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A State of Denial: The Crisis of Press Freedom and Journalist Safety in Pakistan

by International Federation of Journalists
A State of Denial: The Crisis of Press Freedom and Journalist Safety in Pakistan

The Pakistan media is facing twin crises of press freedom and of journalist safety. Nineteen journalists are believed to have been murdered since 2000, with four killed in just the past year. Numerous others have been attacked, assaulted and arrested during this time. Sickeningly, this crisis goes beyond journalists and involves their families, with two cases of the brothers of journalists murdered to send a message to the journalist. Yet, only in one case have the killers been convicted. Apart from the case of the Wall Street Journal’s Daniel Pearl, none of the murderers have been brought to justice. Worse, government representatives rely on off-the-record briefings to blame the murdered journalist for being killed and to suggest that the murder was unrelated to their work. At the same time, journalists in Pakistan face a social crisis with the failure of the country’s publishers to implement the 2001 Wage Board Award, which was to be implemented retrospectively from 2000, leaving the support for journalists stuck at 1990s levels. These developments have taken place against the background of creeping restrictions on the ability of journalists to operate and a government approach that seeks to reward and punish individual media and journalists. These twin crises illustrate the IFJ motto: There can be no press freedom if journalists exist in conditions of corruption, poverty or fear.

Taking note of the rising incidents of violence and the perturbing trend of victimising the journalists’ families to curb truthful and investigative reporting, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) invited the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) to form a mission of international organisations to look into the critical situation arising in Pakistan. From February 22-25, representatives of the IFJ, the PFUJ, the National Union of Journalists of UK and Ireland, Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF), the International News Safety Institute (INSI) and an editor from the Indian media, visited Pakistan as part of a joint mission to investigate the crisis facing the media. The mission saw international and South Asian press freedom representatives come together and take up these issues with the government. The mission members met with human rights representatives and visited families of some of the slain journalists. The purpose of the mission’s visit to Pakistan was to investigate the crisis; send a message of global solidarity to the Pakistani journalists’ community; and to make concrete recommendations for further action. The mission findings, presented here, call for immediate local and international action to address the crisis facing the Pakistan media community. Action needed includes government action in pursuing the journalist killers, immediate implementation of the wage award for journalists, local labour law reform, and the development of a culture of safety and security for journalists, particularly in the tribal areas. These recommendations and suggestions must be heeded if the crisis of press freedom and safety currently facing the media in Pakistan is to be mitigated.




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