There is no press freedom in Pakistan, says Green Press report

Friday, May 02 2003 @ 12:18 PM Central Daylight Time
Mohammad Shehzad - To limit the press is to insult a nation; to prohibit reading of certain books is to declare the inhabitants to be either fools or slaves?Claude Adrien Helvétius, French philosopher (1715?71).General Pervez Musharraf says the press in Pakistan is free. Journalists? experience and reports by independent sources on this issue suggest there is not much truth in this claim. Green Press? report too ? State of Press in Pakistan ? finds there is no ?press freedom? in Pakistan. Besides attacks against the press, the report has also chronicled all violations against freedom of expression and curbs on entertainment from May 2002 to May 2003. The report documents more than 50 cases that it says amount to ?crimes? against press and other freedoms. Most of these actions were allegedly masterminded by the state to suppress dissenting voices. None was probed or culprits punished. Despite the absence of press freedom and protection of any sort, Pakistani journalists have courageously struggled to expose the ruling elite?s shenanigans. At least one Sindhi journalist, Shahid Soomro, even lost his life doing so. Based in Hyderabad, Shahid, 26, was brazenly gunned down in public on October 20 for reporting rigging in the October 2002 elections in Mehboob Bijarani?s constituency (now member Sindh Assembly). He was killed by Bijarani?s two brothers, Waheed Bijarani and Muhammad Bijarani.
On July 24, ISI picked up Muzaffar Ejaz (editor, Jasarat) and thrashed him for reporting ISI?s link in the massive rigging in the October polls. The alliance of six pro-Taliban religious parties Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), which now rules the NWFP and is part of a PMLQ-led coalition in Balochistan banned music, performing arts, and cinema houses soon after its landslide victory in the October elections. It accused the media of creating ?negative hype? when the English press likened its acts to Pakistan?s ?Talibanisation?. MMA clerics threatened to suppress the press through their legislative strength. On January 21, some votaries of MMA killed Fazal-e-Wahab. His body was riddled with bullets. He had written a book Mullah ka Kirdar (Character of a Cleric), which had been declared ?blasphemous? by local clerics. They issued an edict that sanctioned his murder. The parliamentarian Rana Sanaullah had to pay a very heavy price for expressing himself in the Punjab Assembly. He was picked up in Faisalabad by plainclothesmen (whom he accuses of being ISI agents). He was thrashed and had his eyebrows and moustache shaven before being thrown by the wayside. Back in the Punjab assembly he said that those who had shaved off his moustache should have shaved off the moustache and beard of Lt-Gen Jagjit Singh Arora (the Indian general who accepted General Niazi?s surrender in Dhaka in December 1971). When he said this, there was a deafening silence from the treasury benches. In November, the government, through an ad, warned Pakistani press of dire consequences if it quoted South Asia Tribune ? a weekly web-based publication edited by Shaheen Sehbai, who is living in exile in the US as a consequence of his bold reporting during his days as editor, The News. On June 25, a freelancer Hyatullah was detained, blindfolded and handcuffed by the US troops in South Waziristan for reporting on American operations in the tribal areas against the suspected al-Qaeda terrorists.
On June 26, some votaries of Benazir Bhutto ransacked the office of Weekly Naqqara (Gilgit) for not printing their leader?s press releases. On July 17, the Sindh government banned two publications ? Evening Special and Morning Special ? for a month. It also arrested their editors on the charge of promoting obscenity. On July 19, police raided and sealed the office of journalist Husain Haqqani. His major clients were forced to cancel his contract. ?Senior government officials told me, I was crossing permissible limits in criticism of government policies. I have written nothing against Pakistan ever?. we just have different ideas of what is best for the country,? Haqqani was quoted as saying. A government spokesman accused Haqqani of ?blackmailing? under the cover of press freedom.
On July 28, Islamabad police opened fire to stop journalists and photographers from taking pictures of a violent encounter between the law enforcement agencies and the villagers of Pind Sangrial and Sri Saral in Sector D-12 in Islamabad. Photographers ? Tanveer Shahzad (Dawn), Waheed Ahmed (Business Recorder), Naveed Akram (The News), Nadeem Ahmed (Geo TV) and Abdul Hamid (Jang) were physically abused. Their cameras were snatched and the films destroyed. On August 27, Aziz Sanghar (The Nation) was beaten up by the staff of Karachi Electrical Supply for filing a story on a protest against power shutdown. On September 9, Amir Mateen (The News) filed a complaint with Islamabad Police and wrote to the president that he was being tailed and harassed by secret agencies. His telephone was bugged. ?I have been warned that if I do not stop writing against the government I would be harmed physically.? On September 16, several journalists were barred from entering a defense exhibition, despite having valid invitations. The president was the chief guest on the occasion.
Complete article from The Friday Times.