ISLAMABAD, Feb 28: Press freedom in Pakistan during 2001 continued to be shadowed by attacks on journalists and their detention with closure and censure of publications by the Musharraf government despite loud proclamations of ensuring the freedom of expression unwarranted even in the democratic eras.

The year also saw foreign journalists join Pakistani newsmen in experiencing the heat of reporting events in an environment, where the vested powers could take, for not liking a particular journalist, the extreme measure of killing as happened in the case of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

According to the International Press Institute (IPI), following were the major incidents, which clipped the wings of the media during 2001:

On Dec 9, Robert Fisk, foreign correspondent for the London-based daily Independent, was assaulted by a mob of Afghan refugees in Pakistan, near the border town of Chaman. He suffered injuries in the head, face and hand.

On Oct 9, two photographers, Patrick Aventurier of the Gamma agency and Vincent Laforjtthe of the New York Times, were beaten by policemen with sticks and the butts of their rifles in Quetta, Balochistan. The policemen tortured the photographers, while the latter were taking pictures of the body of a child, who had been shot in the head during a demonstration staged against the US-led bombardment in Afghanistan.

On Sept 18, Jon Ingemundsew, photographer of Swedish newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad, and Pakistani photojournalist, Ghafar Baig, were interrogated by officials of law enforcement agencies near Peshawar. The officials wanted to verify whether the journalists had taken pictures of a military base.

On Sept 25, an Irish television crew and a CNN crew were briefly detained and interrogated.

On Oct 5, authorities of the Khyber Agency in the NWFP arrested and interrogated five journalists, including two French journalists, illegally entering Tirah Valley (Khyber Agency), an area which the authorities claimed was off limits for foreign journalists.

The IPI said the two French journalists, reporter Olivier Ravanello and cameraman Jirtme Marcantetti of the Paris-based television news channel, LCI, and three local journalists — Peshawar-based daily Khyber Mail’s reporter Rifatullah Orakzai, Urdu-language daily Al-Akhbar’s district correspondent Muhammad Iqbal Afridi and Syed Karim, correspondent of another Urdu daily Khabrain — had gone to the area to report on new refugee camps that had been established for the Afghans fleeing their country. The French journalists were released without charge on Oct 8, but the local journalists remained jailed till Oct 18.

On Oct 10, Aziz Zemouri, reporter of French Le Figaro magazine, was detained in Peshawar by the immigration authorities. He was released on Oct 16 after interrogation by the immigration department and intelligence services.

Hostility between India and Pakistan led to complaints by Indian journalists as well as journalists of Indian origin that they were not being issued visas to cover the war.

On Nov 10, journalist Christina Lamb and photographer Justin Sutcliffe British of The Sunday Telegraph were expelled from Pakistan for being involved in activities aimed at “defaming the country.” The Sunday Telegraph claimed Lamb had been working on a story about covert operation by rogue elements in the Pakistani intelligence services to smuggle arms to the Taliban. However, the government said the deportation was the result of the British journalist’s irresponsible activities aimed at defaming the country.

The incidents, considered as attacks on the Pakistani press according to the IPI, were:

The Peshawar police raided on Jan 29 the offices of the daily Frontier Post, arrested five employees, sealed the offices and closed down the newspaper and its sister publication, Urdu-language daily Maidan for publishing a blasphemous letter.

On Jan 30, a mob set the newspaper’s printing press ablaze. On Jan 31, the police detained six workers of the daily Maidan, including the paper’s chief editor, Kifayatullah, for several hours. The same day, militants assaulted press photographers in the streets of Peshawar for covering demonstrations staged by religious groups against the paper.

On Feb 1, the police raided the Peshawar offices of daily Jasarat for publishing extracts of the blasphemous letter.

On March 28, five unidentified people abducted Shakil Shaikh, chief reporter of daily English newspaper The News, at gun point in Islamabad and beat him severely for three-and-a- half hours before abandoning him in a deserted village. Shakil sustained multiple injuries, including a head injury. The kidnappers also threatened that his wife, children and parents would be kidnapped if he did not change his attitude.

On May 14, Hadi Sanghi, photographer of Sindhi daily Kawish, was beaten by police officers in Larkana for taking photographs of the prison staff beating a prisoner.

Hayatullah Khan, correspondent of Ausafin Mir Ali in the North Waziristan Agency was threatened and harassed for most of the year by tribal officials for reporting an attack on the office of Mohammad Mushtaq Jadoon, political agent, in December 2000. Khan was summoned by Jadoon, who directed him to submit his stories to the local administration before sending them to his paper.

In July, tribal officials threatened Khan with arrest for his reporting of clashes between two tribal groups. Fearing that he would be arrested, Khan fled his home town. Later, tribal authorities issued an arrest warrant under the FCR.

On Aug 14, the government of Pakistan issued an ordinance under which printing, publishing or disseminating any material, or projecting any person convicted of a terrorist act or any banned organisation would be an offence punishable by up to six months’ imprisonment. However, the ordinance clarifies that “factual news reports made in good faith shall not be construed to mean projection of a person or organisation.”

An article on blasphemy published in the Sept 3 issue of Newsweek was censored by the Press Information Department, which stated that “the article’s subject matter is objectionable and may spark violence.” The customs department was instructed to seize copies of the magazine and Newsweek’s distributor in Pakistan was directed to tear out the controversial article.

On Nov 17, Faraz Hashmi, staff reporter of Dawn was beaten by an army major, Fawad Hafeez. The authorities reluctantly registered an FIR against the army official on the intervention of the High Court. Later, the army authorities said they would conduct an internal court inquiry. The results of the inquiry or the action taken against the major are yet to be made public. On Dec 8, a dozen armed men barged into the Hyderabad bureau office of Ummat and beat two staff members. They also ransacked the office, broke furniture, computers, a television, a fax machine and telephone sets.