CPJ’s Butler released after being grilled at Lahore airport

LAHORE: A foreign journalist Steven Butler, who is the senior programme consultant for Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), was briefly detained on Thursday by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) at the Lahore airport. The incident triggered a strong backlash from the journalist community and human rights organisations.

The foreign journalist had come to Lahore to attend the Asma Jahangir Conference and was detained by the FIA after he landed at the Allama Iqbal International Airport. The immigration officials told Butler that he was on an Interior Ministry’s stop list. The immigration kept questioning Butler for around eight hours and released him after Interior Ministry’s approval. His name was added to the “Stop List” by the PTI government after being deported from Pakistan in 2019.

A storm of criticism followed the handling of the incident by FIA. The human rights organisations criticised Pakistani authorities for the treatment meted out to a member of a leading media watchdog.

The CPJ strongly criticised the detention of a member of one of the leading media watchdogs. Joel Simon, CPJ’s executive director, said in a statement, the “Pakistani authorities’ move to block Steven Butler from entering the country is baffling and is a slap in the face for those concerned about press freedom in the country.”

Condemning the incident, senior journalist Mazhar Abbas said it was “shameful that Steve Butler of CPJ was detained at Lahore Airport,” who had a valid visa issued by the Pakistan Embassy in Washington.

Earlier, the name of Steven Butler, Senior Programme Consultant for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), was added to the Stop List by the PTI government after being deported from Pakistan in 2019. According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Imran Khan’s government presided over a massive crackdown against the media.

The former prime minister was added to the Reporters Without Borders’ gallery of grim portraits of “37 heads of state or governments who had cracked down massively on press freedom.”

Additionally, he was also described as “predator since taking office.” RSF had said cases of brazen censorship are legend since Khan became the prime minister. “Newspaper distribution had been interrupted, media outlets had been threatened with the withdrawal of advertising and TV channel signals had been jammed. Journalists who crossed the red lines had been threatened, abducted and tortured,” RSF had said.