New York, July 14, 2014–A Pakistani television journalist was convicted on charges of travelling to Afghanistan without travel documents and sentenced to four years in prison, Pakistani officials said on Sunday. He had initially been accused of spying by Afghan authorities, according to news reports.
Jamshed Baghwan and his wife were leaving their home in the Murshidabad neighborhood in Peshawar on July 2, 2014, when they saw unidentified assailants on motorcycles placing a bomb outside their house, The Express Tribune reported. Baghwan is the Peshawar bureau chief of Express News, a TV channel owned by Express Media Group.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif: We are writing to express our deep concern about the deteriorating climate for press freedom in Pakistan, which undermines recent commitments made by your government during CPJ’s mission to the country.
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…
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…
New York, June 6, 2014–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a decision today by Pakistan’s Electronic Media Regulatory Authority to suspend the license of Geo News. The regulator said if the channel does not pay a fine of 10 million rupees (US$100,000) by the end of the 15-day suspension, it will remain off the air,…
New York, May 15, 2014–The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about the impending expulsion of two foreign journalists from Pakistan. Meena Menon, a correspondent for The Hindu, and Snehesh Alex Philip, a correspondent for the Press Trust of India, are both Indian journalists.
New York, May 9, 2014–The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned that Pakistani authorities might decline to renew visas for the only two Indian journalists working in the country. Authorities on Thursday informed Meena Menon, a correspondent for The Hindu, and Snehesh Alex Philip, a correspondent for the Press Trust of India, that their…
EDITOR’S NOTE: Hamid Mir, the executive editor of Pakistan’s Geo Television, survived an April 19 assassination attempt, but was badly injured. The shooting came a few weeks after the Pakistani government pledged in a meeting with CPJ to address the insecurity plaguing the country’s journalists. Shortly after the attack, some Pakistani media stated that CPJ…