ISLAMABAD- On the occasion of the World Press Freedom Day being commemorated on May 3, the Green Press Pakistan has launched a report detailing the chronology of violations during the past one-year in Pakistan.
According to the report titled, “Pakistan: State of Media and Press Freedom Report” three significant events from May 3, 2001, till this year’s World Press Freedom Day symbolize the invisible chains shackling the press as they do the growing impatience of the government with the journalists.
First, the report said, the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl symbolized the dangerous environment in which the press operates in Pakistan.
Secondly, according to the report, the resignation of a journalist with more than 30 years of professional standing, Shaheen Sehbai, as group editor of an English language newspaper, The News in March 2002 signified the attempts by the powers that matter to give’ another blow to the revered institution of the editor. In his resignation letter, Shaheen maintained that he was quitting under pressure from the government. The ministry of information and media development dismissed the allegations.
Thirdly, the report said, the impatience of the government with the press was translated into action with the provocative remarks of Punjab Governor Khalid Maqbool, made the Punjab police take a cue and go berserk during President Gen Musharraf Faisalabad rally.
Reacting to this incident, Ann Cooper, the executive director of the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), summed up the state of media in Pakistan today: “The very nature of military rule threatens press freedom in Pakistan. Journalists no longer enjoy constitutional protections, and other democratic safeguards have been deeply compromised.”
According to the Green Press report, following is the chronology of events between May 3, 200l and May 3, 2002:
May 4, 2001: Police in Bahawalpur arrested Ahmed Nawaz Abbasi, correspondent for Nawa-i-Waqt, for providing the French news agency AFP a photograph of the corpse of a man who had died due to the drought in the Cholistan desert.
May 9, 2001: Unknown assailants made an attempt on the life of C. R. Shamsi, reporter for daily Ausaf. The police refused to register a case.
May 14, 2001: Hadi Sanghi, photographer for daily Kawish was beaten by police officers in Larkana for taking photographs of the release from prison of nationalist politician Qadir Magsi and his 18 associates.
May 31, 2001: The additional district and session judge, Islamabad banned the media coverage of the proceedings of the blasphemy case being heard against Prof Younas Sheikh. The court official said the ban had been imposed to prevent the sentiments of Muslims from being hurt by details of the proceedings.
June 3, 200l: Police in Abbottabad sealed the offices of daily Mohasib and arrested Zaman Khan, editor, Shahid Chaudhry, managing editor, Shakil Tahirkheli, news editor, and Raja Haroon, sub editor. The police brought blasphemy charges against these journalists.
June 6, 2001: Two unidentified persons attacked and injured, Fakhar Alam, reporter of an Urdu daily in Mansehra.
June 13, 200l: A senior police officer mistreated staff photographer of The News, Raja Khalid, and snatched his camera and took out film from it.
July 4, 2001: The officials of law enforcement agencies used abusive language against Dawn’s staff photographer, Tanveer Shehzad, and The Nation’s photographer, U.K. Alizai, at a polling booth in Rawalpindi during local bodies elections.
July 11, 2001: Police arrested Hasan Mahmood Orakzai, Hangu correspondent of daily Mashriq for filing reports on the deteriorating law and order situation in the area.
July 25, 2001: The security officials manhandled journalists from The Nation and Dawn and misbehaved with lady reporters and stopped them from covering the concluding session of the South Asian Girl Child symposium in Islamabad.
July 26, 2001: The timber mafia attacked and injured Amjad Ali Shah, correspondent of daily Mashriq in Dir. Mr. Shah had exposed the activities of timber mafia.
July 27, 2001: The government reinstated the publishing license of weekly K-2, published in Gilgit, Baltistan, in the Northern Areas. The declaration was restored almost a year after it was revoked in August 2000 on the charge of publishing “objectionable material.”
September 3, 2001: Pakistan ordered removal of an article covering the controversial blasphemy laws in Newsweek magazine before its distribution in the country. The censored article, “Talking is Dangerous,” highlighted the prosecution of Shaikh Mohammed Younus, a professor sentenced to death under blasphemy law for allegedly insulting Prophet Muhammad.
September 4, 2001: Rana Akram, correspondent for daily Pakistan was killed in a grenade attack on his office in Daska.
September 18, 2001: Security forces near a military base and Peshawar airport briefly detained photographer Jon Ingemundsew of Norwegian newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad and Ghafar Baig of Online.
September 25, 2001: An Irish television crew was briefly detained after they filmed a refugee camp near Peshawar. The same day, the Frontier Corps interrogated members of a CNN team led by Asia correspondent Mike Chinoy. In addition, a television crew from the French station TF1 were denied access to Darra Adamkhel. Police also briefly arrested a Japanese television crew near the Afghan border.
October 9, 2001: Two French photographers, Patrick Aventurier of Gamma agency and Vincent Laforjt of New York Times were beaten by, policemen in Quetta as they tried to take photos of an ambulance carrying the body of a child killed during a demonstration against the American and British air strikes in Afghanistan.
October 25, 2001: Aditya Sinha, journalist for Indian daily Hindustan Times, was arrested and later expelled by Pakistan after covering a meeting of religious and Afghan leaders in Peshawar during the early days of the Afghan war.
November 15, 2001: Armed men attacked the offices of daily Paigham in Sahiwal and ransacked the offices and manhandled editors and staff for news about local militant groups.
November 16, 2001: Army officer in Islamabad assaulted Dawn reporter Faraz Hashmi after their cars bumped on the road. The police refused to register a case on Hashmi’s request and the attack, which left him injured, came just days after he put an uncomfortable question to President Pervez Musharraf at a press conference.
November 24, 2001: The government ordered closure of any printing press in the country used for printing “provocative posters” against the military regime’s support to the US led coalition against terrorism.
December 8, 2001: Armed men barged into the Hyderabad bureau of daily Ummat and beat up two staff members. They ransacked the office, broke furniture, computers, a television, a fax machine and telephone sets.
December 29, 2001: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority issued directions to cable operators to stop the transmission of Indian channels, saying the decision was taken “in view of the one sided, poisonous Indian propaganda by that country’s channels aimed at tarnishing Pakistan’s image.”
December 10, 200l: Bureau offices of dailies Zamana and Balochistan Times in Karachi were gutted when a major fire broke out.
January 2, 2002: Islamabad authorities slap a 30-day ban on publication of the Urdu daily Dopehar for publishing a news item about differences in federal cabinet on the issue of crackdown against extremist parties. The ban was revoked four days later.
January 3, 2002: Hyderabad police registers an un detailed criminal case against daily Kawish editor Ali Kazi and executive editor Ayub Kazi for running reports of police complicity in local crimes.
January 22, 2002: Time magazine’s Pakistan correspondent Ghulam Hasnain goes missing. He surfaces two days later amid reports that he was picked up by the intelligence agencies for questioning over his reporting of their affairs.
March 9, 2002: Government banned entry of journalists in the accountability court at Attock hearing corruption case against Asif Zardari, the husband of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
March 27, 2002: Islamabad authorities prevented an all parties consultation on freedom of information arranged by the Consumer Rights Commission of Pakistan and the British Council, saying it amounted to a political gathering, which the government had banned.
Source: Dawn
Date:5/2/2002
