Media lifeline: Journalists putting their lives on the line

PESHAWAR: Panic gripped Ghalanai Press Club in Mohmand Agency on Monday as journalists tried repeatedly to get in touch with their colleagues after news of the twin suicide blasts, said Iftikhar Firdous, the reporter covering the attack for Express 24/7.

The scene belies the harsh reality of a correspondent’s life, covering the Taliban insurgency in these remote areas.

Express News correspondent Abdul Wahab was not as lucky as some, when he went down in the line of duty.

Wahab was a pleasant, soft spoken person. He covered the Mohmand tribal region in the north of the provincial capital. A father of two girls, Wahab had been associated with journalism for the past 13 years.

Correspondents reporting in tribal areas are a lifeline for media organisations as almost all major news including drone attacks, Taliban, al Qaeda, military operations and displacements originate from the tribal belt. Militancy has cost several reporters their lives in different parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the tribal areas, but this breed of daredevil reporters never shy away from their duty.

Media watchdog Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF) Press Freedom Index 2010 ranks Pakistan 151 out of a total of 180 in the category of the most dangerous countries for journalists. Some of the other countries included in the list are Afghanistan, Somalia and Mexico.

RSF Pakistan Representative Iqbal Khattak told The Express Tribune that during this year alone, 11 journalists were killed in Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 8^th, 2010.