NEW YORK, April 27: The Human Rights Watch on Friday urged President Pervez Musharraf “to demonstrate a commitment to genuine media freedom by bringing to an end the use of coercion, intimidation, kidnapping and torture, or the threat of it, in government dealings with the print and electronic media”.

“We call upon you to bring all such acts by the government and its agents to an end,” it said.

In a letter, the group alleged that the government had consistently violated media freedom in Balochistan, tribal areas and ‘Pakistan-administered Kashmir’.

“Your government’s failure to allow freedom of expression, as required by international law, has become yet another symbol of the lack of rule of law in Pakistan,” it said.

“Pakistan is ranked at 119 out of 166 countries in the RSF Press Freedom Index. By Dec 2006, this ranking had slipped to 157.”

It observed: “Threatening calls from intelligence, military or unknown sources are a regular hazard for many journalists. These have increased since your March 9 decision to undermine judicial independence by arbitrarily dismissing the Chief Justice.”