LAHORE, May 31: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has said that needless attacks on media by Gen Pervez Musharraf is likely to embolden elements within the administration and outside it to further curtail freedom of expression and thought.
In a press statement issued here on Thursday, HRCP’s secretary-general Syed Iqbal Haider said Gen Musharraf devoted considerable time to a tirade against the media while addressing army officers in Jhelum on Wednesday.
“The relevance of this unmerited attention to media could not be fathomed. But what could result was a serious danger that such unprovoked assaults on media would further encourage both state functionaries and non-state troublemakers to increase their efforts at browbeating journalists,” said the statement.
Mr Haider said actions taken against media over the past few weeks, especially on May 12, had caused an outrage among journalists and other upholders of freedom of expression globally.
He said no action had been taken against ‘criminal’ gangs that kept on firing outside a television station in Karachi on May 12 which was an unprecedented blitz watched by millions of Pakistanis. Subsequent reports of attacks on media had been pouring in uninterrupted.
The other day, bullets were left in vehicles belonging to two senior journalists and a press photographer of Karachi. This cowardly incident needed to be condemned in the strongest possible manner.
The HRCP secretary-general said the glib-tongued administrators of Karachi were expected to track down the culprits and punish them.
But the reported decision to ban demonstrations outside the Karachi Press Club, seemed to suggest that at least one objective of threatening journalists had been achieved. Similarly, the decision to place the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulating Authority (Pemra) under the information division showed the intentions of opening of a new front against the electronic media.
He said the regime was facing a crisis, but it was itself responsible for that and it could not recover from it by gagging the media and targeting journalists. Such tactics were bound to aggravate matters and expose the state and the people to unimaginable hazards.
