ISLAMABAD: Senior journalists have condemned provocative statements by a religious group against a Chakwal-based freelance journalist Nabeel Anwar Dhakku.

In a joint statement issued on Thursday, senior journalists Nasir Zaidi, Nasir Malick, Asmatullah Niazi, Dr Touseef Ahmed Khan, Sohail Saghi and Waris Raza expressed their surprise that the religious group was openly hurling threats on Mr Dhakku for the last few days but the authorities had taken no action against leaders of the outfit.

The senior journalists noted that not only the leaders of the organisation were threatening the reporter but they had also initiated a sustained campaign against him to create religious hatred against him. “Nabeel Anwar merely performed his professional duties by factually reporting those incidents and events,” the journalists said. “Reporting factual incidents is the prime responsibility of a journalist irrespective of his religious belief.”

They expressed concern that the district as well as provincial authorities had not taken any action to provide protection to the journalist nor initiated any legal proceedings against those hurling threats on him.

“We believe that a systematic malicious campaign and inflammatory statements against Nabeel Anwar Dhakku are creating a grave threat to his life.”

The journalists asked the government to immediately take action against those running a hate campaign against the reporter.

“We demand of the government to provide protection to media persons and take timely action against those who are spreading hatred in the name of religion.”

Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2024

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