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| PFUJ concerned over violence against journalists |
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Monday, November 09, 2009
ISLAMABAD: A fact-finding report jointly compiled by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists and the International Federation of Journalists about Balochistan reveals that journalists and media workers in Pakistan’s largest province work in an extremely difficult and tense environment.
“A persistent long-running separatist movement in the province is focused on securing local control of the area’s rich natural resources and on defending the identity and rights of the Baloch community. While the province is considered by some as Taliban Centre, the province’s difficulties do not attract international headlines in the same way as insurgencies in the North-West Frontier Province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas,” says the report, compiled by Yousif Ali, General Secretary of the Khyber Union of Journalists, who was assigned the task.
“Yet, media personnel in Balochistan contend with alarmingly regular violence and threats as a consequence of their work, leading to widespread self-censorship. The difficulties are compounded by a historic failure to provide adequate professional training for local media personnel, the unwillingness of media proprietors to pay reasonable wages and support the safety of their workers, and a related attitude among some that media work is not a profession but merely a means to secure financial or political benefits by other means,” the report added.
The report points out that media persons in Balochistan commonly face constant threats while many suffer from physical harassment, making it difficult for them to perform their professional assignments freely and conveniently.
“Stop this biased reporting or get ready for serious repercussions,” was the threat given to a local journalist who works for an international radio. The threat came after he filed a report about the so-called ban imposed by Baloch separatist organisations on the hoisting of Pakistan’s national flag and the playing of the national anthem in government schools in Balochistan, the report added.
The threats for journalists and media workers in the province are multiple. They face tremendous pressures from separatist organisations, nationalist forces and political parties and, above all, the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC). Journalists are, therefore, very wary of the risks of reporting.
“Chisti Mujahid, a senior journalist, was murdered in February 2008 for writing a few lines about a chief of Balochistan’s powerful Murree tribe who had been killed and buried in neighbouring Afghanistan.”
A few local journalists and photographers are affiliated with international media organisations, such as the British Broadcasting Corporation, Voice of America, Reuters, Agence France-Presse and Associated Press. These journalists are also more prone to threats from separatists who demand media space to air their views in international media outlets, especially radio, or order restrictions on reports that highlight their outlawed activities.
However, conditions in local media are the worst. No less than 104 local dailies are published from the provincial capital of Quetta. There are more than 100 weeklies and likewise monthly journals also published. Most of the newspapers do not appear in the market. Yet they are efficient in securing advertisements from the provincial government’s Director of Public Relations — the lone source of advertisements in the province.
Lack of opportunities, low wages and traditional tribalism has in the past discouraged women from entering journalism in the province. However, expansion of broadcast media in Balochistan, as elsewhere in Pakistan, has provided more appealing work and conditions for women graduates from Balochistan University’s Journalism and Mass Communication Department to seek journalistic positions.
Zaib-un-Nisa, who works at daily Jang and also serves as public relations officer at the state-run University of Information Technology, said a considerable number of women complete their master’s degrees in journalism in Quetta. However, especially low wages for women, combined with poor facilities and conditions suitable to women, were key factors discouraging women with journalism degrees from joining the profession. This was especially the case with print media and explained why women preferred to work in broadcasting.
Senior journalist Chishti Mujahid was murdered in Quetta on February 9, 2008. More than 20 months later, local police have not conducted proper investigation even though they were active in their inquiries immediately after Mujahid was killed. It is reported that the police became silent and sealed the first information report (FIR) that had been lodged at the Satellite Town police station in Quetta after the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) separatist movement claimed responsibility for Mujahid’s murder.
Mujahid was a doctor by profession and worked as an eye specialist at a local hospital. But he had also worked in journalism for 38 years, was affiliated with the Jang Group, and contributed regular articles to the weekly Akhbar-e-Jahaan. Mujahid had developed close ties with Balochistan’s former Governor, Owais Ghani. Mujahid was a good photographer and Ghani set up an office for him at the Governor’s House, as a base from which Mujahid covered the governor’s private and official meetings.
Several days after Mujahid was killed, BLA spokesman Sherbaz phoned Jang’s Ameenullah Fitrat and claimed responsibility for the murder. Ameenullah quoted the caller as saying, “The role of Dr Sahib was wrong. He was involved in anti-Baloch activities. He worked for the government. We tried to make him understand several times, but he did not.”
Majeed Asghar, Jang resident editor, narrowly escaped injury when he was shot at by Baloch nationalists five years ago.Mohammad Ejaz Khan, bureau chief for The News and Geo News, lost his eye in a bomb explosion in Quetta in 2006.
Riaz Mengal, a district correspondent in Khuzdar, was picked up by security forces and kept in custody for five days in 2008. He was released after suffering severe torture. Kazim Mengal, chief reporter of Express, and cameraman Mahmud were harassed by security forces and their equipment was taken from them, while filing a report on the Saindak Gold Project in Chaghai district in May 2009. They had prior permission to enter the area, Shah Hussain, a senior reporter of Express, said.
Jamal Tarakai has faced many threats from various people. “Once the activists of the Balochistan Student Organisations were beating Din Mohammad Watanpal, a photographer, at a protest rally when I managed to rescue him. Two people came to my house later in the night and asked me to leave Balochistan or I would be killed,” he said.
“Last year I was going home in the evening when some masked men intercepted me and gave me a sound beating. I don’t know who were they?” He also received threats from the BLA for cartoons of the late Nawab Akbar Bugti, of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, and Mahmud Khan Achakzai, the same party’s head, as well as threats from Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam for a caricature of Maulana Fazlur Rahman on various occasions since 2003.
A reporter working with an international broadcast service, who preferred to remain anonymous, filed a news report on efforts to ban the Pakistan national anthem and flag in Balochistan this year. “It was a balanced piece. But after it was aired, I received threatening phone calls asking me to stop this biased reporting,” he said.
Ameenullah Fitrat received a threatening phone call from the Taliban after he reported the abduction in February 2009 of UNHCR official John Solenki and noted possible Taliban involvement. This is perhaps the lone threat given by the Taliban to any journalist in Balochistan so far.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
