The good news is that the number of journalists imprisoned for various alleged offences in 131 countries of the world declined from 87 to 81 in 1999-2000. The bad news is that there were over 600 cases of media repression, including assassination, assault, imprisonment, censorship and bureaucratic harassment involving trumped-up tax-evasion charges, crippling libel suits and prolonged advertising boycotts. Worse, 24 journalists were killed last year in the line of duty — 16 in cold-blooded murders in which most of the murderers went scot-free.
The worst offenders were drug cartels in Columbia, crime syndicates in Russia and state-sponsored death squads in Sierra Leone. The Report suggests that journalists were more likely to be imprisoned in China (22 last year) and murdered in Columbia (34 in the last decade) than anywhere else. Among the other pariah states inimical to a free press were the Ukraine, Mozambique, Venezuela and almost all dictatorships in the so-called “Islamic” Middle-East. The worrying details are listed in the annual report of the influential New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
The CPJ notes, however, that some progress has been made in defending press freedom across the world. This is proof that organisations like the CPJ, Amnesty International and other human rights watchdogs devoted to exposing abuse and rousing opinion against acts of oppression and repression, have distinctly served the cause of press freedom. But “outrageous abuses of the media continue as governments achieve their repressive goals with more sophisticated techniques of harassment”. How has Pakistan’s press fared under the military regime?
Decidedly better than under the last representative government when horrendous tactics were used to try and silence the independent press. In fact, the Nawaz Sharif government lost the support and sympathy of key countries when it tried to gag journalists and papers in Pakistan. By the same token, General Pervez Musharraf has earned grudging support from the international community for his hands-off-the-press policy so far. In fact, he is quick to flaunt press freedom as a key element of his novel “return-to-true-democracy” agenda.
But a degree of disquiet, even alarm and fear, is in the air. Last September, Gen Musharraf denounced journalists for planting stories at the behest of the deposed prime minister. Challenged to prove his allegation, the good general angrily pursed his lips but declined to comment. Then, last November, 3 employees of a daily paper in Karachi died in an inexplicable bomb explosion in their office. Words of sympathy and solace apart, the regime remains totally disinterested in investigating the incident, tracking down the culprits and determining motives. Around the same time, an army monitoring team unthinkingly trampled all over the offices of another paper in Karachi, creating quite a stir among journalists. Earlier, in May, violent mobs attacked and ransacked the office of a newspaper in Karachi while the police stayed put. In between all this, a Sindhi journalist was murdered by a local Mafioso who bought his way to freedom and a newspaper in the northern areas was banned while its editor was hounded out of the area for arousing the wrath of the local military commander.
It is, however, the sacking of the Frontier Post in Peshawar by zealots some months ago that has tarred the painstakingly contrived press-friendly image of this regime. PTV couldn’t hide its glee at the desperate plight of the paper and its journalists. And the Peshawar administration seemed to freeze in its tracks at the wondrous scene of gutting printing machines but swept the streets in search of the blaspheming journalists. Even the CE couldn’t restrain his impulse to signal good riddance to bad rubbish!
Now a senior reporter of The News in Islamabad, Mr Shakil Sheikh, has been badly roughed up by unknown assailants. Mr Sheikh has pointed a finger at those who don’t like his reports. Who are these people? How are they able to roam the streets of Islamabad in unmarked four-wheel drive jeeps? What are the boot-mark injuries on his back supposed to imply? Does he know or suspect their identity but doesn’t want to remark upon it? The journalist community is buzzing with speculation but no one is naming names, explaining motives or investigating the facts in print. Indeed, a curious new development seems to have tainted sections of the press. It is the realisation or fear that if it tramples on the boots of the powerful men in khaki by exposing nepotism or lack of transparency or moral turpitude (thank God, there is no overt corruption so far), there may be scant legal protection in its hour of trial.
This does not bode well for the regime. When the press is afraid to freely air its news and views, a whispering campaign can prove deadly because there is no official or public defense against it. In time, the world will wake up to the plight of the local press and General Musharraf will lose the key to his showcase of democracy. Restrain the rogue elements, General, before they stir a hornets’ nest and harm you irretreivably.