Pakistan

2014

  
Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir was hit by six bullets in April and, more recently, a new round of threats. (AP/Anjum Naveed)

More threats against Pakistan’s Hamid Mir

The well-known and controversial Pakistani television talk show host Hamid Mir survived a murder attempt on April 19, even though he was hit with six bullets–two of which are still in his body. “I can move, I can walk and I can talk, but I am still undergoing physiotherapy and taking medication,” he emailed to…

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When it comes to the right to report, journalists must stand together

Pakistani journalists I have met over the years know that while I might be an American, I have never been an apologist for the U.S. government. The goal of the Committee to Protect Journalists is to assist members of the press no matter where they are, and if we have to criticize their governments, well…

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Back-to-back display killings of journalists unprecedented

The apparent back-to-back murders of two American freelance journalists by the same group are unprecedented in CPJ’s history. The beheadings on camera in a two-week period of first James Foley and then Steven Sotloff appear to be an acceleration of a pattern–dating at least to Daniel Pearl’s killing in 2002–of criminal and insurgent groups displaying…

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A protester enters the newsroom of the state-run Pakistan Television which was stormed on Monday. (AFP/Aamir Qureshi)

Threats and attacks against press amid political crisis in Pakistan

The ongoing political crisis in Pakistan turned deadly over the weekend with three protesters dead and at least 500 wounded in the capital, Islamabad. As is often the case, the press was not spared from violence, with dozens of journalists covering the rally injured by police or protesters, according to news reports and the Pakistan…

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Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir was hit by six bullets in April and, more recently, a new round of threats. (AP/Anjum Naveed)

Q&A: Pakistan’s Hamid Mir speaks about climate for press freedom following attack

In April, Geo News senior anchor Hamid Mir was shot multiple times shortly after a CPJ delegation met with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who pledged to take several steps to improve journalist security. The investigation into the attack has yielded no accountability. And since the attack, two arrest warrants have been issued by courts in…

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Villagers flee Pakistani tribal areas in North Waziristan following a massive crackdown on militants by the Pakistan army. (AP/B.K. Bangash)

A message from the Pakistan Taliban

CPJ received an email message from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan– the Pakistan Taliban–this morning. Signed by the “Media commission, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Mohmand agency,” the message was addressed to CPJ and our colleagues at Reporters Without Borders.

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Blasphemy charges, threats loom for outspoken journalist in Pakistan

Forty-nine year-old magazine editor and publisher Shoaib Adil fled his home in the eastern city of Lahore last month and went into hiding with his wife and children. Adil faces threats and possible charges of blasphemy–a crime punishable by life imprisonment or death–in connection with a book he published in 2007, written by a judge…

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People buy garments ahead of the Eid al-Fitr holiday in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Thursday. (AP/Mohammad Sajjad)

Seeking release of Pakistani journalist Faizullah Khan, jailed in Afghanistan

It’s not often that CPJ agrees with the Pakistan government, but here is one of the rare occasions when we do. While Pakistan journalists have been pushing for quite a while for the release of one of their colleagues, Faizullah Khan, being held in Nangahar in Afghanistan, the Islamabad government has apparently been working diplomatic…

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A year after Snowden revelations, damage persists to freedom of expression in Pakistan

In Pakistan, where freedom of expression is largely perceived as a Western notion, the Snowden revelations have had a damaging effect. The deeply polarized narrative has become starker as the corridors of power push back on attempts to curb government surveillance. “If the citizens of the United States of America cannot have these rights, how…

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When Pakistan’s largest news channel becomes the news

Today, Pakistan’s most watched news channel, Geo News, was ordered off the air and fined by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA). Earlier this week, CPJ documented an attack on Zafar Aheer, an editor of the Urdu-language Daily Jang, by six masked men–the latest in a series of attacks, threats, and acts of intimidation…

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2014