Journalist in hiding after local authorities threaten his arrest over coverage of tribal clashes
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about the safety of Hayat Ullah, a correspondent for the Urdu-language daily Ausaf in Mirali, North Waziristan Agency. Hayat Ullah is currently in hiding after North Waziristan authorities ordered his arrest for reporting on clashes between local tribal groups.
CPJ urges inquiry into prosecution of Frontier Post editor
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is concerned that the prosecution on drug charges of Rehmat Shah Afridi, owner and chief editor of the English-language newspaper The Frontier Post and the Urdu daily Maidan, may be politically motivated. On June 27, a special anti-narcotics court in Lahore convicted Afridi on drug smuggling charges and sentenced him to death.
Journalists released on bail
New York, July 18 — A judge in the northern city of Abbottabad today ordered the release on bail of four journalists from the Urdu-language daily Mohasib who had been imprisoned under Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy laws. The journalists, who had been jailed for about six weeks, were released after vigorous protests by local and international…
Attacks on the Press 2000: Asia Analysis
DESPITE PRESS FREEDOM ADVANCES ACROSS ASIA IN RECENT YEARS, totalitarian regimes in Burma, China, North Korea, Vietnam, and Laos maintained their stranglehold on the media. Even democratic Asian governments sometimes used authoritarian tactics to control the press, particularly when faced with internal conflict. Sri Lanka, for instance, imposed harsh censorship regulations during the year in…
Attacks on the Press 2000: Pakistan
THE MILITARY GOVERNMENT OF CHIEF EXECUTIVE GEN. PERVEZ MUSHARRAF sought to create an impression of benign rule last year. In part, this meant avoiding the bare-knuckle tactics that former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif used to control the press. However, Musharraf’s patience with his critics seemed to be wearing thin toward the end of 2000, and…
Pakistan: Journalists arrested for blasphemy
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply dismayed by the recent arrests of at least a dozen employees of the English-language newspaper The Frontier Post and its sister publication, the Urdu-language daily Maidan. District officials in Peshawar, where both newspapers are published, ordered the arrests and sealed The Frontier Post’s printing press without having conducted any investigation into allegations of blasphemy against the daily.
Kashmir blast kills photographer
Dear Mr. Salahuddin: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns yesterday’s bomb attack in Srinagar, which killed one journalist and seriously injured at least six others. Pradeep Bhatia, a photographer for the Indian newspaper The Hindustan Times, was one of twelve people killed in the attack, police told reporters today.
Army Inspection Team Threatens Dawn Group
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is concerned by the threatening posture adopted by an army inspection team sent yesterday to the headquarters of the Dawn Group of Newspapers at Haroon House in Karachi. The newspaper group includes some of Pakistan’s most influential and respected publications, including the English-language daily Dawn.