Asia Pacific- The
World's Largest Prison for Journalists - Annual report Asia 2002
"The crime of blasphemy, punished
by the death penalty, has become a sword of Damocles hanging
above the media" Indian Reporters banned in Pakistan.
Pakistan media freedom
report 2002
The war in Afghanistan allowed the Pakistani
press to prove its maturity and pluralism. The government of
President Pervez Musharraf, which sided with the Americans in
the war against terrorism, allowed the foreign press, with the
exception of reporters from neighbouring India, to freely cover
the conflict. But the repeated use of the country's law on blasphemy
against journalists is a dangerous trend for press freedom in
Pakistan.
The war in Afghanistan allowed the Pakistani
press to prove its maturity and pluralism. The government of
President Pervez Musharraf, which sided with the Americans in
the war against terrorism, allowed the foreign press, with the
exception of reporters from neighbouring India, to freely cover
the conflict. But the repeated use of the country's law on blasphemy
against journalists is a dangerous trend for press freedom in
Pakistan.
"Among the enduring forces of our country
is the free and courageous press," said Najam Sethi, editor
of Friday Times, one of Pakistan's most liberal publications,
in the middle of the Afghan crisis. The US military operation
"Enduring Freedom", which placed this country at the
heart of a new international crisis, showed that the Pakistani
press could maintain its independence and its difference. English-language
newspapers supported the decisions of President Pervez Musharraf
in his call to rally around the antiterrorist coalition, yet
managed to retain their critical tone. However, the Urdu-language
press constantly denounced "crimes" committed by Americans
against the Afghan people.
Some publications with links to fundamentalist
parties openly supported the Taliban regime, and published pictures
of Osama bin Laden on their front pages. In spite of tensions
in the country, especially demonstrations in support of the Taliban,
the regime of General Pervez Musharraf, who became the country's
president in June 2001, did not attempt to muzzle the press.
Thousands of foreign journalists from dozens of countries had
no difficulty entering Pakistan after September 11 to cover the
Afghan crisis.
Only Indian reporters, or those of Indian
origin, were refused press visas, and two of them were expelled
from the country. But the government, citing security reasons,
kept the foreign press out of sensitive parts of the country,
especially the tribal zones along the Afghan border. At least
seven reporters were arrested for not respecting instructions
from authorities. The Pakistani government, and some of the country's
media, expressed their discontent several times concerning foreign
press coverage of the situation in the country. One Pakistani
reporter said that most foreign journalists had never visited
Pakistan and had no awareness of the context of the situation.
"Fundamentalist demonstrations are on
the front pages of all the newspapers, and make the leads of
all the television news programs in the world. But they only
represent a few tens of thousands of people in a country of 140
million inhabitants. How can you explain this ?" said one
journalist based in Islamabad. Peshawar, Quetta and Islamabad
have become a "Journalistan" where every excess is
seen : the prices of Pakistani and Afghan "fixers",
as well as those for hotel rooms, skyrocketed.
But new threats to press freedom in Pakistan
appeared in 2001. Two newspapers were shut down, and several
journalists were arrested for writing articles considered "blasphemous"
by fundamentalist groups or by the authorities. The crime of
blasphemy, punished by the death penalty, has become a sword
of Damocles hanging above the media. One must hope that the policies
of the new government, which is attempting to limit the influence
of fundamentalist movements in the country, protect the press
from the abusive use of this blasphemy law. As of 1 January 2002,
two journalists are still in jail for this "crime".
Finally, in some regions of the country, especially the tribal
zones, the safety and freedom of journalists are limited. Local
authorities and traditional leaders threaten correspondents who
denounce their abuses, often committed in the name of emergency
laws.
One journalist killed One journalist was killed
in 2001. But, as of 1 January 2002, it is impossible to say whether
this murder was related to the victim's activities as a reporter.
On 1 September 2001, Assadullah, journalist with the Kashmir
Press International press agency, was killed in a street in Karachi
(south of the country). The 30-year-old journalist, father of
a six-month old daughter, was a former student leader. Neither
the police nor the press agency had any ideas on the identity
or motivation of the murderers.
