Allow access to foreign journalists: CPJ

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published: 9 July 2013

The Committee to Protect Journalists has raised alarms over the expulsion of foreign correspondents from Pakistan. Joel Simon emphasizes the need for improved access for journalists in the country.

Summary

ISLAMABAD: Joel Simon, the Executive Director of Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has written to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif expressing concern about the expulsion of at least three foreign journalists from Pakistan.

The text of the email sent to Nawaz Sharif reads:

“We are writing to express our deep concern about the expulsion of at least three foreign journalists from Pakistan. While Pakistan remains a dangerous country for journalists, we are concerned that it is also fast becoming inhospitable to international correspondents.

As you may know, shortly before your election victory in May, The New York Times' Islamabad bureau chief, Declan Walsh, was unexpectedly expelled from the country under the interim government. Despite protests by the editors of more than a dozen prominent international news outlets, Pakistani authorities have not allowed Walsh permission to return to his post.

Also recently, the two sole Indian correspondents based in Pakistan, Anita Joshua of The Hindu and Rezaul Hasan Laskar of the Press Trust of India, were asked to leave Pakistan after being denied extensions to their visas. In addition, the journalists who are slated to succeed Joshua and Laskar at the end of their expected reporting tenures in Islamabad are still awaiting clearance to enter Pakistan. They applied for visas more than a year ago.

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