Mazhar Abbas: Shahzad was no Pearl
Yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of the disappearance of Wall Street Journal reporter Danny Pearl in Karachi on January 23, 2002. On February 21 of that year, a video of his beheading was released. In the wake of the judicial inquiry into the murder of journalist Saleem Shahzad, veteran Pakistani journalist Mazhar Abbas has taken…
Pakistan’s Abbas: Journalists hostage to ‘power of gun’
CPJ award winner Mazhar Abbas penned a strong Sunday op-ed piece, “Death is the only news–Challenges of working in conflict zones,” for The News. It’s about conditions for journalists working in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Baluchistan. As Abbas says, “The killing of one journalist is a message for another.” He goes on…
Mass arrest of journalists in Karachi
New York, November 20, 2007 — The Committee to Protect Journalists is angered by the arrest of more than 180 journalists today who were protesting Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s government’s crackdown on media following his declaration of a state of emergency on November 3. Mazhar Abbas, the secretary general of the Pakistan Federal Union of…
Journalists threatened by political group
MAY 29, 2007 Posted May 30, 2007 Mazhar Abbas, Agence France Presse Asif Hussain, Agence France Presse Zarrar Khan, Associated Press THREATENED Identical envelopes, each containing a 30mm bullet, were planted on cars belonging to the three journalists and parked outside the Karachi Press Club. They were discovered at around 10 p.m. Days before. the…
Pakistani journalist slain; CPJ urges investigation
New York, November 1, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists urges an immediate, high-level investigation into today’s murder of Mohammad Ismail, Islamabad bureau chief for Pakistan Press International (PPI). Ismail’s body was found this morning near his home in Islamabad with “his head completely smashed with some hard blunt object” according to Mazhar Abbas, secretary-general of…
‘If you scream no one will hear you’: Pakistani journalists report in fear amid spike in media killings
Hope for justice in journalist murders is dim across the world, but especially in Pakistan, which has appeared on CPJ’s Global Impunity Index every year since the list’s inception in 2008. This year, the South Asian country ranks twelfth out of the 13 worst offenders. CPJ’s impunity index lists countries where perpetrators who kill journalists…
Pakistani government mandates guidelines for broadcasters
New York, August 21, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by the sweeping nature of guidelines from Pakistan’s Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) for on-air news coverage and commentary on the nation’s television and radio channels. The Electronic Media (Programs and Advertisements) Code of Conduct, 2015 was made public Thursday in Pakistan and is…