Impunity Spotlight: Pakistan

Shan Dahar, Abb Takk Television

January 1, 2014, in Larkana, Pakistan

Dahar, a reporter for Abb Takk Television, was shot in the back while filming outside a pharmacy near the Badah Press Club in Larkana, according to his sister and brother-in-law who spoke to CPJ. He died shortly after at a local hospital.

Initial media reports suggested that Dahar was hit by a stray bullet as weapons were being fired into the air during New Year celebrations, but in the days that followed, journalists and local media support groups suggested this was an intentional killing.

Pakistan

Hopes that last year’s conviction of six suspects for the assassination of television reporter Wali Khan Babar would herald a new dawn for journalists have dwindled in the face of fresh violence and the leadership’s failure to implement a series of commitments to CPJ to address impunity. Three journalists have been slain since the last index period, bringing Pakistan’s total to 22 for the most recent decade. They include Shan Dahar who was gunned down while investigating illegal sales of aid medicine at a local hospital. With the exception of Babar’s case, impunity remains the norm in these murders and in a slew of recent, non-fatal attacks, such as the shooting that gravely injured popular news anchor Hamid Mir. Threats to journalists stream from military and intelligence agencies, political parties, criminal groups and militants, and corrupt local leaders. Pakistan is a focuscountry for the UN Plan of Action for the Safety of Journalists and Issue of Impunity, an initiative that has improved dialogue and coordinationamong civil society, media, and the government but not yet led to any significant reduction in impunity.

IMPUNITY INDEX RATING: 0.119 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants

LAST YEAR: Ranked 9th with a rating of 0.123