23 violations against journalists reported in Pakistan in July: report

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published: 10 August 2020

Freedom Network recorded 23 violations against journalists in Pakistan during July, highlighting a concerning trend in press safety. Major incidents included the kidnapping of Matiullah Jan and the murder of Anwar Jan Khetran.

Summary

ISLAMABAD—Freedom Network (FN) on Monday in its monthly report recorded 23 violations against journalists in Pakistan, including the kidnap of Matiullah Jan in Islamabad and murder of social media activist Anwar Jan Khetran (pictured) in Balochistan.

Islamabad recorded the highest violations—ten out of 23, followed by Punjab with five, Sindh (four), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan (two each).

FN reported that on July 23, Anwar was shot dead by unknown assailants near Naharkot area of Barkhan district. He had posted hard questions on social media mostly about corruption in development projects of the region. At the same time, senior journalist Matiullah was abducted on July 13. He was set free after 12 hours. He had earlier been served a contempt of court notice by the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) for a critical tweet about the judiciary.

Ashraf Laskani, a correspondent of local newspaper Eagle Flight, was attacked and injured in Dera Ghazi Khan for exposing a person and his influential father's tactics to trap local people. On the other hand, police arrested Sheeraz Shah Jeelani, bureau chief of Dharti TV, in Khairpur after allegedly recovering some wine bottles from his car. The journalist had posted stories on social media and aired reports on TV against police.

The report said that Imdad Soomro, a Karachi-based journalist with The News, was threatened and abused on social media after sharing his "Media under attack" story.

An enraged mob thrashed Badin Press Club General Secretary Shoukat Memon and his cameraman. At the same time, Muhammad Imran, a correspondent of 92 newspaper in Fatehpur, and Saqib S. Qureshi and anchor of Roze TV in Islamabad, received threats for exposing corruption.

Police threatened Muhammad Ijaz Bhutta of 92 newspaper over a story against them while Ahsan Zia of Kohinoor News received death threats and abusive messages for unknown reasons. However, he believes his criticism of some state institutions and the elite might have upset them.

FN reported that Karachi Press Club (KPC), Rawalpindi Press Club (RPC), and the house of journalist Anwar Shah in KP's Kurram district were attacked and license of the 24 News TV channel suspended during the period in review.