Pakistan’s Journalists Protection Movement

IN Media Freedom | 12/10/2003

Journalists Protection Movement (JPM)

Press Release                    

The federal Government has directed the Intelligence Bureau(IB) to hold investigation into reports of violence against journalists, Journalists Protection Movement says in press release.

 It said the government had issued the directives after taking notice of a report issued by the journalists protection movement(JPM).The report narrated different incidents in which journalists were victimized by government agencies and extremists all over the country.

 An official of the Intelligence Bureau(IB) contacted the JPM`s national convener, Moazzam Raza Tabassam, and sought details of various incidents in which journalists were tortured and convicted in false cases. The IB official assured the JPM convener that a just inquiry would be conducted into the incidents.

 Journalists Protection Movement (JPM)

                            Report: Attacks against journalists in Pakistan

1st Jan to 30th June 2003

Journalists Protection Movement (JPM) has emerged as a strong and growing journalists force of opposition. JPM was born 3rd May2003,when journalists of leading trade unions felt the need of such forum to oppose and resist the attacks against media men. Several human rights organisations, trade unions and progressive political parties supported it to protect journalists, press freedom and freedom of expression.

Being a nationwide movement JPM organised its fact finding groups at national and provincial levels. JPM provides a general forum for the discussion of ideas, information and strategies to protect journalists. It is not a substitute for,   nor will it replace any existing PFUJ  trade unions. But it should function to support them.

 Journalists Protection Movement (JPM) has expressed  its  concern over the government`s  failure to provide  protection to journalists as large number of  newsmen had been subjected to torture and violence in the past six months.

 The JPM, in its report launched on the occasion of UN International Day in Support  of Victims of Torture, provides details of the incidents in which  journalists were victimized and tortured during performance of their duties in different parts of the country in the past six months.

 The report said journalists were baton-charged outside the Punjab Assembly in Lahore and Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali had to offer excuse for the maltreatment of journalists at the hands of police personnel at various check-posts set-up around the parliament house on the day budget was presented .

 It said a journalist and author Fazal Wahab was murdered in Mingora (Sawat) in NWFP Province on January 21 and another journalist was injured in a bomb attack in South Waziristan.

In May,  Sarwar Mujahid a correspondent of an Urdu Daily Nawa-e-Waqat was implicated  in a false "anti-terrorists" case in  which it was alleged that he had opened fire on Rangers during an encounter with Okara tenants.

The chronicles of  violence against journalists in Pakistan

6 January 2003

Javed Akhtar Malik  a journalist of  Faislabad was attacked by a group of unknown assailants. Fortunately, Malik escaped unhurt.
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10 January 2003

The Pakistan government formally protested to New York-based Pakistani journalist Zahid Ghani for "harming Pakistan’s relations with the United States." Ghani had criticised the US for raiding Pakistani businesses and residences, arresting hundreds and deporting a large number to Pakistan in the post 9/11 period. He had spoken out at a press conference addressed by Islamabad Ambassador to Washington Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, which was covered extensively by the American media.

18 January 2003

Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat served a Rs 500 million notice on The Friday Times weekly for allegedly publishing a libellous and contemptuous article against him. The journal said it had published nothing against the complainant that ! h ad not been published before by others.

21 January 2003

Author Fazal Wahab was shot dead by four armed men in Mingora in North West Frontier Province for being critical of Islamic clerics after a spate of death threats. Despite requests, the police failed to provide him protection. Wahab caused local anger with his book "Mullah ka Kirdar" (The Mullah’sRole), which was banned amid protests. Local religious leaders issued a fatwa or edict declaring him a "non-believer," thereby inviting death for alleged blasphemy.

21 January 2003

Federal Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat issued a legal notice to Urdu daily Khabrain for publishing a news item about his alleged conviction for a crime in a court of law. He claimed that he had never been convicted. The minister later admitted in the National Assembly that he was on the official Exit Control List, which debars persons from leaving the country without permission who are wanted by the courts in a criminal case.

29 January 2002

Pakistani journalist Ejaz Haider was arrested and detained for 12 hours by United States officials for failing to register with the Immigration and Naturalisation Service. Haider, a senior columnist for Pakistan-based The Friday Times, was a visiting research scholar at the Brookings Institution, a prominent think-tank in Washington. US officials said he had missed a deadline to register at INS but Haider said the State Department and INS had told him he could ignore the requirement to check back within 40 days of registering upon arrival in US.

