CPJ protests attacks on journalists in Pakistan | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

CPJ protests attacks on journalists in Pakistan

KARACHI: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York based organisation for the protection of media people, has strongly protested against the latest wave of ‘government-sponsored attacks’ on independent journalists working in Pakistan.

CPJ Executive Director Ann K Cooper has sent a letter to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, saying: “We are particularly alarmed that many of the journalists who have been either detained, harassed or threatened in recent days, appear to have been punished for granting interviews to a television crew from the BBC.”

Recalling the recent incident, the CPJ letter stated: “Late on May 4, just around midnight, Hussain Haqqani, a veteran journalist and opposition leader, was picked up by a group of men, believed to be agents from the FIA. Senior government officials have privately confided to several of CPJ’s sources that Haqqani is being detained for questioning related to his interviews with a BBC team producing ‘Correspondent’ programme on high level corruption in the Pakistan government. As an organisation of journalists dedicated to the defence of our colleagues around the world, the CPJ is deeply concerned that your government appears to be conducting an orchestrated campaign to intimidate the independent media in Pakistan, and prevent them from collabrating with journalists working for international news organisations. The CPJ respectfully urges your excellency to abandon such tactics, which are in direct violation of Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The CPJ asks that you use the considerable power of your office to order the immediate release of Hussain Haqqani.”

Source: The News

Date:5/7/1999