Pakistan

2017

  
Journalists and protesters hold placards outside an Istanbul court on October 31, 2017, calling for the release of jailed colleagues, including Turkish reporter Ahmet Şık. Turkey is the worst jailer of journalists in 2017. (AP/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Record number of journalists jailed as Turkey, China, Egypt pay scant price for repression

For the second year in a row, the number of journalists imprisoned for their work hit a historical high, as the U.S. and other Western powers failed to pressure the world’s worst jailers–Turkey, China, and Egypt–into improving the bleak climate for press freedom. A CPJ special report by Elana Beiser

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A message of transmission suspension of Pakistani private news channels, displayed on monitors, in Islamabad, Pakistan. Pakistan's media regulator ordered a media blackout on November 25, 2017, following the deployment of troops in the capital Islamabad to quell two weeks of violent protests that have left more than 250 people injured, according to news reports.(AP/Anjum Naveed)

Pakistan arrests journalist whose rental car was rigged with bomb

New York, November 27, 2017– The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Pakistani security forces to immediately release journalist Khalil Afridi, who police are holding without charge in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Authorities detained the correspondent for the Khyber News TV channel on November 24 after an explosive device was found under a car…

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Pakistani authorities jail journalist following reports on land disputes

New York, November 15, 2017–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Pakistaniauthorities to release local journalist Hafiz Husnain Raza and drop all charges against him.

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A vigil in Sliema, Malta, for Daphne Caruana Galizia, a critical blogger killed in a car bombing in October 2017. (AFP/Matthew Mirabelli)

Getting Away with Murder

CPJ’s 2017 Global Impunity Index spotlights countries where journalists are slain and the killers go free

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Pakistan's cricket fans wave a national flag in Karachi, Pakistan on June 20, 2017. Pakistan's interior ministry ordered he Interior Ministry on January 19, 2018 ordered the Pashto-language service of U.S. Congress-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Mashaal, to close immediately. (Reuters/Akhtar Soomro)

Pakistani journalist faces terrorism and defamation charges for article critical of regional government

New York, October 4, 2017–Authorities in Pakistan should drop charges against journalist Shabbir Siham, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan’s northern Gilgit-Baltistan region summoned Siham for a hearing on October 7 on accusations of fabrication and extorting a regional minister in violation of Pakistan’s Anti-Terrorism Act, according to news…

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Pakistan charges two journalists under anti-terror law

Pakistani authorities charged two journalists with publishing and distributing anti-state material on September 20, 2016, according to a member of a local nongovernmental organization who is familiar with the case but did not want to be named for fear of retribution. Authorities in the northwest Gilgit-Baltistan region arrested Daulat Jan Mathal, the editor-in-chief of three…

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Journalists protest over the attack on a colleague in Islamabad in 2014. Pakistan's press has set up safety hubs in response to the attacks and threats the media recieve.(AFP/Aamir Qureshi)

In Pakistan, press safety hubs provide support and training for journalists at risk

When a criminal gang sent threatening messages to Ghulam Mustafa, the reporter said his only option was to stop working for the Pakistani station Geo News. Mustafa acknowledges that laying low for nearly three years was the right decision to ensure his safety, but he said, “Professionally, it was strange that I was not working.…

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A screen shot of Saba Bajeer on Pakistan's Channel 24

Pakistani security officials assault and briefly detain journalists

New York, July 24, 2017–Pakistani police should launch a thorough investigation into allegations that Federal Investigation Agency officials assaulted and briefly detained journalists in Islamabad last week, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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In this November 29, 2008, file photo, a member of the Frontier Corps paramilitary group surveys a street in Khar, Pakistan. (AP/Emilio Morenatti)

Pakistani journalist taken from home in Balochistan

New York, June 28, 2017–Authorities in Pakistan should do everything in their power to ensure the swift release of Zafar Achakzai, a journalist for the newspaper Daily Qudrat, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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Newspapers at a stand in Islamabad in June 2017. A news crew in the city say students attacked them and damaged their vehicle this week. (AFP/Aamir Qureshi)

News crews attacked in two separate incidents in Pakistan

New York, June 21, 2017–Pakistani authorities should ensure the safety of journalists and investigate two separate incidents in which members of the press were attacked and had equipment damaged, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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2017