Another journalist killed

In 2021, as many as 63 journalists were killed in the line of duty in Pakistan.

The broad daylight murder of a crime reporter, Hasnain Shah, in Lahore on Monday has once again established the grim fact that journalists are getting increasingly prone to losing their life. Circumstances surrounding the horrifying incident leave little doubt about it being a case of targeted killing since two men riding a motorcycle were chasing Shah’s car before they fired 10 fatal shots at him close to the local press club. The attack might have meant to give a stern warning to all those associated with the dangerous profession of journalism — one down, thousands to keep quiet.

Pakistan is among five countries in the world most dangerous for journalists. In 2021, as many as 63 journalists were killed in the line of duty in the country. From 1990 to 2020, about 2,658 journalists have been murdered in the country. They are eliminated for exposing corruption, crime, reporting on environmental pollution and suchlike. They are also detained and intimidated. Threats take various forms like kidnapping of individual journalists or of family members and carrying out toxic propaganda against them. Female journalists are doubly imperilled: they receive both life threats and those relating to their modesty.

There are global organisations to defend journalists, prominent among them are the Committee to Protect Journalists, International Federation of Journalists, Reporters without Borders, and People’s Tribunal for Murdered Journalists. These bodies are not invested with powers to punish perpetrators of crime. They are performing the function of raising awareness about violence against journalists and with it making efforts to influence authorities the world over to put in place improved mechanisms for the protection of journalists and to ensure punishment to purveyors of violence. Active in this direction at the national level are the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists along with its provincial affiliates. The authorities should introduce stringent laws to rein in the spike in the killing of journalists and their intimidation.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 26^th, 2022.

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