ALTHOUGH journalism has always been under tremendous pressure in Balochistan, it has now taken an even uglier turn. Recently, Baloch separatists warned local media of dire consequences for reporting the state’s narrative while ignoring theirs. Following the threats, journalists again took to the streets in front of the Quetta Press Club to make their own voices heard in the national media.

It is pertinent to note that journalists in Balochistan have become sandwiched between state and non-state actors (Baloch separatists), excluding sectarian and religious banned outfits. Both actors have drawn invisible ‘red lines’. When journalists inadvertently cross these lines, they have to face dire consequences. This is why there is little journalistic activity in Balochistan — they are bound due to pressure from various quarters about how to perform their journalistic duties.

An editor of a well-known Urdu paper told me he would like to quit his profession, in which he had spent over three decades, due to such challenges. Upon reflection, however, he wondered who would give him another job at this stage. Already, there are seven FIRs pending against nine national and regional newspapers along with their editors, publishers and reporters.

‘Journalists! We have prepared your coffins.’

Ever since the killing of Akbar Bugti in 2006, the situation for Balochistan’s journalists has slowly worsened. This does not mean that they were independent in their reporting prior to this episode but that, following it, the political landscape altered tremendously. Journalists were caught up in this maelstrom, squeezed between the red lines drawn by the state and the separatists.

Initially, journalists in rural parts of Balochistan bore the brunt for two obvious reasons. Firstly, they were more susceptible to risks and threats; secondly, they were untrained. And so many journalists were killed in the line of duty, particularly in the Makran and Kalat divisions, followed by the closure of press clubs. The state actors would threaten them and say they should not report on and publish the Baloch separatists’ claims, while the separatists would put pressure on them to publish their statements. Many journalists quit rather than risk their lives.

The risk zone gradually expanded to the provincial capital. Some five years ago, the situation in the rural areas began to extend somewhat to Quetta. Today, the city’s journalists are confronted with the issue of what to report — or what not to. As a result, Balochistan’s already beleaguered journalists and their families are facing a hellish situation, where no one, including the government and its institutions, stands by them.

This begs the question: if media freedom is under threat in a province that makes up almost half the area of Pakistan, then what are press conditions in the rest of the country like? If there is no freedom of press in Balochistan, it also means there will be none elsewhere, which does not augur well for the country’s democratic environment.

Meanwhile, sectarian elements like the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat also threaten journalists via loudspeakers outside the Quetta Press Club: “Journalists! We have prepared your coffins.” Besides their obvious wrath over not having their statements published, they also object to journalists expunging their derogatory language about Shias when they do publish these statements. To this day, this sectarian threat also remains intact.

On the other hand, the government and the police department of Balochistan, instead of providing security to journalists, have bullied them. A case in point was the recent intimidation of local journalists in Kohlu district and the closure of the press club over there by the police, wherein the latter also reportedly issued illegal arrest warrants against the family members of Kohlu’s journalists.

Due to the endless threats to journalists, students of media and journalism are also discouraged from joining the field — despite the fact that more than 100 of them complete their education each year from Quetta’s two varsities. Unfortunately, only a handful of them join the profession, even though they have an extraordinary interest in the field. One of the key reasons for this is insecurity.

There is no doubt that the sorry situation for Balochistan’s journalists has gone from bad to worse over the years. Although they are known as messengers of truth, they now find their lives increasingly at risk. Their problems are compounding by the day, as Baloch separatists have already asked journalists, hawkers, and transporters to stay away from press clubs and newspapers offices, terming the province’s media as an organ for the state’s policies.

As for the state, it does not want to see the separatists’ narrative published and run at any cost in the local media. Balochistan’s journalist community, therefore, finds itself in this dilemma, caught in the shrinking spaces between increasingly widening red lines.

The writer is a member of staff.
akbar.notezai@gmail.com
Twitter: @Akbar_notezai

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2017