Threats to TV anchor: Media organisations demand probe

The death threats to Hamid Mir, a Geo television anchor, were condemned by South Asian Free Media Association (Safma), South Asia Media Commission (SAMC) and Media Commission-Pakistan (MC-P), said a press release on Friday.

He said he received death threats via text message for the work that he is doing. A couple of days ago, Mir circulated a detailed email message of the threats that he had been receiving.

“The authorities should immediately investigate the threats and hold those responsible for them to account in order to achieve an atmosphere of freedom of expression,” Safma Secretary General Imtiaz Alam and MC-P President M Ziauddin said in a joint statement.

“Independent journalists covering conflicts and security issues have been reporting harassment and silencing. Targeting journalists and media personnel is a troubling trend in a democratic rule. It should end immediately,” the media rights campaigners said.

Pakistan tops the list of journalists killed in 2011 with seven, five of whom died in targeted killings, killed specifically for their work as journalists. Twenty-nine journalists have been killed in the country in the past five years. There has been near-perfect impunity in the deaths of journalists for almost a decade.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 24^th, 2011.