Although the working conditions for journalists in the whole world have been becoming hazardous, the killing of 12 journalists in Pakistan during year 2011 has marked the heaviest loss in a single nation in the world topping the tally of 17 for the region, followed by India with three and Afghanistan with two deaths.
This was revealed in a report compiled by South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA) to highlight the failure of the security agencies in protecting the lives of the journalists. The launching ceremony of a report was held here on Friday at the SAFMA office.
The report says that the year 2011 has showed no signs of improvement in the safety of journalists working in South Asia as threats from both non-sate and state elements to the safety of journalists, especially those working in the conflict areas, are mounting with each passing day.
However, the report said that working conditions in Pakistan for journalists is more risky against the backdrop of ongoing conflict in the vast north and south western regions of the country. While militants target them with impunity, fingers are also raised at the role of security agencies in their kidnapping and killing, as alleged by leading media bodies.
It was also informed in the report that the impunity index of the CPJ has ranked Pakistan as the 10th most dangerous country in the world for journalists where the chances of getting away with murders are extremely high. Last year, in 2010, the South Asia Media Monitor reported killings of 19 journalists and one media-worker in South Asia, most of them in the conflict-ridden regions. Pakistan was among the top in the list of the “most dangerous countries”.
The report revealed that eight killings have had a direct link to their work as journalists. Wali Khan Babar, Geo News TV; Nasrullah Afridi, PTV/Urdu daily Mashriq; Saleem Shahzad; Asia Times Online; Asfandyar Khan, Akhbar-e-Khyber; Shafmllah Khan, The News; Muneer Shakir working for Online News Network and Babehi lelcvision-Sabzbaat; Faisal Qureshi. editor for a political news website London Post; and Javed Nascer Rind, a senior sub-editor and columnist with the Urdu-language Daily Tawar; have become the victim of target killing, suicide bombing and the wrath of intelligence agencies.
It has not yet been ascertained whether or not llyas Nizzar, a reporter working with the Baloch-language magazine Darwanth; Abdost Rind, Daily Eagle; Rehmaluhah Shaheen; and Zaman Ibrahim, crime reporters with vernacular Daily Extra News, were targeted due to their journalistic work, the report said. The report said that journalists were working in an increased danger in the region with repression and violence directed at media workers. Right to information and Internet activists reporting in blogs, on Facebook or via Twitter increasingly attracted the attention of authorities and of groups tending to violence. One such activist died in India while several others across the region, including the media rights campaigner South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA), kept receiving hate messages or were targeted by cyber hate-mongers.
12 journalists killed in Pakistan during 2011