New information on media employees killed
before 2001 On 5 March 2001, Karachi police announced the arrest
of Uzair Qureshi, suspected of being involved in the organisation
of an attack on the offices of the Urdu-language daily Nawa-i-Waqt
in Karachi (south of the country). This attack, in November 2000,
cost the lives of three newspaper employees. Uzair Qureshi allegedly
confessed. According to Pakistani police, this suicide bombing,
committed by a Bengali woman, was done under the orders of Indian
secret police. The two countries accuse each other of fomenting
terrorism in their respective countries.
Eighteen journalists jailed As of 1 January
2002, at least three journalists are in jail. Ayub Khoso, columnist
with the local daily Alakh (no longer published), has been jailed
since 18 December 1999 in the central prison of Hyderabad (Sindh
province, south of the country) for violating the Blasphemy Law.
He was sentenced to seventeen years in jail according to sections
295 (A) and 34 of the Pakistani Penal Code and section 8 (B and
D) of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997. On the evening of 29 January
2001 police arrested Aftab Ahmed, news editor, Imtiaz Hussain,
chief reporter, Qazi Sarwar, columnist, Waijul Hasan, computer
operator, and Munwarul Hasan, in charge of the editorial pages,
of the English daily Frontier Post in Peshawar. Policemen also
sealed the newspaper's offices. This decision taken by the NWFP
(North-West Frontier Province) government followed the publication,
on the same day, of a letter to the editor entitled "Why
do Muslims hate Jews ?" The authorities considered this
an insulting letter to Muhammad, the Holy Prophet, because it
criticised the way the Prophet treated Jews.
The journalists were arrested under Section
295-C of the Blasphemy Law that carries the death penalty. Mehmood
Afridi and Javed Nazir, respectively managing editor and co-editor,
were also wanted by the police. According to Mehmood Afridi,
two dishonest staff members published this letter with the intention
of harming the newspaper. The manager claimed to be the "victim
of a conspiracy" and published in the online version of
the daily, dated 29 January, a letter of apology to the "Muslim
people". The chief of police confirmed that the newspaper
was closed until further orders. The authorities refused to disclose
the whereabouts of the five staff members detained. President
Musharraf declared that his government would "no longer
tolerate the publication of such scandalous information."
On 30 January, fundamentalist demonstrators attacked the newspaper's
offices and burnt its printing press, while other demonstrators
threw rocks at the Peshawar Press Club.
They marched in the streets chanting, "Arrest
journalists and execute them." Police officers, stationed
at a distance from this demonstration, did not intervene. On
31 January, the NWFP government disconnected the Frontier Post
web site (frontierpost.com.pk). The following day, Peshawar religious
leaders demanded that authorities identify those guilty of blasphemy
within one month. Demonstrators again marched in the streets
and burnt two cinemas. On 2 February, the NWFP government named
Qaim Jan Khan, a judge with the High Court of Peshawar, to investigate
these accusations of blasphemy. The All Pakistan Newspapers'
Society (APNS) sent a mission to Peshawar to negotiate the release
of the journalists and the reopening of the newspaper. On 14
February, Imtiaz Hussain, Qazi Sarwar and Wajiul Hasan were released
after being found "innocent" by a preliminary police
investigation. The three journalists paid bail of around 2,000
euros after spending seventeen days in jail. On 9 March, the
judge of the High Court of Peshawar, in charge of the investigation
into the publication of the blasphemous letter, concluded in
his report that it was the result of "sheer negligence".
The judge revealed grave mismanagement in
the newspaper. He also said that four employees were responsible
for the publication of the letter : the managing editor, the
news editor, the sub-editor and the typesetter. On 13 March,
Aftab Ahmed was released on bail after fifty-four days in jail.
It was not until 20 June that the Frontier Post was again authorised
to publish. But as of 1 January 2002, Munwarul Hasan was still
in jail because no one offered to put up his bail. This Frontier
Post employee, a former heroin addict who had been committed
to a psychiatric hospital several times, was distraught by his
extended detention. In October 2001, the NWFP Interior Minister
refused to allow a Reporters without Borders mission to meet
Munwarul Hasan in prison. In addition, the charges against the
newspaper still stand, but the investigation is blocked. On 4
June, police arrested Shahid Chaudry, managing editor, Shakil
Tahirkheli, news editor, and Raja Muhammad Haroon, sub-editor
of the regional daily Mohasib, published in Abbottabad (fifty
kilometres north of Islamabad). They were detained according
to articles 295 A and C of the Blasphemy Law. Police, led by
officer Mumtaz Zareen Khan, raided the homes of the newspaper's
employees and threatened them with arrest. The three journalists
were detained for two days in the Cant police station and then
transferred to jail in Abbottabad.
