir Nawab Khan and Allah Noor Wazir, were killed outright. One other travelling in the same car was wounded.
"Journalists in the tribal areas have shown their courage and determination to carry out their work under pressure from both armed militants and the authorities", said the worldwide press freedom organisation, which has worked for more than a year with the Tribal Union of Journalists (TUJ). "This cowardly murder should not go unpunished."
Khan, a cameraman with broadcast news agency APTN and a reporter with Pakistani daily The Frontier Post, and Wazir, reporter with Pakistani Khyber TV, the daily The Nation and German news agency DPA, were killed on 7 February in an ambush near Wana, South Waziristan, south-west of Peshawar.
Agence France-Presse correspondent in Wana, Anwar Shakir was wounded. They were returning from Sararogha, South Waziristan where Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud had given himself up to the Pakistani authorities.
The journalists came under machine gunfire as they neared a Wana hospital. The security forces failed to identify those responsible for the attack, but a top local official said that it had been an attempt to sabotage the peace agreement between the authorities and Baitullah Mehsud.
Some 20 Wana journalists are employed by international media to cover news from the region.
Since the start of the Pakistani army offensive against armed Taliban and al-Qaeda groups in the Wana region in March 2004, the security forces have almost entirely prevented the press from working in the area.
In June 2004, the military arrested Khan and Wazir for attempting to penetrate the banned area near Wana. Some journalists have received death threats from the Taliban.

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.