When high profile murders take place in Pakistan it is routine to include police and government forces along with criminals and ne'er-do-wells. This is the stark reality of the simmering and often bloody terrorist war in Balochistan. The Economist explains how a long standing secessionist movement and rampant corruption make Pakistan a dangerous place in general, but especially for journalists.
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A murder that spawned a movement, the five-year anniversary of Hrant Dink's high profile assassination drew huge crowds in Turkey to protest the judiciary's decision to dismiss charges of conspiracy to silence one of the nation's most outspoken critics. In this New Yorker article CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney describes the current backslide of press freedom in Turkey and the spectre of impunity that looms over all journalists in the country.
In a rapidly changing Middle East, Turkey is increasingly being looked to by Arab neighbors as an example of what a post Arab-Spring society could look like. However, despite progressive, democratic, and secular institutions, the Turkish government maintains a dim view on press freedom. CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon goes on the record to denounce Turkey as one of the worst jailers of journalists in 2011 on NPR's Morning Edition.
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has a torrid relationship with press freedom. His arsenal of repression includes such tactics as pre-empting private broadcasts to denounce the presenters, bankrupting papers through defamation suits, and publicly shouting down critics who dare question him.
In his latest attempt to censor free expression Correa has targeted the office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, an independent body of the Organization of American States. CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon wrote an op-ed for The Miami Herald expressing support for the OAS and calling on the organization to stand firm against any attempt to silence the press.
Iran lead the pack of countries with the most imprisoned journalists in 2011, holding 43 behind bars. This week Iran added to its reputation with the arrest of at least three prominent journalists: Marzieh Rasouli, Parastoo Dokouhaki, and Sahamoddin Bourghani. Decrying what he calls a "revolving prison door," routinely releasing journalists while arresting others, CPJ's Mohamed Abdel Dayem is quoted in The Guardian discussing the latest deterioration of press freedom in Iran.
For the second year in a row Pakistan has topped the CPJ Killed List, making it a more dangerous place to be a journalist in 2011 than the active war zones of Libya or Iraq and Afghanistan. Senior Asia program coordinator Bob Dietz explains that Pakistani journalists are under extreme pressure from both state and non state actors to observe certain lines with their reportage. In the past these lines were hard and fast but today they are increasingly obscured, creating a hazardous reporting environment where a journalist may not know the full extent of the risk they are taking with a story until it is too late.
Sami al-Haj has now returned to Al Jazeera, an organization he previously worked for a decade ago as a cameraman covering the then nascent war in Afghanistan. While on assignment in December 2001 he was delayed by a passport problem during a routine over land crossing into the country from Pakistan. Quickly named an 'enemy combatant' by the U.S. military, he spent the next six years and seven months in a military prison cell at Guantanamo Bay Cuba.
Drawing on his experience al-Haj is now head of liberties and human rights affairs, where his "mission is to monitor the human rights-related news and abuses and present them to TV channels."
In its annual census of imprisoned journalists, CPJ data shows nearly half of the 179 held in jail in 2011 worked primarily online. Al Jazeera highlights some of the challenges facing online journalism in the Middle East and around the world in 2011.
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After airing a piece critical of the Pakistani military, senior journalists Najam Sethi and Hamid Mir received serious threats from what they described as "both non-state and state actors." Pakistan was the most dangerous country for journalists in 2011 and the CPJ is working to keep these journalists safe by publishing these threats, bringing them into the public eye and making certain that those who wish to do harm know that their actions will not go unnoticed.
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