Pakistan

Bob Dietz Published in Wall Street Journal Asia January 8, 2007 As the Taliban embed themselves deeper into Pakistan’s restive provinces along the border with Afghanistan, journalists covering the region are coming under attack and driven away from a story with global consequences for the U.S.-led coalition fighting militant Islamists.

NOVEMBER 21, 2006 Posted: December 27, 2006 Syed Saleem Shahzad, The Star and Asia Times Online Qamar Yousafzai, freelance ABDUCTED The two Pakistani journalists were seized by Taliban forces and held for five days in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. After their release, Shahzad told reporters that they had been held for entering the province without Taliban…

New York, December 22, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists called today for a full investigation into the detention of New York Times photographer Akhtar Soomro and the beating of reporter Carlotta Gall in Pakistan on December 19. Gall, who covers Pakistan and Afghanistan for the Times, told CPJ that men who said they were from…

New York, November 21, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes today’s release of BBC reporter Dilawar Khan Wazir, who had been seized from a taxi outside Islamabad by unidentified men a day before. Khan, who was not seriously injured, turned up at the BBC’s Islamabad office this evening, the network reported. The BBC reported that…

New York, November 20, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Pakistani authorities to immediately investigate the apparent disappearance of BBC Urdu-language reporter Dilawar Khan Wazir, who has not been heard from since leaving the capital, Islamabad, for his hometown of Dera Ismail Khan this morning, according to the BBC. Khan, who reports from the…

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…

New York, September 21, 2006—As violence against journalists and violations of press freedom grow in Pakistan, the Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the government to keep its promise to reveal all information it holds on media deaths and disappearances. CPJ research shows that nine journalists have died for their work since 2002, and there…

New York, September 18, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the police beating of television crews covering a religious rally in Pakistan. Journalists said police officers attacked two journalists from Pakistan’s ATV terrestrial network who were covering a meeting of the Sunni Tehrik (Sunni Movement) religious organization in the eastern city of Lahore on Saturday…

New York, September 15, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists called today on Pakistani authorities to conduct a thorough and timely investigation into the shooting death of journalist Maqbool Hussain Sail. Two masked gunmen on a motorcycle shot Sail late Thursday in Dera Ismail Khan, 175 miles (280 kilometers) southwest of Islamabad, according to the Rural…

New York, August 30, 2006—The teenage brother of a BBC correspondent was found murdered today in South Waziristan, a violent and lawless tribal region along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan. Taimor Khan, 16, brother of Dilawar Wazir, an Urdu language reporter for the BBC, was abducted in the town of Wana on his way home from…