Press Freedom Day: IFJ report on Pakistan

International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has released the following report on the state of affairs in Pakistan on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day:

Pakistan’s media in 2019 reeled under an unrelenting clampdown, enduring repression which can be likened to ‘waterboarding’, or a form of slow torture as journalists struggled to survive physical attacks and threats to their livelihoods.

Journalists, the basic source of news and information, remain as vulnerable as ever frequently targeted, harassed and even murdered. While the media is responsible for creating public awareness on national and international issues, there is no effective law governing the security and safety of journalists in Pakistan.

Measures taken by the government appeared to be aimed at gagging the minuscule free media, by perpetual clipping of its wings. Many believe that the recent censorship, intimidation and arm twisting of journalists and media has been worse than the decade under the dictatorial regime of

General Zia-ul Haq in 1977.

MURDERS AND ATTACKS, WITH IMPUNITY

The rising number of cases of harassment has substituted the tapering off of murders in the recent years. Killings however, still pose a grave challenge for journalists, especially when almost all of the perpetrators have gotten away with impunity. Several journalists paid the ultimate price for their reporting.

A recent murder was that of Aziz Memon, a 56-year old journalist in Naushahro Feroze in Sindh province. Tragically, his frantic appeals on social media for safety could not save his life. Memon’s body was found floating in a canal on February 16, 2020. According to witnesses who saw his body, Memon had been strangled with a wire before being drowned in the canal. However, the official autopsy report confirmed that he was murdered.

Weeks before his murder, Memon who worked with the Sindhi language channel KTN News and Sindhi-language Daily Kawish had fled to capital Islamabad, from Mehrabpur, his hometown. In a video message from Islamabad, Memon claimed that police were threatening him at the behest of a local politician of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). He alleged that death threats were being hurled at him because of a story he broke on the KTN TV channel that showed the politician in bad light.

Days later, his murder irrefutably validated his allegations. The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) strongly protested Memon’s murder and staged a sit-in across the province demanding an impartial and fair investigation into his murder. The protests yielded results and the government constituted a joint investigation team, and even dropped the officer who had shown partiality in the case.

In yet another gory murder, Javedullah Khan, bureau chief

of the Urdu daily Ausaf, was shot by unidentified gunmen on February 25, 2020 in the Swat Valley in northern Pakistan. Khan was a member of the government-formed Peace Committee in Swat to forge peace in the valley after the Taliban ouster from there following a military operation. It is believed that Khan’s murder was pre-planned.

Zafar Abbas, a journalist associated with 7 News was murdered after being kidnapped and kept in captivity for five days. Police did not heed complaints of his kidnapping and swung into action only after Abbas’ body was found dumped inside a dry well on September 16, 2019.

Ali Sher Rajpar, 36, working for Sindhi language daily Awami Awaz, was shot dead on May 4, 2019 outside Pad Eidan Press Club, in southern Sindh province. Investigations revealed animosity towards Rajpar, who was a bold and vocal journalist. The perpetrator was arrested.

Mirza Waseem Baig, a reporter with 92 TV channel was shot dead outside his home on August 30, 2019. He was covering a local criminal gang involved in extortion in Sarai Alamgir, a bustling town in eastern Punjab province.

Muhammad Bilal Khan, a 22-year-old blogger and freelance

journalist, known for his critical stances murdered in Islamabad on June 23, 2019. He received an anonymous phone call and was asked to come to the nearby woods where unknown assailants fatally slew him with a dagger.

Urooj Iqbal, a female journalist was murdered by her husband in Lahore on November 25, 2019, after he demanded that she quit her job.