1 February 2003

Security personnel for Sehba Musharraf, the wife of President General Pervez Musharraf, roughed up a journalist after he tried to photograph the First Lady at an arts exhibition in Lahore.

22 February 2003

Syed Anwar of Peshawar daily Frontier Post was threatened with "terrible personal consequences" by two henchmen of an Afghan military command er in Nangar! ha r province after he reported that Hazrat Ali, the province’s military chief, was arrested by United States forces for drug-smuggling, kidnapping and supporting members of Al-Qaeda in their escape from the Tora Bora mountains. The two secret service men, one of whom was identified as Abdul Rehman, went to the newspaper’s offices in Peshawar to deliver their threat. They also warned that they may ban all Pakistani journalists from Afghanistan’s three eastern provinces. The authorities in Jalalabad have banned the sale of Frontier Post in the Nangarhar province.

10 March 2003

Lahore-based The Independent said it received a threat allegedly made by Punjab Home Secretary Ejaz Shah who reportedly telephoned the weekly’s publisher Ilyas Meraj and told him, "Enough is enough. The Punjab government has finally decided against your newspaper for working against the national interest." The weekly carried Shah’s comments in an article including the advice to "roll back" the weekly’s operations if he "wants to stay in business and stay safe." Shah denied making these remarks and told the Council for Protection of Journalists he had not spoken to anyone at The Independent during the week that he had been alleged to have made the call.

16 March 2003

Mahmood Khattak, a Peshawar-based correspondent for Dawn newspaper was manhandled by the police in the Karak Bazaar when he was on his way to Tank from Peshawar on a car and asked to show his papers. Superintendent Police Karak Mohammad Ayub insisted on arresting him saying the journalist resembled a car-lifter by face. The matter was settled when another policeman verified Khattak’s credentials.

24 March 2003

Akhtar Baloch, a journalist and a human rights activist based in Hyderabad was picked up by some intelligence sleuths and detained for three days. He later said he was interrogated about his rights activities and warned to restrict them.

1 April 2003

Ashfaq! Ali, a senior sub-editor of English-language The News was severely beaten up by the police in Karachi when his motorcycle was brushed by a police van.

3 April 2003

Hayatullah Khan, the correspondent for the Urdu-language daily Ausaf in Mir Ali town of North Waziristan Agency bordering Afghanistan, and his family were reportedly harassed by military officials after he reported about the alleged misuse of army vehicles in the area. His brothers and daughter were expelled from the army-run school in the area.

4 April 2003

The house of Awardeen Mehsood, a correspondent for Urdu-language daily Khabrain and news agency NNI, in Laddah town of South Waziristan Agency bordering Afghanistan was attacked with a bomb. The explosion damaged the door of his home. No one claimed responsibility but Mehmood suspected a link with his reports on the activities of the Youth Movement, which is pressing for a change in the status of the Tr ibal Areas. In 2002, Mehsood, a member of the Tribal Union of Journalists, was sentenced to pay a heavy fine of Rs 35,000 (US$5,400) for allegedly libelling the region’s civilian administration.

12 April 2003

Paramilitary Sutlej Rangers forcibly denied entry to a large number of reporters at a reception area on the border with India and prevented them covering the arrival of a group of Sikh pilgrims from India. This was despite the fact that all journalists were carrying valid invitations from the provincial government’s Press Information Department to cover the event.

18 April 2003

Sami Paracha, the Kohat-based district correspondent for the Dawn newspaper was abducted and assaulted by a criminal gang for reporting lavish facilities being provided in hospital to a certain Pir Habib Shah, who had been arrested earlier and was undergoing medical treatment. Shah’s associates abducted Paracha and took him to the hospital where he was beaten up and locked in a bathroom. Paracha had his  mobile telephone and was able to summon the town’s police chief, who came and rescued him.


Moazzam Raza Tabassam

National Convener

Journalists Protection Movement

e-mail: journalistsmovement2003@yahoo.com

contect: 92 03204912855

Islamabad

Pakistan