Tomorrow is Global Day of Action against media attacks in Pakistan
In support of the Nov. 15 Global Day of Action against media attacks and threats in Pakistan, the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) is posting the statement below from the Asia Media Forum (AMF).
CMFR condemns the attacks against media organizations and journalists in Pakistan. The organization is supporting the appeal to all journalists in Asia to observe the Nov. 15 Global Day of Action.
The Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists (FFFJ), a local coalition of media organizations formed in 2003 to address the spate of attacks and journalist killings, will also release a statement in support of the Global Day of Action.
Asia Media Forum calls to observe Global Day of Action against media curbs in Pakistan on November 15
Media in Pakistan is under threats and attacks both by militants and the military-led state authorities with continued crackdown against journalists and media houses resulting in crippling of news and current affairs programmes, loss of media freedom and arrest of and injuries to journalists.
In the growing violence, militancy and conflict since January 2007, six media professional have been killed in Pakistan, five have disappeared or have been abducted, and many others have been assaulted or threatened. AMF is deeply concerned over this state of affairs and renewed threats by militants to media houses and journalists.
Asia Media Forum (AMF) Pakistan Chapter condemns the brutal actions against media and has appealed to all journalists in Asia to observe a Global Day of Action on November 15 to protest the media crackdown in Pakistan in front of Pakistan’s embassies in their respective countries as called by the International Federation of Journalists, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and other organizations dedicated to press freedom.
“Emergency rule is aimed at attacking vibrant and free media and independent judiciary. It is silencing the voices of the unheard which in a control regime can never emerge,” said Mr Mushtaque Minhas, President Islamabad Press Club and a Core Group member of Asia Media Forum Pakistan.
Mushtaque called for immediate withdrawal of the two ordinances that bar media from reporting freely and fairly and force cable operators to shut down some of independent television channels from the cable net. “When media is gagged who would raise the voices of the people”, he said urging the government to immediately lift ban on media, particularly electronic media and release the journalists arrested during the crackdown.
Under these two ordinances the government has literally crippled media freedom and has banned some of the popular current affairs programmes on private television channels. The widely watched “Bolta Pakistan’ (Pakistan Calling) on AAJ television anchored by both Mushtaq Mihas and Nusrat Javeed (a senior anchor/analyst and a Core Group member of Asia Media Forum) is among key television shows the government has banned.
“It is not the emergency alone that impede the capability of journalists to report, the growing conflict between the militants in North of the country and the military is also adding to harm to journalists,” said Khalid Jamil, a reporter of the same TV channel and a Core Group member of Asia Media Forum who was injured during a cross fire between the militants and the military in Swat weeks ago.
Asia Media Forum also condemns the police raids on television and radio stations and blocking of the TV channels’ transmission and expresses solidarity with fellow journalists in Pakistan in their resistance to actions against media. Rejecting ban on the private TV channels and only allowing the state run PTV to show one sided picture, AMF calls for immediate withdrawal of derogatory and anti-democracy restrictions on media. AMF urged civil society, lawyers and journalists to join hand to stop new media laws crippling the media freedom.
The AMF also warns against efforts to impose a code of conduct by the government to gag the media which the media houses and journalists organization have already rejected. All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS), Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE), Pakistan Broadcasters Association (PBA), South Asia Free Media Association (Safma) and Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) assailed the coercive measures aimed at gagging the media. AMF Pakistan chapter and other journalists’ bodies have pledged to resist ban on their freedom which they have achieved after a long struggle.
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