The Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) on Friday expressed its concerns over escalating violence against journalists and increasing attempts to stifle press freedom in the country.
The council also criticised the federal and provincial governments for delaying the release of dues of advertisements to the newspapers, which has resulted in non-payment of salaries to the working journalists.
In a statement, the council said that Pakistan did not see a thaw in calculated restrictions on freedom of expression and violence against journalists from January 2023 to April 2024 since state and non-state actors continued their attempts to stifle the freedom of expression during this period in line with the previous years.
The media in Pakistan has been working in extreme fear and oppression. Although Article 19 of the Constitution guarantees freedom of expression and opinion, journalists are often abducted or arrested based on their expression or reporting, with little to no action taken to secure their release.
It went on to state that the government has failed to provide protection to journalists.
“Although Pakistan has improved its ranking to 150- in the 2023 global list of countries with the most freedom of expression, there is no lull in coordinated attacks on journalists and attempts to gag freedom of expression in the country,” it added.
The statement said that the Press Freedom and Monitoring Committee of the CPNA has compiled its annual Media Freedom Report 2024 on the basis of official statistics, information through newspapers and websites, and through information received directly.
The report said that four journalists lost their lives while carrying out their professional duties in different parts of the country. Meanwhile, the cases of the slain journalists are pending in different courts of law, with no progress in terms of dispensation of justice and arrests of the killers.
These journalists include Jan Mohammad Mahar from the Sindhi news channel Kawish Television Network, who was killed in broad daylight in Sukkur. His killers are still at large, reflecting the helplessness of the law-enforcing agencies.
Another journalist Imtiaz Baig from Samaa News was killed in mysterious circumstances in Jehlum but the police and his family members pronounced the murder an “accident.”
Similarly, the police have failed to unearth motives behind the murders of Ghulam Asghar Khund and Sagheer Ahmad Laar, who were killed in Khairpur and Khanpur respectively.
Freedom of expression, freedom of the press and right to information remained under stress despite change of governments in 2022 and 2024.
During this period, at least 28 incidents targeting journalists were reported from across the country. In these incidents, some 13 journalists were attacked and tortured, the houses of two journalists were attacked, and 10 newsmen were booked and arrested in different cases.
Several journalists had to also flee the country due to attacks and life threats during this period.
The report bemoaned that the powerful circles of the society, both government and non-governmental, often demonstrated their might and supremacy in a bid to pressure the journalist community.
It further noted that not only the elected governments but the interim setup also followed the same suit, “which exposed their tall claims about freedom of press and expression in the country”.
During the last caretaker setup, several journalists were harassed and abducted in Karachi in an attempt to pressure them for desired reporting.
Apart from state and non-state actors, journalists also had to face restrictions and self-censorship from newspaper owners, local administration, and the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA).
The pressures and authoritarian tactics escalated to the point where several journalists felt compelled to flee the country, unable to withstand the situation any longer. It even escalated to the extent that some of them had to conceal their identities even after relocating abroad.
While those who could not go abroad, including Gohar Wazir who used to work for Khyber News in the Bannu district, had to leave the profession and look for other means to make a living.
Despite this harrowing state of press freedom scenario, and repeated demands by the CPNE, there is no official arrangement to document attacks on journalists in the country.
Condemning the ban on internet services during polling for the Feb 8 general elections, the CPNE said the state had failed to provide a free, fair and transparent environment to the media to cover the election-related activities.
It warned that such tactics, which aimed to gag the freedom of press and expression, have never served good for the country, and resulted in “debacles like dismemberment of Pakistan”.
The CPNE urged the government to take effective and practical measures to ensure the freedom of the press and desist from initiating measures to pressure the journalist community.
The council vowed that it would continue to stand alongside the working journalists and take every legal measure to ensure their safety and welfare.
“Freedom of expression and press is the constitutional and democratic right of the people of Pakistan, and the CPNE will go all out to defend that,” it maintained.Non-payment of duesThe statement also said that during the last 16 months, the caretaker and the elected government exploited a host of tactics, including a reduction in the volume of advertisements and unnecessary delay in payment of dues to pressure the print media.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the payment of dues against official advertisement has been facing decades-long suspension, while in Punjab the payment of dues under a CPNE-proposed formula of 85-15 has not been implemented yet.
The caretaker Sindh government had released Rs2 billion to clear the advertisement dues, however, the print media received only Rs150 to Rs160 million.
The council commended the Balochistan government for increasing the advertisement rates and initiating the process of releasing dues to the print media.
The CPNE urged the other provincial governments to follow suit. The previous PDM government, it added, had approved a 35 per cent increase in advertisement rates for newspapers and magazines, however, the caretaker government did not implement its predecessor’s decision for over six months.
The council demanded that the federal and provincial governments should immediately work to clear the advertisement dues so that the newspapers could pay salaries to their staff on time.
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