EDITORIAL: Independent and professional journalists in Pakistan face an array of threats, including intimidation, assault, abduction and murder, earning the country year after year the unenviable distinction from international media watchdogs of being one of the world’s most dangerous places for journalists. Yet there is no stopping to this appalling practice.
Those working in militancy-infested areas do their job at the risk of losing life, as has senior journalist Khalil Jibran who reported from Landi Kotal in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). Last Tuesday he was on his way back home from an Eid-related event along with three friends when their car was ambushed by armed men.
He was dragged out of the car and shot 19 times, killing him on the spot. Environment in the area was so fearful that no one from the local residents dared to come near his bullets-ridden body that lay unattended for nearly an hour till the police arrived.
The slain journalist in his early 50s worked for some local dailies and a Pashtu language private TV channel. Highly respected in the profession, he was twice elected as president of the Landi Kotal Press Club. But the work for which he was respected put him in the crosshairs of militants; he had survived a grenade attack. Shocked at his brutal killing, media organisations and press clubs across the province held protest demonstrations, demanding justice and an end to violence against media professionals.
Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) also strongly condemned the murder and called for arrest of the murderers. Although no group claimed responsibility for targeting and killing Jibran, a large number of outraged local residents and journalists staged a protest demonstration on last Wednesday morning.
Pointing the finger at the terrorist outfit, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), they accused the law enforcement agencies of failure to launch a search operation soon after the incident despite information about the presence of TTP activists in the area.
Expressing the same view well-known politician and a senior leader of the National Democratic Movement, Afrasiab Khattak, also made the startling revelation that “Talibanisation is creeping fast” in six to seven districts in the southern KP, making people desperate for change. Public anger, he said, has been brewing for some time, erupting in the public protests over Jibran’s killing.
Whilst press freedom remains under threat all over this country, in the conflict zones objective reporting carries much greater risks. Those familiar with the situation say neither the militants nor administrations in those areas like to see journalists do their job honestly.
As a result, a number of journalists have lost their lives in the line of duty. According to a UNESCO Observatory report, 90 journalists were killed in Pakistan between 2002 and 2022. Many more have since been bumped off. Unless and until free flow of information by word or image gets an upgrade, Pakistan will continue to be listed among the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. Unfortunately, however, who need to take notice of this infamy are least bothered about it.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024