KARACHI, Jan 12: The Pakistan People’s Party on Saturday criticised the deportation of a reputed American journalist, Nicholas Schmidle, by the Pakistani authorities last week.

The central information secretary of the PPP, Sherry Rehman, in a statement released here maintained that Mr Schmidle was ‘punished’ for a detailed article he wrote about the Taliban’s presence in Pakistan and how they were carrying out their activities in the face of a lenient government.

She said Schmidle’s deportation came on the heels of a report by Reporters Sans Frontier that described Pakistan as “the most dangerous Asian country for the media in 2007”. The RSF also observed that the climate of extreme censorship would prevent the media from carrying out a satisfactory coverage of the Feb 18 elections.

The RSF also said that the year 2007 had particularly been a bad year for Pakistani journalists as six of them lost their lives in the line of duty, while 30 were seriously injured in various incidents, including police clampdowns. At least 120 were arrested. Most astonishingly, 34 journalists in Sindh were booked on a charge of rioting following Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. After the Nov 3, 2007 ‘martial law’, the regime shut down 45 private TV channels and two radio stations, adding to its list of unconstitutional moves over the last eight years.

Describing the deportation of the American journalist as “outrageous,” Ms Rehman said that despite the lifting of the so-called emergency, the regime continued to hound the media on one pretext or another. “Schmidle’s deportation is the continuation of a deliberate policy of persecuting the media since his article comprehensively detailed the intricacies of the establishment-Taliban nexus that has resulted in the strong presence of the Taliban across the length and breadth of the country,” she added.

She said the ill treatment meted out to the American journalist was another reminder of the fact that an authoritarian leadership never has tolerance for independent voices. “How many people can they continue to deport and arrest?

The fact is that the country is at its lowest ebb and questions raised about its stability have never sounded as strong as they do today. Rather than addressing crucial issues of militancy, terrorism, the establishment’s involvement in disruptive activities, growing unrest on the streets owing to these issues and inflation, the regime continues to commit one blunder after the other to fix its ‘image’ problem.”

Ms Rehman also deplored the mass arrests of journalists after the Dec 27 violence. “We have noticed that out of the 34 journalists booked for rioting in Sindh, 19 were from the daily Kawish or the KTN television channel.

Many of them have been critical of the regime and they have been falsely implicated on charges of rioting so that they could be taught a lesson. According to the RSF, 10 have already been arrested and face the possibility of long jail terms under an anti-terrorism law. We, at the PPP, are very concerned for their safety.”

Demanding the immediate release of the journalists, and lifting of the ban on the entry of foreign journalists to the country, she said the party stood with the media in their struggle for freedom. The PPP would take forward Benazir Bhutto’s mission of the freedom of the media.

There is no way we can continue to let Pakistan rot in the miseries of unconstitutional order. Democratic freedom and media rights have been prominently featured in our manifesto and we stay committed to the cause. After being subjected to a series of jolts over the last eight years, the country has no way but to turn back to the democratic path that enshrines all fundamental freedoms,” she added.