Najam Sethi wins 2009 Golden Pen of Freedom award

BY hoot| IN Media Freedom | 15/12/2008

Najam Sethi, the Editor-in-Chief of Friday Times and Daily Times in Pakistan, has been awarded the 2009 Golden Pen of Freedom, the annual press freedom prize of the World Association of Newspapers, it was announced today.  The citation said:

"Mr Sethi, whose newspapers advocate liberal and secular ideas in a country too-often torn by religious extremism, was honoured for his outstanding defence and promotion of press freedom under difficult circumstances and constant personal danger.

"Extremists have always used coercion to silence their critics and that is exactly what is happening now," Mr Sethi says. "This is a battle that the media and the country cannot afford to lose." (Read his blogs here)

Due to the editorial policies of the newspapers, which condemn autocracy and religious fundamentalism, Mr Sethi has been at odds with both Pakistani authorities and religious groups for many years. He has been threatened with death by the Taliban and other radical Muslim groups, and has been jailed and beaten for offending the government.

"All journalists are aware of the dangers of inciting extremists who violently oppose reporting that is contrary to their view of the world," said the Board of the Paris-based WAN, meeting in Beirut, Lebanon, in making the award. "Mr Sethi has chosen, in a region fraught with such dangers, to brave them.  His commitment to providing truthful and independent coverage in this region, despite great personal danger and sacrifice, is in the best traditions of journalism. We think the award will inspire others to resist such pressure."

The award will be presented at the World Newspaper Congress and World Editors Forum, the global summit meetings of the world¿s press, to be held in Hyderabad, India, from 22 to 25 March 2009.

Mr Sethi¹s home and office are under constant guard. The Taliban threatened to kill him if he did not change his editorial policy. He has also received death threats from radical Muslim groups after he published a cartoon that depicted Umme Hassaan, principal of a radical women¿s school, "educating" female students to wage jihad and embrace martyrdom.

Mr Sethi was imprisoned on 8 May 1999 for "anti-national activities" after he participated in a BBC documentary in which he spoke negatively of then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and corruption in the Pakistani government. He was released after six weeks and charges were dropped after an international outcry pressured Sharif¹s government to release him. Mr Sethi has long reported on corruption at the highest levels of Pakistan¿s government."

Mr Sethi is on the South Asia Media Commission. During its first meeting in July-August this year in Colombo he emailed The Hoot  a chronology of his own and his newspapers¿ recent travails:

