CPJ takes note of threats to editor The News, Islamabad
NEW YORK: The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalist (CPJ) has issued an alert after Mohammad Malick, Resident Editor of The News in Islamabad, received threats on his telephone and saw white Corollas chasing him in Islamabad in a threatening manner.
The CPJ in a statement issued late on Wednesday said: “An editor of a Pakistani newspaper received threatening telephone calls and was followed by men he believed were government agents.”
Mohammad Malick commented on the memo issue and gave it coverage. According to news reports, in May Haqqani allegedly sent a letter to Admiral Mike Mullen, at the time the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff. The letter asked for American assistance in case of a possible coup attempt; in return, the civilian government would assist US efforts against Islamic militants. Malick told CPJ that on Wednesday he received a phone call from a blocked number.
He was told that he was “going too far” in his reporting about “Memogate”, and that the next step “might not be a warning – you could have an accident.” Malick said he has been openly tailed by several white Toyota Corollas since the call – the type of car regularly used by government intelligence agencies. “For journalists, the best way to combat anonymous threats is to make them widely known. Given the tense political situation in Pakistan, Mohammad Malick’s fears of reprisal for his reporting are valid,” said Bob Dietz, CPJ’s Asia programme coordinator.
“His suspicions that government agents of one sort or another are behind the threats might well be justified, and he is right to act aggressively to protect himself as best he can.” On Tuesday, President Asif Ali Zardari announced that Sherry Rehman, a former journalist and information minister in the early days of Zardari’s government, would be Pakistan’s new ambassador to the US,” the CPJ statement concluded.
Source: The News
Date:11/26/2011
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