Senior journalists demand security for Chakwal reporter

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published last year |  Press Statement

ISLAMABAD—Senior journalists have strongly condemned the provocative statements of an extremist group against journalist Nabeel Anwar Dhakku in Chakwal.

In a joint statement issued on Tuesday, Nasir Zaidi,  Nasir Malick, Asmatullah Niazi, Dr. Touseef Ahmed Khan, Matiullah Jan, Sohail Saghi, and Waris Raza expressed their surprise that a religious group was openly hurling threats at Dhakku for the last few days yet the authorities have taken no action against the leaders of that organization.

The senior journalists noted that the leaders of this organization were threatening the reporter and had also initiated a sustained campaign to create religious hatred against him because of his factual reporting. "Nabeel Anwar merely performed his professional duties by reporting those incidents and events," the journalists said. "Reporting factual incidents is the prime responsibility of a reporter irrespective of his religious beliefs and that is what he did.

They have expressed deep concern that the district and provincial authorities have not taken action to protect the journalist, nor initiated any legal proceedings against those hurling threats to him.

"We believe that a systematic malicious campaign coupled with such inflammatory statements against Nabeel Anwar are creating a grave threat to his life.

The veteran journalists have demanded that the government immediately take action against those running the hate campaign."We demand of the government to provide protection to media persons and to take timely action against those who are spreading hatred in the name of religion."

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