Attack on press freedom
ON a number of occasions President Musharraf has boasted about the press in Pakistan enjoying more freedom today than any time in the past. He may be right to an extent, but the paradox is that the media person is less free today and, what is more, journalism is becoming an increasingly hazardous profession in Pakistan. The number of journalists killed is on the rise and ‘disappearances’ of media persons have become more frequent. Only recently a journalist in the tribal areas, Hayatullah Khan, who had ‘disappeared’ six months ago and was believed to have been in the custody of intelligence agencies, was found murdered. Now it has been disclosed that another journalist, Mukesh Rupeta, who had allegedly been filming a military base used by US forces, has been missing since March.
After this was disclosed by the news channel for which Mr Rupeta worked, the police have admitted that he has been picked up under the Official Secrets Act. Strangely, he has not been charged or produced before a court for remand so far. All this is most disquieting, especially if it is recalled that in 2005 two journalists were killed in an ambush in South Waziristan. As for journalists being picked up by government agencies ostensibly for interrogation – but more to tame them through intimidation – it is difficult to keep count of their number.
One can understand that media persons face many risks when they are covering a region in the grip of violence and strife. But this is different from the case of journalists being picked up by official agencies because the government is not too happy with the job they are doing. This in effect amounts to curbing the freedom of expression by gagging individual pressmen rather than cracking down on the newspaper or television channel that publishes/telecasts their stories. Nothing can be more horrendous than this crude method of exercising media control. The secret arrest of a journalist by agencies without recourse to the prescribed legal procedures and with his whereabouts being concealed for long can be devastating for his family. The use of brutal force is intended to send a warning to his colleagues in order to silence them.
It is time the government recognised freedom of expression as a fundamental right of the citizens and an integral element of democracy. Gone are the days when authoritarian and oppressive regimes could crack down on the press and virtually order it what to print and what not to print, and when newspapers could be shut down at will. In today’s world of free communication, when liberty is attacked, it brings opprobrium to the government that does it. If journalists are arrested, intimidated or kept in detention without the permission or knowledge of the government, shouldn’t the government look into the matter and take action against those responsible? If the agencies, which constitute an organ of the government, are allowed to act in such a highhanded manner without any check, it will reflect very badly on the country’s image that President Musharraf feels so sensitive about. The International Press Institute got it right when it wrote on Pakistan in its report World Press Freedom Review, 2005: “The war on terrorism and on religious extremism promoted by many governments around the world is a pretext to clamp down on basic freedoms in the interest of the ruling elites.”
Source: Dawn
Date:6/23/2006
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