Dear friends,
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) would like to inform you new attacks on media workers and organizations in Pakistan. We were informed that the Pakistan government has stopped publishing advertisements of government departments and public firms on the Daily Dawn, one largest English newspaper in Pakistan, since December 2006 allegedly due to its open policy on editorials. Also separate incidents of abduction and killing of two editors of the newspapers were reported in January 2007. It is also reported the illegal arrest and harassment of one foreign news agency’s photo-journalist by the airport police in this January.
CASE DETAILS:
The Pakistan government has allegedly dropped the government advertisements on the largest English newspaper Daily Dawn since December 2006 due to its open policy of editorials. In its letter to the Council of Pakistan Newspapers Editors on 16 January 2007, the newspaper management said, “The government has a long list of grievances against the Daily Dawn pertaining to its reporting and as a result the government departments and public firms were told to drop their advertisements on the Daily Dawn“. An alleged reason behind this government’s action is the continuous reporting in Dawn’s columns about the incidents and issues in Balochistan province, where the military operations have been ongoing since 2001.
In its statement on January 17, the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors termed the stopping of the government advertisements on the Daily Dawn as a tactic to punish media organizations and pressure them to change their editorial policies. It is reported that the spokesperson of the Pakistan military, Lt. General Shoukat Sultan, had allegedly instructed the Daily Dawn management several times to stop covering the military operations in Balochistan. Due to the ongoing military operations in Balochistan province, more than 3,000 persons are reportedly killed and further 200,000 persons become homeless as a result of aerial bombings by the Pakistan Air Force.
In another incident, Mr. Sohail Qalandari, an editor of the Daily Express in Peshawar, the capital city of North Western Frontier Province, was reportedly abducted along with his friend on 2 January 2007. Their whereabouts remain unknown. He was traveling in his car with his friend Mr. Niaz Mehmand at the time of abduction. Some hours later, his car was discovered some 5 kilometers away from the place of abduction. A case of abduction was registered with the Hayatabad police station in Peshawar. Instead of conducting any investigation and trying to recover him, the police are now saying that the editor was kidnapped due to some personal land dispute matter and taken to tribal area close to Afghanistan border. However, there is a different allegation that he might be abducted as the government was not happy with the newspaper’s coverage on Waziristan area where the government has been conducting aerial bombardment against so-called “terrorists”.
In another incident, Mr. Makhdoom Hashmi, an editor of the Daily Nijat Sukkur in Sindh province was killed in a crowded market place by unknown armed men on 13 January 2007. He was walking through the main market of Khairpur district at 10:00am when he was attacked by unidentified men armed with firearms. He died on the spot. The Gambat police now say that some persons from Channa tribe of the area are responsible for the editor’s murder but failed to arrest any of alleged killers.
Furthermore, Mr. Mian Khursheed, a photo journalist associating with the UK based news agency, the Reuters, was illegally detained and harassed by the Airport police in Islamabad on 18 January 2007. He was picked up by the traffic police when he was about to leave the Islamabad airport along with a group of journalists, after covering the arrival of a delegation from Abu Dhabi. A traffic sergeant told Mr. Khursheed that he was instructed to stop him by his senior officer. Soon after the senior officer arrived in the spot, he ordered to arrest Mr. Khursheed. Mr. Khursheed was then taken to the Airport police station and his car was searched for about 30 minutes. The police failed to find any objectionable things in the journalist’s car but the senior officer again ordered to check the car thoroughly to find any excuse to register a case against the journalist. Meanwhile, a large number of journalists and colleagues of Mr. Khursheed reached the police station and protested against his illegal arrest and detention. After some time, he was released by the police with a threat warning. However, the police have failed to give concrete reason for his arrest.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:
Journalists are prime targets of the military regime; several have been arbitrarily arrested, tortured, forcibly disappearance or subjected to extra-judicial killing by members of the armed forces. According to Monthly Media Freedom Report issued by Intermedia, in September 2006, 15 incidents of violations against media were recorded throughout Pakistan, taking the total number of attacks on the press in 2006 to 88.
Article 19(2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights says, “Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.” It is not surprising to find that the Pakistan government does not respect this article 19, given that it has not yet joined the Covenant.
To see cases of violence and rights abuses against media workers and organizations, please further see the 2006 AHRC Human Rights Report chapter on Pakistan.
