THE killing of Abdul Haq Baloch, who reported for a private television network, in Khuzdar on Saturday has highlighted yet again the increasingly dangerous terrain that the country’s journalists must negotiate in the line of duty, particularly in conflict-hit areas such as Balochistan and the north-western parts of the country. Mr Baloch was only about 100 yards from the local press club when he was gunned down by masked men. As in so many similar cases, the killers fled and the police case has been registered  against “unidentified gunmen”. The list of those who could be behind the attack can potentially include elements ranging from militants or separatists to sections of the law-enforcement apparatus, for journalists who report from the country’s trouble spots complain of facing pressure from both sides in relation to their work. Over the years, a mounting body of information suggests that amongst the persecutors of reporters could be elements within state-sponsored agencies that seek to suppress the flow of information and place impediments in the path of citizens’ right to information — the death of Saleem Shahzad being a case in point. In such a situation, where the state makes little effort to even signal its support for journalists, honest reportage can be considered under threat.

Will Mr Baloch’s killers ever be brought to book? Given the state’s history in this regard, this would appear unlikely. Earlier during the year, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists warned that “deadly, unpunished violence against the press rose sharply” in Pakistan, and the country’s rating on the CPJ Impunity Index worsened for the fourth year in a row. In this bald statement can be found the truth of the matter. The index rates countries where journalists are killed regularly but the government usually fails to solve the crime. In other words, Pakistan is a deadly country for journalists not just because they are threatened, but also because the state consistently refuses to pursue the persecutors in any meaningful fashion. Unless this pattern changes, there is danger that those in the media, particularly in conflict-hit areas, will have to work with so much circumspection as to render themselves impotent.