Last week the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) launched its annual state of the human rights report for 2019 which also includes a section on curbs on free speech. About the same time, another report by a media watchdog Freedom Network also released its State of Press Freedom in Pakistan Report on eve of the International Press Freedom Day that is observed the world over on May 3 every year.
While warning that the on-going pandemic will further worsen the overall human rights situation in the country, the secretary general of the HRCP said that last year would be remembered for systematic curbs on political dissent and strangulation of press freedom.
Space for criticising official policies has shrunk. A calculated and deliberate financial squeeze on media houses, large scale sacking of media persons from jobs, contraction of social media space and threats to journalists from state and non-state actors alike has worsened the situation. A cumulative effect of all this has been that Pakistan’s position on the World Press Freedom Index slipped even further during the year.
The State of Press Freedom in Pakistan 2020 report by Freedom Network states that there were at least 91 instances of attacks against media persons during the previous year. The nature of attacks ranged from actual physical harm to new forms of attack enabling the perpetrators plausible deniability so as to evade any accountability in the future.
According to the report, there have been 11 cases of murder or attempted murder against journalists. In 42 percent of various categories of threats to journalists, the perpetrators were state authorities. Political parties and ‘unknown’ elements each accounted for 16 percent of the threats, either written or verbal.
Different strong arm tactics have been employed to intimidate media persons, including institution of false cases to keep journalists bogged down in criminal proceedings. The report cites the example of an anti-terrorism court sentencing recently a journalist to five years in jail for allegedly possessing banned literature. It was a novel interpretation of terrorism that ignored that journalists have to seek documents for credible reporting. Fortunately, later he was acquitted by the Sindh High Court.
New ways of targeting media persons are well known. Home delivery of certain newspapers has been blocked and telecasting of some channels disrupted by threatening hawkers and cable operators. Cable operators were asked to shift location of some channels from the usual position towards the end to reduce viewership by confusing viewers.
Curbs on media in Pakistan have also attracted international concerns. The US State Department has expressed concern and the UK Parliamentarians condemned the arrest of Mir Shakilur Rehman. In an open letter on July 31 last year, the Reporters Without Borders - taking note of the decline in press freedoms in the country - urged the prime minister to take urgent measures to address it.
The European Union has also expressed similar concerns. It noted ‘national security’ was widely used as a ‘pretext’ for cracking down on freedom of expression. The EU has expressed its concern at a time when the next review of the GSP plus status of Pakistan is soon to be undertaken.
Reports of HRCP and Freedom Network and concerns expressed by international community make it clear that the claims of free and independent media and the press being freer than that of the UK is no more than a fiction.
An area that has received little attention is the threats to journalists and bloggers who, feeling threatened and persecuted, have fled the country and are living in exile. The curbs on freedom of expression have acquired new dimensions, as lately they, too, have been targeted.
In February this year, blogger Waqas Goraya - living in exile in Holland - was physically assaulted near his home. Waqas was one of the five bloggers active on social media who were kidnapped from different parts of the country sometime back and remained disappeared for some time. When finally freed he went into exile.
A few days ago, the body of a Baloch journalist Sajid Hussain living in exile in Sweden was found dumped in a river in the town of Uppsala. Editor of an online newspaper the 39-year-old Sajid Hussain was critical of enforced disappearances in Balochistan and reported on militants allegedly launching forays in Iran. After receiving death threats he went into exile finally ending up in Sweden where he was granted asylum last year.
Of course nothing can be said about Sajid Hussain’s murder until investigations have been carried out. There, however, seem an ominous parallel between his case and that of the inquisitive tribal journalist late Hayatullah of Waziristan. Both reported on the militants’ activities and how they were tracked down in the war on terror.
Hayatullah reported on militant activities in tribal areas post 9/11 and took pictures of an aerial attack in Waziristan killing a notorious militant. The pictures revealed that the weapon used was not available in Pakistan’s weapons inventory, raising questions on the claims that the militant had been taken out by our forces. For the first time it became known that the weapon had been fired from US drones. Soon thereafter Hayatullah disappeared and later, his dead body was found. Nothing has been heard of the judicial inquiry that was ordered at the time. Parliamentary questions about the inquiry report also drew deafening silence.
The assault on Waqas Goraya and the kidnapping and subsequent killing of Sajid Hussain has injected a new and ominous element into the threats to journalists and sends a chilling message.
Responding to the HRCP criticism of the shrinking press freedoms, the Human Rights Ministry contended: “an important new legislation on protection of journalists was discussed with stake holders in 2019 and approved in principle by the cabinet in 2020.” Can anyone pin hopes on ‘important discussions last year’ to really address the new strains of challenges to press freedoms?
