Pakistan must explain ISI’s role in murder
New York, July 5, 2011–Pakistan’s president must clarify the role of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence Directorate following U.S. allegations that the agency ordered the killing of journalist Saleem Shahzad, as reported in The New York Times today, said the Committee to Protect Journalists.
A legal attack accompanies assault on Pakistani journalists
Concerned that so many Pakistani journalists have been threatened, abducted, killed, or beaten recently? So are they. When I was in Karachi and Islamabad in late April and early May, I found that they are starting to take steps to protect themselves with increased safety training and protective gear at the larger media houses that…
Pakistan reporter beaten for reporting on earlier attack
New York, June 20, 2011–Waqar Kiani, a Pakistani journalist who was assaulted Saturday night by men in police uniforms, told the Committee to Protect Journalists that he fears for his safety and the safety of his wife and two young children. The attack came five days after Kiani, 32, had written a story the U.K.…
CPJ’s exiled journalists survey: Behind the numbers
In 2007, my colleague Karen Phillips suggested we do something to mark World Refugee Day. Initially planning to publish a brief statement, I set about reviewing our data for background, checking in with older journalist cases about their current situation and looking broadly for trends to highlight. As the number of cases began counting into…
Wounded Pakistani journalist succumbs to burn injuries
New York, June 17, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists joins with our colleagues in Pakistan in mourning the death of of reporter Shafiullah Khan, who died Friday of injuries he had sustained in a June 11 suicide bombing in Peshawar, the administrative center for Pakistan’s strife-torn Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) along the border with…
Having captured killing on tape, cameraman fears for his life
Abdul Salam Somroo is in danger. He is the Awaz TV cameraman who took the June 9 video footage of the pointblank murder of a young man, Sarfaraz Shah, in southern Karachi. That’s the same part of the city where militants beheaded American Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002. Only when Somroo got…
Two journalists dead and five injured in Pakistan
EDITOR’S NOTE: Shafiullah Khan is in critical condition after suffering extensive burns in this Peshawar bombing. CPJ erroneously reported in this alert that Khan had died in the attack.New York, June 13, 2011–CPJ calls on Pakistan media organizations to review their security and journalist safety training procedures to address the mounting number of deaths of journalists in the…
Pakistani journalists threatened after covering killings
New York, June 10, 2011–Two Pakistani journalists who captured images of apparent military violence against unarmed foreigners and a local man are being threatened, their colleagues told CPJ. The threats have come amid calls from high-ranking Pakistani military leaders to quell public criticism of their policies, made at a Thursday meeting of top level commanders.