Journalists condemn killing of cameraman
KARACHI, May 31 2006: Scores of journalists belonging to print and electronic media organized a rally on the call of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists and Karachi Union of Journalists from Karachi Press Club to the Chief Minister’s House to protest against the killing of a cameraman of a private Sindhi channel in Larkana.
Munir Sangi was covering the armed clash between Unnar and Abro tribes in Larkana district when bullets hit him and injured him severely. He remained unattended for hours and died due to profuse bleeding. The local media alleged Sardar Altaf Unnar, an assembly member of the ruling party PML-Q, of being involved in the incident and it is also alleged that Sangi had been targeted and was not a victim of crossfire.
Around 100 journalists and local leaders of various political parties were chanting slogans against the provincial government, Altaf Unnar and the local administration and police during their rally to the Chief Minister’s House. The protestors were carrying placards and banners inscribed with the anti -government slogans and demands for the arrests of killers.
The journalists then staged a brief sit-in outside the main gate of the Chief Minister’s House where the PFUJ secretary general Mazhar Abbas announced that no journalist would attend any reception by the ruling party. However, the journalists could attend the press conferences and other programmes of the Sindh government as their professional duties but would not have the meals offered by the hosts:
Earlier, the Karachi journalists held a protest meeting at the Karachi Press Club in which veteran journalist, Abdul Hameed Chhapra, PFUJ secretary general Mazhar Abbas, KUJ’s vice president Hasan Mansoor, president of the Pakistan Association of Press Photographers Mujeeb Ur Rehman and KPC secretary Najeeb Ahmed spoke. The speakers criticized the owners of the newspapers and private TV channels in providing adequate protection to their workers in the field and demanded that the reporters, photographers and cameramen be given complete security cover so that they could cover the volatile situations with mental ease. The speakers also condemned the government for siding with the culprits instead of the journalists whose victimisa¬tion, specially in the rural and remote areas, had become order of the day.
Source: Daily Times
Date:5/31/2006
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