Freedom Network (FN), a national media watchdog, has urged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to establish a full-time public prosecutor to fight the climate of fear and intimidation among journalists. The call for the prosecutor comes on eve of International UN Day to End Impunity of Crimes against Journalists, observed on November 2. The FN demanded “a full-time federal special prosecutor to probe attacks against journalists,” in an open letter addressed to the PM. “Since your government took power in 2013, the attacks on journalists have continued. Prominent TV anchor Hamid Mir survived an attempt on his life in Karachi in March 2014 but Online bureau chief Irshad Mastoi was not that fortunate. He was killed in August this year,” read the letter. “The key characteristic is that except for one journalist – Wali Khan Babar – the killers of no other Pakistani journalists have been identified and punished. This lack of justice to find, prosecute and punish the killers has promoted impunity.”
Published in The Express Tribune, November 1st, 2014.
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