PARIS, May 2: International journalists’ rights association Reporters Sans Frontieres is to publish its annual report tomorrow (May 3) in connection with the 12th International Press Freedom Day.
In the chapter on Pakistan, RSF lauds the “maturity and pluralism” of the Pakistani press, but warns against the “repeated use of the country’s law on blasphemy against journalists” as “a dangerous trend against press freedom in Pakistan.”
The war in Afghanistan allowed the Pakistani press to prove its maturity and pluralism. The government of President Pervez Musharraf, which sided with the Americans in the war against terrorism, allowed the foreign press, with the exception of reporters from neighbouring India, to freely cover the conflict. But the repeated use of the country’s law on blasphemy against journalists is a dangerous trend against press freedom in Pakistan.
“Among the enduring forces of our country is the free and courageous press,” said Najam Sethi, editor of Friday Times, one of Pakistan’s most liberal publications, in the middle of the Afghan crisis.
The US military operation “Enduring Freedom”, which placed this country at the heart of a new international crisis, showed that the Pakistani press could maintain its independence and its difference. English-language newspapers supported the decisions of President Pervez Musharraf in his call to rally around the anti-terrorist coalition, yet managed to retain their critical tone. However, the Urdu-language press constantly denounced “crimes” committed by Americans against the Afghan people.
Some publications with links to fundamentalist parties openly supported the Taliban regime, and published pictures of Osama bin Laden on their front pages. In spite of tensions in the country, especially demonstrations in support of the Taliban, the regime of General Musharraf, who became the country’s president in June 2001, did not attempt to muzzle the press.
Thousands of foreign journalists from dozens of countries had no difficulty entering Pakistan after Sept 11 to cover the Afghan crisis. Only Indian reporters, or those of Indian origin, were refused press visas, and two of them were expelled from the country. But the government, citing security reasons, kept the foreign press out of sensitive parts of the country, especially the tribal zones along the Afghan border. At least seven reporters were arrested for not respecting instructions from authorities.
The Pakistani government, and some of the country’s media, expressed their discontent several times concerning foreign press coverage of the situation in the country. One Pakistani reporter said that most foreign journalists had never visited Pakistan and had no awareness of the context of the situation.
“Fundamentalist demonstrations are on the front pages of all the newspapers, and make the leads of all the television news programmes in the world. But they only represent a few tens of thousands of people in a country of 140 million inhabitants. How can you explain this?” said one journalist based in Islamabad. Peshawar, Quetta and Islamabad have become a “Journalistan” where every excess is seen: the prices of Pakistani and Afghan “fixers”, as well as those for hotel rooms, skyrocketed.
But new threats to press freedom in Pakistan appeared in 2001. Two newspapers were shut down, and several journalists were arrested for writing articles considered “blasphemous” by fundamentalist groups or by the authorities. The crime of blasphemy, punished by the death penalty, has become a sword of Damocles hanging above the media.
