Click here for the complete text of the report. New York, Feb. 14, 2000—When the democratically elected leader of Pakistan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, was deposed last October by a military coup, few independent journalists regretted his sudden departure. Now, in a special report released today, the Committee to Protect Journalists details the brutal tactics…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is dismayed by today’s emergency proclamation announcing that Pakistan’s constitution has been suspended. CPJ is concerned that in the absence of constitutional protections guaranteeing civil liberties, including freedom of speech and of the press, the right of journalists to report freely on the momentous political developments at hand may be sharply curtailed.
October 13, 1999 (CPJ) -The Pakistani army took over state-run television and radio yesterday during a military coup against the civilian government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Pakistan Television (PTV) went off the air within hours of its broadcast announcing the prime minister’s dismissal of Pakistan’s army chief, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, which apparently prompted the…
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is outraged by this weekend’s arrest of veteran journalist Najam Sethi, founder and editor of the English-language weekly newspaper Friday Times. Sethi is the third Pakistani journalist arrested under suspicious circumstances in less than a week, prompting fears that your government is engaged in a campaign to silence the country’s independent press. All three men had been interviewed before their arrest by a BBC television crew preparing a report on high-level official corruption in Pakistan for the program “Correspondent.”
Islamabad, October 6, 1999 – After a two-hour hearing, the Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan dismissed a petition that sought to exclude embattled editor Najam Sethi from political life by having him declared non-Muslim. The petition was filed on June 24 by legislator Syed Zafar Ali Shah, a member of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s ruling…
María Cristina Caballero, Colombia In July of 1997, I covered a terrible massacre in the town of Mapirip‡n. Right wing paramilitaries cut many of the inhabitants into pieces during five days. As I was leaving, a very old man without shoes ran to me and said, “Wait! Wait!” He told me, “All of my sons…