Pakistan, India top on list of journalists killed on duty
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and India top the list of journalists killed in South Asia in 2013.As many as 22 journalists were killed in this calendar year in connection with their professional duties. Pakistan retained its first position this year also with 10 assassinations followed by India (8), Afghanistan (3) and Bangladesh (1).
A media freedom roundup issued by South Asia Media Commission (SAMC), a media rights watchdog, at yearend simultaneously from the capitals of all the member countries of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc), noted with dismay that violence against media personnel continued with impunity to remain a major threat to media freedom.
The SAMC report for 2013 said that unpunished crimes were jeering at major democracies of the region and depriving their people of the right to information. And so, fear is deeply entrenching in families of those killed and in societies, it said.
The report observed that a major section of media in South Asia, more so in India than in Pakistan, indulged in conflict insensitive journalism and in doing so, putting pressure on the governments of the two countries to go for war rather than peace.
Other factors having a bearing on media freedom and quality journalism in the region were intolerance for diverse points of views as edicts and threats were hurled at the media. The SAMC called on the governments of South Asia to address the issue of violence against the media by bringing perpetrators of past crimes to justice.
Ten journalists were killed in Pakistan in the year 2013 earning the country the tag of being one of the world’s deadliest five countries for media personnel. Journalists in Balochistan and the tribal areas were mainly the targets of intimidation and violence with impunity.
Those killed during were: Salik Ali Jafri, a GEO-News journalist, Ayub Khan Khattak, 42, a reporter of Karak Times, Balochistan-based journalist Haji Abdul Razzak, Ahmed Ali Joiya, a reporter in Bahawalnagar district, Tariq Aslam, Daily Pakistan, Mehmood Ahmed Afridi, Daily Intikhab, Malik Mumtaz, Jang Group, Imran Shaikh and Saif ur Rehman of SamaaTV, and Mohammad Iqbal, NNI.
A year-old fatwa or edict naming certain Pakistani media and journalists as “enemies of the Mujahideen” was re-issued on Oct 19 in the form of a post on Twitter greatly increasing the dangers to which they are already exposed.
Eight journalists were killed in the line of duty in India in 2013 out of whom six were from Uttar Pradesh and two from Chhattisgarh. An acid attack on a journalist in Parbhani, Maharashtra, and an attempt to burn alive another journalist in Kolkata, West Bengal were part of the 19 instances of attacks on journalists in 2013.
Afghanistan saw a sharp increase in violence and threats against journalists by local officials, police and the Taliban. Two journalists and an Indian diarist were killed and at least two writers were forced to flee Afghanistan after receiving death threats.
A blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider was hacked to death near his home in Dhaka and four bloggers were detained on charges of posting “false, indecent or defamatory” information and “hurting religious sentiments” in their blogs.
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