See also the AHRC’s recent urgent appeals regarding the violations against the media and its personnel: UA-381-2006, UA-316-2006, UA-255-2006, UA-200-2006
SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write to the relevant government authorities listed below and express your concern about this matter.
To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear __________,
PAKISTAN: New attacks on media workers and organizations
I am deeply concerned by a series of the alleged recent attacks on media workers and organizations in Pakistan.
According to the information I have received, the Pakistan government has allegedly dropped all advertisements of the government departments and public firms on the largest English newspaper the Daily Dawn since December 2006 due to its open policy of editorials. I was informed that an alleged reason behind this government’s action is the continuous reporting in Dawn’s columns about the incidents and issues in Balochistan province, where the military operations are ongoing since 2001. I was also informed that the spokesperson of the Pakistan military, Lt. General Shoukat Sultan, had allegedly instructed the Daily Dawn management several times to stop covering the military operations in Balochistan. I have a view that this is a tactic by the government to punish media organizations and pressure them to change their editorial policies.
I was also informed that Mr. Sohail Qalandari, an editor of Daily Express in Peshawar, North Western Frontier Province, was reportedly abducted along with his friend on 2 January 2007. Their whereabouts remain unknown. A case of abduction was registered with the Hayatabad police station in Peshawar however instead of conducting any investigation and trying to recover him, the police are now saying that the editor was kidnapped due to some personal land dispute matter and taken to tribal area close to Afghanistan border. However, I was informed that newspaper’s coverage on Waziristan area, where the government has been conducting aerial bombardment against so-called “terrorists”, might be a reason behind his abduction.
I am further informed about the killing of Mr. Makhdoom Hashmi, an editor of the Daily Nijat Sukkur in Sindh province, in a crowded market place in Khairpur district by unknown armed men on 13 January 2007. He died on the spot. The Gambat police now say that some persons from Channa tribe of the area are responsible for the editor’s murder but failed to arrest any of alleged killers.
I was also informed that Mr. Mian Khursheed, a photo journalist associating with the Reuters, was illegally detained and harassed by the Airport police in Islamabad on 18 January 2007. He was later released by the police with a threat warning on the same day after big protest was held by a large number of journalists in front of the police station. However, the police have failed to give any specific reason for his arrest.
I am gravely concerned by continuous violence and rights abuse against journalists and media organizations in Pakistan. Several have been reportedly arbitrarily arrested, tortured, forcibly disappearance or subjected to extra-judicial killing by members of the armed forces. These are in violation of Article 19(2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which says, “Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.” It is shameful to see that the Pakistan government has not yet joined to the Covenant despite its presence to UN Human Rights Council.
In light of above, I strongly urge you to intervene into the matters mentioned above. The government’s pressure on the editorial policies of the newspapers should be stopped immediately. I also request you to order a proper investigation into the alleged abduction and killing of two newspaper editors mentioned above so that those responsible are brought to justice as soon as possible. Lastly, I urge the Pakistan government to ratify the ICCPR without further delay and fully respect the freedom of the expression and stop restrictions on the free media and protect media workers in the country.
Yours truly,
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PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTER TO:
1. General Pervez Musharraf
President
President’s Secretariat
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 922 1422, 4768/ 920 1893 or 1835
E-mail: (please see – http://www.presidentofpakistan.gov.pk/WTPresidentMessage.aspx)
2. Mr. Muhammad Wasi Zafar
Minister of Law, Justice and Human Rights
S Block
Pakistan Secretariat
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 920 2628
E-Mail: minister@molaw.gov.pk
3. Joint Secretary for Law, Justice and Human Rights
S Block,
Pakistan Secretariat,
Islamabad,
PAKISTAN
Tel: + 92 51 920 2819
Fax: + 92 51 920 3119
4. Mr. Iftikhar Rashid
Chairperson
Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority
Green Trust Tower, 6th Floor, Jinnah Avenue,
Blue Area, Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Tel: 0092-051-9222320/26/32/40/42/43/45/50/51/52/56
Fax: 0092-051-9207419
E-mail: ctv@pemra.gov.pk, info@pemra.gov.pk
5. Mr. Mohamag Ali Durrani
Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting
Government of Pakistan
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Email: infominister@infopak.gov.pk
6. Mr. Ambeyi Ligabo
UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression
c/o J Deriviero
OHCHR-UNOG
8-14 Avenue de la Paix
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 917 9177
Fax: +41 22 917 9006 (ATTN: SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION)
Thank you.
Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ahrchk@ahrchk.org)
