Reporters Without Borders concerned over growing attacks on journalists
PESHAWAR: A leading global press freedom watchdog on Tuesday expressed concern over growing attacks on journalists in Pakistan with Abdul Razaq Gul becoming the fifth journalists killed this year.
“The authorities must work actively to protect journalists, who keep on being the victims of physical attacks, threats, kidnap attempts and even murder,” Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RWB) said in press freedom alert received via email. Gul is the fifth journalist to be murdered in Pakistan since the start of the year. Pakistan has been the “world’s deadliest country for the media” for the past two years, with a total of 26 journalists killed. “It is time the government put an end to the bloodshed,” the organisation demanded. RWB offered its condolences to the family and colleagues of Abdul Razaq Gul, a TV reporter based in Turbat, whose body was found on May19. Medical sources said the journalist had been shot in the forehead and chest after apparently being tortured. The organisation’s concern about the safety of Pakistani journalists has also been heightened by an attempt to kidnap a journalist on May 7 in Peshawar, and by an attack on three reporters by police on May 11. Gul was abducted as he was returning home on a motorcycle and his body was found near Turbat’s main hospital. Aged around 30, he had worked for a Lahore-based TV channel since 2002. He was also secretary of the Turbat Press Club.
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