           Threats to Daily Aajkal.and Najam Sethi: A Brief

1. In March 2007, Najam Sethi received a letter in the post addressed to him careoff The Friday Times and signed by an organization calling itself Mujahidden Waziristan Independent Tribal Areas.
2. It accused Sethi of being an anti-Islam American Agent.
3. It warned Sethi that all his writings in his English papers Friday Times and Daily Times had been read and rejected by the forces of Islam.
4. It warned him to repent for his sins and change his editorial policy immediately, or else he would be executed like all the other un-Islamic American agents in the country. A picture of an alleged American agent Pakistani whose throat had been slit was attached.
5. A similar letter followed three months later, advising that no more warnings would be delivered if Sethi did not repent immediately. The warnings, said the letter, were an Islamic way to bring the wayward back to the true path.
6. Daily Aajkal was launched in February 2008. It began to sell briskly in the NWFP and FATA. There were three reasons for this: (1) It was cheap at Rs 5 compared to its closest competitors at Rs 7 per copy. (2) It was better looking and more reader-friendly than its competitors in design and layout. (3) Its liberal, progressive and anti-Taliban/Al-Qaeda approach appealed to the resurgent pro-PPP and pro-ANP constituencies in the  region that were emerging out of the discredited rule of the religious parties in the areas.
7. Within two months, however, the Taliban and religious elements in FATA and Peshawar decided to block its sales by warning its distributors to stop selling the paper. Two distributors, one in Miranshah and another in Mohmand Agency, were called and warned to desist or else. Each was detained for the day. The paper is not being distributed in FATA any more.
8. In May a clerical group called up the offices of Daily Aajkal in Peshawar and accused the paper of being an agent of the Qadianis, a minority sect banned as Muslims, and told it to change its editorial policy or else. The management of Aajkal entered into talks with the group to relieve the pressure, assuring them that the paper was not run by Qadianis and promising to address their grievance that their activities and statements were not being given adequate coverage.
9. Thereafter the offices of daily Aajkal started to receive phone threats in Islamabad along the same lines as in Peshawar.
10. On Friday July 11, the clerics of Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in Islamabad protested outside the Lal Masjid after Friday prayers against "the editorial policy of Daily Aajkal" and raised slogans against Najam Sethi, editor in chief of the paper. They were protesting a cartoon in Aajkal two days earlier which showed Umme Hassan, the burqa clad wife of Abdul Rashid Ghazi who had been killed in the military operation last year at the Lal Masjid, standing before a black board teaching her burqa clad students "how to kidnap Chinese masseurs". The cartoon was pegged to an incident last year when the clerics of the Lal Masjid had brazenly kidnapped three Chinese women and two men from a massage parlour in Islamabad on the grounds that the parlour was a brothel and therefore vigilante action in pursuit of Islamic principles of morality was justified. Umme Hassan had also recently given a statement on the anniversary of the "martyrs of Lal Masjid" that her husband Ghazi¿s mission of waging jihad would continue and even the "babies of the Islamic warriors" would be taught how to wage jihad through suicide bombings.
11. Following the protest, the offices of Aajkal in Islamabad were flooded by callers threatening the paper with dire consequences if it didn¿t change its editorial policy.
12. The management of the paper requested and obtained six security guards from the Islamabad administration immediately.
13. On Sunday July 13, Daily Times and Daily Aajkal carried two full pages of supportive statements from politicians and civil society activists, including mainstream and moderate clerics, across the political divide condemning the Lal Masjid threats on the press in general and Aajkal in particular.
14. On Monday July 14, another full page of such supportive statements was published in both papers.
15. On Monday night July 14, the Lal Masjid clerics held a press conference in Islamabad where they upped the allegations against Aajkal. They now claimed that the cartoon in question was blasphemous and equated it with the Norwegian cartoons which had slighted the Prophet of Islam. They argued that since Umme Hassan was teaching the Quran to her students in the mosque, any attempt to belittle her educational practices was blasphemy of the Quran. This was a dangerous attempt to provoke violence against Aajkal and Sethi, who was once again accused of being a Qadiani. The country is awash with violent anti-Qadiani feeling and there have been countless angry demonstrations against the Norwegian cartoons.
16. On Thursday July 17, various human rights and media organizations like South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA), South Asia Media Commission (SAMC), Punjab Union of Journalists (PUJ), Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), held a protest meeting at the offices of Safma in Lahore, where participants condemned attempts by extremists to silence dissent in the media.
17. On Friday July 18, Umme Hassan came to Lahore and attended a clerics conference at the PC Hotel in Lahore. Once again, Aajkal and Sethi were singled out for attack by several speakers.
18. On Saturday July 19, various human rights organizations, like SAFMA, SAMC, PFUJ, PUJ, WAF, HRCP, held a protest meeting in Islamabad to condemn the extremists for threatening Aajkal and Sethi. At this meeting, particpants warned the Lal Masjid clerics that any attemnpt to equate the cartoon in Aajkal with the Norwegian cartoons would attract counter charges of blasphemy because Umme Hassan could not possibly equate her person with that of the Prophet as despicted in the Norwegian cartoons.
19. On Monday July 21, a protest demonstration was held outside the Lahore Press Club in support of Daily Times and Daily Aajkal where media and civil society organizations marched on the streets raising slogans against mullacracy and extremism.
20. On Tuesday July 22, the federal government provided armed guards outside the offices of Daily Times and Daily Aajkal and the home of Najam Sethi.
21. As a precautionary measure, Najam Sethi and Jugnu Mohsin sent their children Ali and Mira out of the country on July 20.

Ten days after he dispatched his children to safety  he was at Colombo, making public his refusal to be cowed by those who threatened him.

Links:

http://blogs.livemint.com/blogs/romanticrealist/archive/2008/12/15/pakistani-editor-najam-sethi-awarded-2009-golden-pen-of-freedom.aspx

http://www.editorsweblog.org/newspaper/2008/12/pakistan_editor_awarded_golden_pen_of_fr.php