Media in crosshairs

Journalists paying heavy price for doing their job

Over the last few years Pakistani media has been in the crosshairs of a number of organisations, civil as well as military, which did not like its coverage of events and issues. A political party was accused of planning the killing of Wali Khan Babar as well as the witnesses in the case. In Tribal areas the TTP and the LEAs have alternately been accused of being behind the killing of several journalists. In Lahore LeJ activists have been held responsible for attack on Raza Rumi. About six journalists were killed in Balochistan in 2012, the Khuzdar Press Club locked and media persons forced to flee to other parts of the province. The killing continued throughout 2013. Two journalist have died in attacks this year. It has been claimed that Khuzdar’s Musallah Difayi Tanzeem was behind most killings. On Saturday, CM Balochistan maintained that the killers’ gang bearing the name was in fact formed during the tenure of the previous government to counter the insurgency and is now adding to the problems of law and order in the province.

The year 2014 started with attacks on a media house in Karachi by the TTP which accused it of partiality in covering the war on terror. In January the network attacked the DSNG vehicle of its private channel, killing three staffers. As the media house had already been attacked three times in the preceding months, the incident led Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to constitute a two-member committee which was to immediately contact media houses and formulate workable solutions to address security threats faced by them. Had the committee done anything worthwhile, the attack on Hamid Mir might have been averted.

The dastardly attack on Hamid Mir has been rightly interpreted by the journalists’ organisations as a threat by forces opposed to free media. What remains to be investigated is which one of these several forces had actually masterminded the attack. Hamid Mir’s friends and colleagues maintain the TV anchor had already told them that if he was attacked, the ISI and its chief were to be held responsible. The ISPR spokesman has meanwhile denied the allegations and called for an independent inquiry. The prime minister has done well to ask the Supreme Court to appoint a Judicial Commission to conduct the probe. Fortunately Hamid Mir has survived the attack and would hopefully be able to provide the evidence that led him to make a highly serious allegation.