The writer is a former senator
While warning that the on-going pandemic will further worsen the overall human rights situation in the country, the secretary general of the HRCP said that last year would be remembered for systematic curbs on political dissent and strangulation of press freedom.
Space for criticising official policies has shrunk. A calculated and deliberate financial squeeze on media houses, large scale sacking of media persons from jobs, contraction of social media space and threats to journalists from state and non-state actors alike has worsened the situation. A cumulative effect of all this has been that Pakistan’s position on the World Press Freedom Index slipped even further during the year.
The State of Press Freedom in Pakistan 2020 report by Freedom Network states that there were at least 91 instances of attacks against media persons during the previous year. The nature of attacks ranged from actual physical harm to new forms of attack enabling the perpetrators plausible deniability so as to evade any accountability in the future.
According to the report, there have been 11 cases of murder or attempted murder against journalists. In 42 percent of various categories of threats to journalists, the perpetrators were state authorities. Political parties and ‘unknown’ elements each accounted for 16 percent of the threats, either written or verbal.
Different strong arm tactics have been employed to intimidate media persons, including institution of false cases to keep journalists bogged down in criminal proceedings. The report cites the example of an anti-terrorism court sentencing recently a journalist to five years in jail for allegedly possessing banned literature. It was a novel interpretation of terrorism that ignored that journalists have to seek documents for credible reporting. Fortunately, later he was acquitted by the Sindh High Court.
New ways of targeting media persons are well known. Home delivery of certain newspapers has been blocked and telecasting of some channels disrupted by threatening hawkers and cable operators. Cable operators were asked to shift location of some channels from the usual position towards the end to reduce viewership by confusing viewers.
Curbs on media in Pakistan have also attracted international concerns. The US State Department has expressed concern and the UK Parliamentarians condemned the arrest of Mir Shakilur Rehman. In an open letter on July 31 last year, the Reporters Without Borders - taking note of the decline in press freedoms in the country - urged the prime minister to take urgent measures to address it.
The European Union has also expressed similar concerns. It noted ‘national security’ was widely used as a ‘pretext’ for cracking down on freedom of expression. The EU has expressed its concern at a time when the next review of the GSP plus status of Pakistan is soon to be undertaken.
Reports of HRCP and Freedom Network and concerns expressed by international community make it clear that the claims of free and independent media and the press being freer than that of the UK is no more than a fiction.
An area that has received little attention is the threats to journalists and bloggers who, feeling threatened and persecuted, have fled the country and are living in exile. The curbs on freedom of expression have acquired new dimensions, as lately they, too, have been targeted.
In February this year, blogger Waqas Goraya - living in exile in Holland - was physically assaulted near his home. Waqas was one of the five bloggers active on social media who were kidnapped from different parts of the country sometime back and remained disappeared for some time. When finally freed he went into exile.
A few days ago, the body of a Baloch journalist Sajid Hussain living in exile in Sweden was found dumped in a river in the town of Uppsala. Editor of an online newspaper the 39-year-old Sajid Hussain was critical of enforced disappearances in Balochistan and reported on militants allegedly launching forays in Iran. After receiving death threats he went into exile finally ending up in Sweden where he was granted asylum last year.
Of course nothing can be said about Sajid Hussain’s murder until investigations have been carried out. There, however, seem an ominous parallel between his case and that of the inquisitive tribal journalist late Hayatullah of Waziristan. Both reported on the militants’ activities and how they were tracked down in the war on terror.
Hayatullah reported on militant activities in tribal areas post 9/11 and took pictures of an aerial attack in Waziristan killing a notorious militant. The pictures revealed that the weapon used was not available in Pakistan’s weapons inventory, raising questions on the claims that the militant had been taken out by our forces. For the first time it became known that the weapon had been fired from US drones. Soon thereafter Hayatullah disappeared and later, his dead body was found. Nothing has been heard of the judicial inquiry that was ordered at the time. Parliamentary questions about the inquiry report also drew deafening silence.
The assault on Waqas Goraya and the kidnapping and subsequent killing of Sajid Hussain has injected a new and ominous element into the threats to journalists and sends a chilling message.
Responding to the HRCP criticism of the shrinking press freedoms, the Human Rights Ministry contended: “an important new legislation on protection of journalists was discussed with stake holders in 2019 and approved in principle by the cabinet in 2020.” Can anyone pin hopes on ‘important discussions last year’ to really address the new strains of challenges to press freedoms?
The writer is a former senator