Shamsul Islam Naz

2009: A crucial year for Pakistani Journalists

    PFUJ Secretariat

    Media Release

ISLAMABAD, Dec 31: The year 2009, too, proved to be a curial year for Pakistani media persons who were callously neglected by the media owners, viz-a-viz better wages, security of job and their life insurance, while they were

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increasingly targeted by the terrorists and other pressure groups in which over half a dozen journalists lost their lives.

The highhandedness and cruelty of the media owners can be judged from the tragic incident which took place on Dec 1, 2008 in Lahore where one Mohammad Azam, a Channe-5 employee, committed suicide owing to non-payment of his salaries by his influential employers.

Although the present democratic government has not yet taken any worth mentioning action against media for preventing free coverage, some government agencies and non-state actors did not miss an opportunity of intimidating, victimizing and torturing media persons so much so that a number of media persons were killed when they refused to toe their line. The number of such journalists is 4  in the province of the NWFP (Tribal area) and 2 in the province of Balochistan.

NWFP JOURNALISTS KILLED

Security continues to be one of the most significant challenges for journalists and media personnel throughout Pakistan, particularly in the conflict and insurgency-prone frontier regions.

In Pakistan’s conflict zones, rival groups seek to dictate the content and tone of news coverage. The country lost eight journalists in 2008, while 2009 has been equally grim. The murder of Musa Khankhel while he was reporting on a truce negotiated in the picturesque but turbulent Swat valley in Pakistan’s north-west shocked the country.

D I KHAN: On Jan 4,  2009, media workers, Tahir Awan and Mohammad Imran, were killed in a grim enactment of the “twin-blast strategy” in Dera Ismail Khan, NWFP. Both had rushed to the scene of a bomb blast as police and forensic experts reached the site. In the meantime, another bomb planted there went off when enforcement officials and journalists reached there.

KHUZDAR: On April 13, 2009, Haji Wasi Ahmed was shot and killed by snipers in Khuzdar. He was the highly respected correspondent of Daily Azad and Daily Balochistan Express. He was also president of local newspapers body. 

RAWALPINDI: In Rawalpindi, Punjab, on Jan 25, 2009; unknown assailants gunned down Aamer Wakil, a senior journalist for Rohi TV and editor of a local daily, Awami Inqilab. A week later, his brother, Kamal Azfar, also a journalist, survived an attempt on his life. In March 2009, Raja Asad Hameed of The Nation was killed by unknown assailants in Rawalpindi.

SWAT: Swat has particularly been a dangerous place. Qari Mohammad Shoaib, a correspondent for two Mingora-based dailies, was shot dead in the region. Security forces later admitted that he was the Nov 8, 2008, victim of a case of mistaken identity. Sirajuddin, of The Nation, was killed in a suicide blast while covering the funeral of a slain police officer in Mingora. On Aug 30, 2008, Abdul Aziz, of the daily Azadi and Khabarkar, was killed during a security operation in a Taliban hideout in Swat, two days after he was reportedly abducted by militants.

Peshawar-based Afghan journalists Janullah Hashimzada, was killed by unknown people in Jamrud area of Khyber Agency while he was on his way to Peshawar from Afghanistan in a passenger coach.

Senior reporter of Express News Javed Afridi was kidnapped for ransom and remained in the captivity of kidnappers for 25 long days. The
kidnappers had been demanding Rs. six millions as ransom from Khyber Union of Journalists. He, however, managed his escape good from the
clutches of the kidnappers.
TRIBAL BELT: Pakistan’s tribal belt is a most hazardous war zone, where reporting is being carried out at the cost of life. On 22 May 2008, Mohammad Ibrahim of Express News, was gunned down in Khar in the Bajaur tribal region after he interviewed a Taliban spokesman. And in what seemed to be a clear attempt to dent professional morale among journalists, two attempts were made in January and February to destroy the Bajaur Press Club as well as Wana Press Club, Wana, in the South Waziristan tribal area.

Displaced journalists from Swat valley:- All the media people from the restive Malakand division had to leave their homes for safer areas after the military operation was launched in Swat. The PFUJ and its affiliated KhUJ registered 240 displaced journalists from Swat valley who were extended financial and material support with the help of government and non-government national and international bodies.

Journalists in the tribal areas too got displaced due to threats from militants or military operations there. The media persons were expelled from the twin agencies of Waziristan and were branded as spies.

Same was the situation in Khyber, Mohmand and Bajaur Agency. The house and office of Sahibzada Bajauddin, a Bajaur based journalists were demolished. He has been living as internally displaced person in Peshawar for the last eight months. Scores of journalists have been shifted to Peshawar and other districts from the tribal areas and are living as displaced persons. In Peshawar media outlets received many threats.  

  BALOCHISTAN:

Khadim Hussain Sheikh of Channel Five and Khabrain, was gunned down in Hub, on Feb 10, 2008, apparently due to his reporting on smuggling in border areas.

MIANWALI: In Mianwali, Punjab, on Nov 3, 2008, Abdul Razzak Johra, of Royal TV, is believed to have been murdered because of his reporting on drug-related crimes.

DADU: On Aug 12, 2008, in Sindh, Mohammad Azeem Leghari, of Dharti TV and the daily Hulchal, was killed in Dadu in broad daylight.

               THREATS BY TERRORISTS

Likewise, Geo News reporter Faheem Sidiqui was is injured while his eight-year-old son and one of his niece died in Karachi blast on Ashura day suicide attack. Brother of another reporter Rajab Ali and sister of Kamran Mansoor (The News Reporter) also died in this incident.

  BALOCHISTAN

  A Quetta-based Baloch Bureau Chief of a leading news channel was sacked from his job reportedly on the instructions of security forces after he interviewed the chief of Jundullah, an Iranian Sunni militant group, who is wanted by Iran and accused of hiding somewhere in Pakistan. The state apparatus got the Baloch journalist fired under the pretext that the interview undermined Pakistan-Iran relations,” the PFUJ maintained.

  On Sept 4, 2009, a Baloch journalist Irshad Akhtar was badly beaten up by FC personnel and his video camera was snatched by the authorities during a clash between FC personnel and women protestors in Turbat district.

In Bolan district, a Baloch journalist, Rehmatullah Shaheen, correspondent of anti-government Daily Tawar, has been charged with terrorism allegation. “Terrorism charges against Rehmatullah Shaheen would give warning signals to the rest of rural correspondents across Balochistan to think twice before reporting objectively from their respective areas regardless of poor governance in the area.

Similarly, Munir Mengal, the managing director of the Baloch Voice, a TV channel, was subjected to inhuman torture for more than one year only because he was planning to launch a Balochi news channel.

Likewise, Javaid Lehri, a 22-year-old young journalist from Khuzdar working with the Urdu daily Azadi was maltreated for months together, who too quit the profession after being released by his captors.

Like Balochistan and NWFP, journalists in Sindh and Punjab are waiting for a government response to their sufferings, and protection to their lives. They see much difficult condition in the future if government fails to provide protection to press clubs and other media centres in the country.

Shamsul Islam Naz
Secretary General 
PAKISTAN FEDERAL UNION OF JOURNALISTS
12-Nazimuddin Road, F-6/1
Islamabad, Pakistan
Phone Office +92(0)51 2870220-1
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Cellular +92(0)300 8665523
http://www.shamsulislamnaz.com
http://www.pfuj.pk