May 30, 2013–On the second anniversary of the murder of Pakistani journalist Saleem Shahzad, the Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities to continue investigating and find his killers. An official commission of inquiry concluded in January 2012 that the perpetrators in Shazahd’s case were unknown, and there has been no further movement in the investigation.
“Two years after he was found beaten to death, Saleem Shahzad’s case remains unsolved, as have all of the 23 murders of Pakistani journalists in the last decade,” said CPJ Asia program coordinator, Bob Dietz. “At this juncture, CPJ calls on the incoming government of prime minister designate Nawaz Sharif make full police investigations into all the killings of journalists a priority and to take decisive steps toward stemming the impunity with which the deaths have taken place.”
CPJ’s recently published report, Roots of Impunity: Pakistan’s Endangered Press and the Perilous Web of Militancy, Security, and Politics found that Pakistani journalists are targeted not only by militants, criminals, and warlords, but also by political, military, and intelligence operatives, making the country one of the deadliest in the world for the press. An Urdu version of the report is available here.