Two unidentified gunmen stormed the offices of the independent news agency Online International News Network in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, killing the bureau chief Irshad Mastoi and a reporter, Ghulam Rasool Khattak. A network employee, accountant Muhammad Younis, was also killed, according tonews reports.
All three were shot several times, according to police. Khattak and Younis were killed immediately, and Mastoi was rushed to hospital where he was pronounced dead, reports said. The assailants fled the scene, according to reports.
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This morning CPJ received a message from the Pakistani Taliban
As a service to our Pakistani colleagues in the media we will pass along this latest threat, one in a steady never-ending stream of threats, from a group with the power to wreak real mayhem and murder. For almost all of colleagues, it’s not the first time they will be threatened. And just as journalists in Pakistan will keep doing their jobs, CPJ will keep on publicizing the attacks on them from any quarter, drawing attention to the increasingly unstable situation in which they find themselves.
Read the message in full.
More on press freedom in Pakistan.
Pakistani reporter sentenced to 4-year prison term in Afghanistan
New York, July 14, 2014–A Pakistani television journalist was convicted on charges of travelling to Afghanistan without travel documents and sentenced to four years in prison, Pakistani officials said on Sunday. He had initially been accused of spying by Afghan authorities, according to news reports.
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Beenish Ahmed, a freelance journalist, describes some of her experiences reporting on education in Pakistan.
While this issue was made urgent by the shooting of Malala Yousafzai by Taliban gunmen in 2012, the country’s educational “emergency” began long before then. Ahmed discusses the conspiracy theories suggesting Yousafzai had ulterior motives and explains one reason why the coverage and accolades for her campaign for girls’ education might have become so controversial.
View Beenish’s project: Education: Pakistan’s Other Emergency
A year after Snowden revelations, damage persists to freedom of expression in Pakistan
By Sana Saleem/CPJ Guest Blogger
In Pakistan, where freedom of expression is largely perceived as a Western notion, the Snowden revelations have had a damaging effect. The deeply polarized narrative has become starker as the corridors of power push back on attempts to curb government surveillance. “If the citizens of the United States of America cannot have these rights, how can you? ..” is an argument that rights advocate hear way too often. The Snowden revelations quickly became a moment of recognition for those otherwise labeled as conspiracy theorists who believed that all digital transmissions become a tool that can be used by the U.S. government. Unlike, for example, Brazil, which has fought back, the government of Pakistan is working on ways it could replicate a NSA-like model in this country.
Just months after the revelations, some of which reported that Pakistan was one of the leading countries (second only to Iran) being surveilled by the U.S. National Security Agency, a draft of a Cybercrime Law surfaced. The draft, reportedly commissioned by the government, contained provisions for the constitution of anNSA-like cyber authority and Pakistan’s very own 5 Eyes program (a signals intelligence-sharing alliance). The draft bill was quickly shot down after pushback from civil society, but attempts at tabling new legislation have not stopped.
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When Pakistan’s largest news channel becomes the news
Today, Pakistan’s most watched news channel, Geo News, was ordered off the airand fined by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA). Earlier this week, CPJ documented an attack on Zafar Aheer, an editor of the Urdu-language Daily Jang,by six masked men–the latest in a series of attacks, threats, and acts of intimidation reported by staff working for the Jang/Geo group.
In recent weeks, Geo has gone from a provider of news to millions of people, to a major subject of the news, to a blank screen. As well as depriving those millions of people of a major source of information, the saga underscores an urgent need to address the safety of the thousands of staffers at Geo and its affiliates.
Geo’s most recent troubles began with the attempted murder of its outspoken anchor, Hamid Mir, in April. An outpouring of concern quickly turned into condemnation when the channel aired allegations that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the country’s powerful intelligence agency, was behind the attack. Critics say Geo’s reporting of the allegations was irresponsible. Mir was labeled a traitor and an Indian agent by many in the country, including some members of the journalism community.
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“The idea that the Internet was at best controlled anarchy and beyond any one nation’s control is fading globally amid determined attempts by more and more governments to tame the web. If innovations like Twitter were hailed as recently as the Arab uprisings as the new public square, governments like those in China, Pakistan, Turkey, Iran and now Russia are making it clear that they can deploy their tanks on virtual squares, too.”
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-Neil MacFarquhar
From the New York Times:
Russia Quietly Tightens Reins on Web With ‘Bloggers Law’
“You divide terrorists into “good” and “bad” to confuse the people. I believe in unveiling your deceit. You aim to further your personal interests by handing over the country’s bases to foreign powers, and you allow drone strikes on your own country and say your opportunism is patriotism. I believe such patriotism is a slight on the name of Pakistan. You want to fan a civil war. I believe in peace. You believe in stabbing people in the back. I believe in holding my head high and speaking the truth.”
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Hamid Mir, the executive editor of Pakistan’s Geo Television, survived an April 19 assassination attempt, but was badly injured. The shooting came a few weeks after the Pakistani government pledged in a meeting with CPJ to address the insecurity plaguing the country’s journalists.
Read the full story: “Am I a Traitor?”
