The recent global survey by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) was an eye-opener for anyone who wants to know more about the situation of press freedom all over the world. This fourth yearly report, which states that at least “250 journalists have been imprisoned around the world in 2019 so far as authoritarian governments show no signs of letting up on critical media.”
According to the CPJ report, “at least 250 journalists are in jail concerning their work, compared with an adjusted 255 a year earlier. The highest number of journalists imprisoned in any year since the CPJ began keeping track is 273 in 2016. After China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, the worst jailers are Eritrea, Vietnam, and Iran.”
The report further states that most journalists who have been incarcerated face anti-state charges; however, the number of journalists charged with “false news” has risen to 30 as opposed to 28 last year. Some repressive media countries like Russia and Singapore, have also made laws that criminalize the publication of “fake news,” according to the report.
CPJ’s report says that “98 percent of the journalists jailed worldwide are locals covering their own country. Three of the four journalists with foreign citizenship are imprisoned in Saudi Arabia, and the fourth in China.” the figures state that eight percent of the journalists that are imprisoned are female, a number that has come down from 13 percent last year. Journalists covering politics are more likely to be imprisoned, followed by human rights and corruption. Reporters, publishing online are more likely to be detained than those who are just linked to print, according to the CPJ report.
According to the CPJ’s 2019 Global Impunity Index, Pakistan is one of the “thirteen countries that make up the list of the world’s worst impunity offenders, represent a mix of conflict-ridden regions, and more stable countries where criminal groups, politicians, government officials, and other powerful actors resort to violence to silence critical and investigative reporting. Unchecked corruption, weak institutions, and lack of political will to pursue robust investigations are all factors behind impunity.”
CPJ survey further states that during the 10-year index period ending August 31, 2019, the number of journalists killed for doing their job was 318 all over the world, and in 86 percent of those cases, their murderers have not been caught. The number has been closer to 90 percent, but it has become a bit better for the last two years. “The 13 countries on the index account for more than three quarters (222) of the global total of unsolved murders of journalists for the index period. All 13 have been featured multiple times since CPJ first compiled the index in 2008, and seven have appeared every year,” states the survey.
Pakistan is currently number on the list of thirteen countries ranked by their 2019 impunity rating, from highest to lowest, “with the worst records in prosecuting those who murder journalists in direct retaliation for their work.” In a country where journalism has traditionally meant grappling with a lifestyle that is filled with risks of all kinds, 2019 was a challenging year for journalists.
The year started with the arrest of a TV host for a privately-owned Urdu-language news station, Rizwan-ur-Rehman Razi, who was arrested from his home and taken into custody in February. According to a First Information Report released by the FIA Cyber Crime Wing, Razi had put up “defamatory and obnoxious posts” on his Twitter account against the “judiciary, government institutions and intelligence agencies” of Pakistan. The report also stated that Razi had confessed to the crimes.
In Pakistan, the often multidimensional challenges faced by journalists have remained more or less the same. A common sentiment among journalists is that the situation is now than the predicaments journalists had to suffer under General Zia-ul-Haq’s military rule.
In May this year, Gohar Wazir, a reporter with a private TV station, was reportedly arrested in Bannu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, after reporting on demonstrations of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) and interviewing a prominent PTM leader who is also a member of Pakistan’s National Assembly. According to many reports, journalists have often been targeted for performing their duty.
According to an article by CPJ, “journalists, including freelancers and those from established media companies, painted a picture of a media under siege. Many traced the changes to two events in 2014: a shooting that injured a TV anchor and the aftermath of a terrorist attack in Peshawar that left some130 students dead.” The threat of prosecution is genuine for journalists in Pakistan. Pakistani journalists and media houses often mention having to face severe censorship regularly. Journalists all over the country have had to bear rough consequences for attempting to do their job correctly under both military regimes and democratic governments.
In June this year Muhammad Bilal Khan, an independent journalist who interviewed politicians on his YouTube channel, was reportedly stabbed to death by unknown men. According to reports, he received a phone call from an unidentified man asking him to come to a particular spot in Islamabad. However, when he arrived there, he was reportedly stabbed at least 17 times by unknown people. He was rushed to a nearby hospital after the attack, but died en route.
Specific issues are reporting on which can spark immediate retaliation in the country and laws in place such as the Pakistan Protection Ordinance, that allows people to be detained without charge for 90 days, are now being used against those reporters who are critical of individual institutions in their pieces. The government claims that a vibrant press is present in Pakistan, even though journalists continuously claim to be threatened and “warned against reporting on sensitive matters. There is a massive list of journalists in Pakistan who have been targeted in the recent years, reportedly for reporting on sensitive issues, right from the freelance journalist Hayatullah Khan, who reported on the CIA-run drone program and was found dead soon after, to Saleem Shahzad, who was reportedly found dead in a canal after publicly expressing his fears of being prosecuted. According to most Pakistani media houses and journalists, self-censorship is the order of the day now, and most of them consciously try to stay away from topics that might cause any retaliation.
According to many journalists, the press is not as free as it seems in Pakistan, who also claims that the recent decrease in the instances against journalists as compared to the years before, is mainly because of self-censorship by media houses. However, interestingly, the public doesn’t seem to have any doubts about decreasing press freedom. Ask any layman, and they will probably rage against how the press has always been “freer than it should have been” and how “the current clampdown on the press is something that they deserve.”’ Politicians are often seen publicly alleging the press of indulging in “fake news.” There are many such allegations against journalists on social media websites and popular discussion forums. They are often accused of being paid by foreign spy agencies to being unprofessional or taking money from high-ups to do biased reporting.
In October this year, CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Steven Butler was reportedly denied entry by Pakistani immigration authorities – the reason stated by the police was that his name was on a blacklist, being managed by the Ministry of Interior. According to the constitution of Pakistan, journalists can perform their duties independently; however, after talking to journalists, it seems that the ground realities are quite different.
Despite recommendations for media safety being present in Pakistan, there is no clear solution to protecting journalists. According to media houses, the guidelines for their safety are seldom followed. They say that the only thing that can genuinely be hoped for is for the law enforcement agencies and the judiciary to investigate and prosecute people behind these attacks on journalists and solve the unsolved crimes against them.
According to a survey published by Media Matters for Democracy last year, “88 percent of the 156 journalists who responded said they had censored what they write or report. About 72 percent said the trend had increased over time. Seven in 10 journalists said that censoring what they wrote made them feel safer. Six in 10 said they were very likely to self-censor information about the security establishment or religion, and around 83 percent said they would likely censor information about militancy and terrorism.”
Due to the self-censorship strategies that are in place at the moment, many journalists now fear that the Pakistani public might not be getting an accurate picture of the issues that the country is facing. According to them, this control that has been established, slowly and gradually, in Pakistan is now becoming a part of their reporting culture, something that might not be good for the future of journalism in the country. However, despite the situation not being ideal, Pakistani journalists continue to march on.
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