Freedom of journalists in Pakistan.
Dr Shabir Choudhry. 03 May 2021
Mr Chairman, friends and colleagues Aslamo Alaykam and very good afternoon to all.
Mr Chairman, thank you for giving me this opportunity to express my views in this important webinar on World Press Freedom Day.
Right of expression is a fundamental human right. It is sad that some countries go out of their way to ensure that fundamental rights are denied to people, and right of expression is curbed.
Free media, electronic and print, play a crucial role in protecting and enhancing rights of citizens and supporting civil society and democracy. In the case of Pakistan, this is not true because the present government is determined to silence all voices of dissent.
Without a vibrant and independent media, government and secret agencies and powerful people in society can encroach on the rights of other people.
Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists in its recent report published in The News said, the government has a ‘hidden agenda to strangulate’ freedom of press. The Statement identified the following factors that were endangering lives of the media workers and adding to their problems:
· Expanding retrenchments,
· non-payment,
· delayed payment,
· Cut in salaries of workers,
· Diminishing press freedoms,
· Intensifying censorship and press advice
· Growing unholy collaboration between media owners and government actors in depriving media workers of their rights
The Statement says by using some of the above tactics the hidden agenda of the government is to “destroy press freedom and crush media workers’ rights in Pakistan in complicity with the media owners through economic strangulation and financial arm-twisting of journalists and crushing of enabling environment for media to flourish". 1
Because of the government’s anti-media policies, more than 8,000 media workers have lost their jobs.
Mr Chairman
Those who bravely face the government pressure, and ignore their arm twisting are systematically harassed, intimidated and they become victims of nefarious propaganda and are called ‘agents’ and ‘traitors’.
The media owners who do not implement the policies dictated by the government face very serious financial losses as their channels are taken off the screens, and they are implicated in false cases.
The government and the media owners, for their own reasons and vested interests totally ignore the basic mission of journalism and freedom of speech enshrined in the UN Charter; and guaranteed in Article 19 of the Constitution of Pakistan.
The report asserts that the government and agencies “exceed their mandates and use coercive means to hound journalists and pressurise media houses to crush freedom of expression and professional journalism".
They requested the Parliament and the Judiciary to step in and perform their responsibilities of safeguarding freedom of press. Perhaps they forgot the bitter fact that the Parliament and the Judiciary are also controlled by the Government and the establishment
"The International Federation of Journalists and PFUJ are outraged by the attacks on journalists and call for prompt action to arrest those responsible" said a statement released by the journalists' unions.
They said these ‘incidents are yet another reminder that Pakistan is the most dangerous country for journalists. Both organizations also reaffirmed their calls on the Pakistani government to take decisive steps against ongoing attacks on the media in the South Asian country. 2
Mr Chairman
Those who do not obey the orders are attacked and beaten up, their limbs are broken by unknown people. If they still don’t conform, and continue to show dissent, they are abducted and kept for days and months. Sometimes their dead bodies are discovered, but lucky ones are returned after some punishment and serious warnings.
Last month, April 2021, a famous journalist Absar Alam was shot in a broad daylight in a park in Islamabad where he went for a walk. His crime was to criticise one of the holy cows in Pakistan. One day he attacked and exposed the holy cow, the next day, he was targeted in a park.
Absar Alam was a former television journalist and the former Chair of the Pakistan Electronic Regulatory Authority, the country’s media regulator. His posts in the Social media were not appreciated by some powerful people, and he received a summons from the Federal Investigation Agency because of this.
Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator, said:
“Today’s shooting of journalist Absar Alam highlights the dangerous climate that all members of the press face in Pakistan if they dare to criticize the country’s powerful military. The perpetrators in this attack, as well as anyone involved in its planning, must be swiftly identified and brought to justice.” 3
In 2020, Pakistan ranked ninth on CPJ’s annual Global Impunity Index, which assesses countries where journalists are murdered regularly and their killers go free; at least 34 journalists have been murdered in Pakistan since CPJ began tracking killings in 1992.
On 18 March 2021, Ajay Lalwani, a non - Muslim journalist was also killed by a gunshot in Sukkur, Sindh Province, Pakistan. He was killed in the Salehpat area of Sukkur when two motorcycles and a car with four passengers drove by and opened fire, striking Lalwani in the stomach, arm, and knee.
Of course, he was killed by unknown men who used two motorcycles and a car to kill one unarmed man. A popular saying in Pakistan on this is: ye jo namloom hain, sab ko maloom hain, but people are afraid to speak out because they can also get a bullet in their stomach. 4
Mr Chairman
Political activists and journalists hailing from Pakistan or Pakistani occupied territories are not even safe in places like Canada and Europe.
Karima Baloch, Sajid Hussain Baloch, Shaukat Kashmiri, Jamil Maqsood and, of course, many others and me included are victims of the Pakistani State because we courageously and logically provide counter narrative that is strongly detested by the Pakistani establishment.
Just to refresh
memories of the people, Sajid Hussain Baloch, was editor-in-chief of the online
news magazine Balochistan Times, and was killed, and his dead body was
discovered near the Swedish city of Uppsala.
Similarly, Karima Baloch’s dead body was found in Toronto, Canada. She was courageous and inspiring human rights activist, who according to the BBC report ‘was a vocal critic of the Pakistani military and state'.
Dissidents, critics, and freedom lovers have to pay a price in Islamic Republic of Pakistan and in areas under their control.
Mr Chairman, I must point out that the situation of right of expression is much worse in so called Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan, both parts of the former Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir.
We cannot even publish books which provide facts about Jammu and Kashmir and challenge the Pakistani narrative on Jammu and Kashmir. Many books are banned, which include a number of my books too. My bank accounts are still frozen; and I still cannot visit my village and the grave of my father.
One newspaper, Majadla was banned in so-called Azad Kashmir because it published a survey report which showed that 73.6% of the local people expressed their desire to become an independent country.
A journalist, Mr Tanveer Ahmed, a British citizen, is in prison in so-called Azad Kashmir for taking off the Pakistani flag, which should not have been there in the first place.
In my opinion, he was punished because he visited all the towns of so-called Azad Kashmir and villages and surveyed ten thousand people to ask if they wanted to join Pakistan or become independent. The result was 73.6% in favour of independence and the Pakistani establishment could not tolerate that.
In view of the Pakistani establishment, people like Tanveer Ahmed must be punished because they logically present the case of Jammu and Kashmir and that endangers Pakistan’s out of date narrative on Jammu and Kashmir dispute.
In conclusion, Mr Chairman I will say that if journalists could be shot in daylight in Islamabad, abducted, shot and killed which highly monitored and controlled with helps of tens of thousands of CCTVs and security men, then you can imagine the plight of journalists working in Balochistan, former FATA, Gilgit Baltistan and so-called Azad Kashmir.
We people have no choice but to stand up and organise ourselves against this oppression, tyranny, and injustice. In my opinion, this is true jihad, as we are speaking for the rights of downtrodden and voiceless people.
I sincerely hope that one day our struggle will succeed, and our future generations will live in a society that will be more tolerant, peaceful, fair, and accommodative.
Reference:
2. Ibid
3. https://cpj.org/2021/04/journalist-absar-alam-shot-wounded-in-pakistan/
4. https://cpj.org/2021/03/pakistaniurnalist-ajay-lalwani-dies-after-suffering-three-gunshot-wounds/
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