Another unkind year for Journalists
Monday, January 2nd, 2012 3:30:49 by Faisal Farooq
Another unkind year for Journalists
The previous year was not a kind to those in media. A report revealed by a media outlet stated that working conditions for journalists in Pakistan are becoming more hazardous. This gets multiplies in the backdrop of the ongoing conflict in Balochistan.
Pakistan is not alone in being a riskier zone in the world as 17 journalists lost their lives, in 2011, in South Asia. But Pakistan is leading the list with 12 out of 17. The report stated that while journalists are killed with exemption by terrorists.
However, it also mentioned that our security agencies are also suspiciously involved in abducting, torturing and assassinating the media professionals. It is not the first report about the country being a dangerous zone in the world, as many watchdog bodies
across the board shared similar views frequently.
Ranking Pakistan at number 10 on its Impunity Index, the Committee to Protect Journalist (CPJ) placed the country among the deadliest states in the world in 2010 and 2011. Impunity Index is about those states where media professionals are murdered frequently
but the government failed to project the society’s voices.
Pakistan is lethal country for journalists not only because they are killed, but also because the state has time-and-again declined to follow the culprits. The count will be decreased if such cases probed thoroughly and culprits brought before bars.
Some circles opine that all media professionals killed hitherto lost their lives in the line of performing their duties, and allegations against sensitive departments are groundless. Both the situations, however, can be clarified only through convincing
probe.
The killing of Saleem Shahzad is an example in point should be taken as litmus test for the government desire. Very little progress has been made so for despite a commission has been set up to probe the matter.
The country will continue to give off the signal that media professionals can be silenced unless the conditions of Saleem Shahzad and other journalists killed in 2011 are made public. At the same time, the fog of suspension, surrounding the role of intelligence
agencies in this regard, will grow gradually thicker.
Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=7980
Posted by Faisal Farooq
on Jan 2 2012. Filed under Opinion, Pakistan, South Asia.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
