Pakistan

In response to news reports from Pakistan today that journalist Imtiaz Alam was injured in an attack by a gang in Lahore, and that the building housing the Wana Press Club in South Waziristan was leveled in a bomb blast on Thursday, we issued this statement…

According to the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, Noorul Hasan, Royal TV’s Peshawar bureau chief, was kidnapped on February 8, when a group of armed men in two cars stopped his car while he and his crew were returning from Swat in North West Frontier Province. The others were not harmed, but Hasan said he…

Military leader Pervez Musharraf resigned as president in August under threat of impeachment, leaving a decidedly mixed legacy on press freedom. As his power waned in late 2007, Musharraf shut down all independent broadcasters for a time and then tried to impose a rigid “code of conduct” on the stations.

New York, November 14, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists is greatly concerned about the deteriorating security situation in the border area of Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the most recent incident, two journalists were shot and wounded today in Peshawar. 

Mr. Prime Minister: We are deeply concerned about the safety of the staff of the Urdu-language Daily Aaj Kal newspaper. According to Najam Sethi, the paper’s editor-in-chief, clerics at the Lal Masjid mosque in Islamabad have repeatedly issued inflammatory statements aimed at the newspaper and its staff. The accusations leave them vulnerable to attack by militant groups at a time when civil violence is on the rise.

New York, May 22, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the fatal shooting of Express TV reporter Mohammed Ibrahim near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan today. Ibrahim, a reporter for the Express News channel, was gunned down by unknown men outside Khar, the main town of the Bajaur tribal area in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province,…

New York, May 12, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the Pakistani Supreme Court to drop its efforts to control media coverage. The court today ordered Geo TV, the country’s most popular private broadcaster, and its print affiliate, Jang Group, to present all video clips and news articles dating to November 3, 2007, on…

New York, April 16, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes Pakistani news reports of the arrest of a provincial government minister in the killing of Munir Sangi, a cameraman for the Sindhi-language Kawish Television Network (KTN). Sangi was shot in May 2006 while covering a gunfight between members of the Unar and Abro tribes in…

New York, April 14, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by reports that a journalist was shot and killed today in the unstable province of Baluchistan in southwestern Pakistan. CPJ is investigating whether his murder was connected to his reporting. Khadim Hussain Sheikh, a stringer for Sindh TV, was killed by unidentified gunmen as…

New York, April 11, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the new Pakistani government’s move to lift restrictions on media imposed by President Pervez Musharraf last year. Information Minister Sherry Rehman today introduced a parliamentary bill to repeal amendments made to media laws when Musharraf suspended the constitution in November 2007, according to international news…