These arrests were linked to a complaint for
blasphemy filed by Waqar Jadoon, leader of the religious group
Khatme Nabooat Youth Force. The suspects faced the death penalty.
On 5 June, authorities of the Pakistan's North West-Frontier
Province banned, sealed and took away the publishing licence
of Mohasib. This decision followed the publication, on 29 May,
of an article entitled "The Beard and Islam." In this
text, a famous intellectual and poet, Jamil Yousaf, criticised
the position of Pakistani fundamentalists who affirm that a man
without a beard could not be a good Muslim. He wrote, "I
demand that religious leaders find me a single verse in the Koran
where it says that growing a beard is a sunnat. (…) The
Prophet spoke about almost everything that a Muslim must do to
conform, but he never talked about beards. (…) If Muslim
preachers say that we must grow beards because the Prophet did
this, then their words and actions should be complementary. (…)
The Mullahs should not travel in Pajero jeeps because the Prophet
never used this vehicle." Since its publication, some fundamentalists
in the town of Abbottabad publicly threatened the newspaper.
On 8 June, police arrested Muhammad Zaman Khan, managing editor
of Mohasib, even though he had been granted with bail until 13
June. On the same day, during a demonstration organised in Abbottabad,
religious leaders called for the death penalty for those responsible
for blasphemy.
On 15 June, some fundamentalist imams of Abbottabad
threatened journalists Sardar Abrar Rashid, Mir Muhammed Awan
and Syed Kosar Naqvi, leaders of local press associations, with
the "worst consequences", because of their support
for Mohasib's staff. Sardar Abrar Rashid told RSF that he feared
for his life and his family. "Our lives remain at stake
at the hands of religious fanatics," said the journalist.
On 14 June, the Federal Ministry of Religious Affairs announced
that the article in Mohasib did not fall under the Blasphemy
Law. While recognising that its content could "injure religious
sentiments", the government in Islamabad was opposed to
the legal measures taken by the local authorities against the
newspaper's staff. According to a journalist in Abbotabad, this
demonstrated that "this accusation of blasphemy was a good
opportunity to shut down a critical newspaper." On 19 June,
several sources confirmed that the four journalists had been
beaten and detained in very harsh conditions the week after their
arrest. Fundamentalist activists harassed their families, and
their wives could not leave their homes for fear of being attacked
by militants. On the evening of 27 June, Muhammad Zaman Khan
suffered a heart attack in his Abbotabad jail cell. Zaman Khan
had been complaining of chest pains for several days, but prison
authorities refused to provide him with appropriate treatment.
He was transferred to the Cardiac Care Unit
of the District Headquarters' Hospital in serious condition,
under tight police security. Despite the journalist's problems
with high blood pressure, doctors at Hospital said this heart
attack was due to stress and a lack of proper treatment in jail.
On 18 July, Muhammed Shahid, Muhammed Haroon, Shakil Ahmed Tahirkheli
and Muhammed Zaman Khan were freed from the Abbottabad jail,
after 45 days, after a court accepted their request for bail.
Many of their colleagues received them at the town's Press Club.
Yet, as of 1 January 2002, the authorities have still not dropped
the charges against them, and Mohasib is still closed. On 27
June, special judge Karim Raza Shamsi of the Lahore court (Punjab
province) sentenced Rehmat Shah Afridi, editor-in-chief of the
English-language Frontier Post and Urdu-language Maidan, to a
double death sentence for drug smuggling. The court also fined
him 2,000,000 rupees. His co-defendants, Abdul Malik and Missal
Khan, were each sentenced to ten years in jail. Police took major
security measures for the announcement of this verdict, which
provoked the anger of the Afridi family. Rehmat Shah Afridi had
been jailed since 2 April 1999. He was arrested by members of
the Anti-Narcotics Force in Lahore for the possession, according
to the police, of 20 kilos of marijuana. The journalist was tortured
in the first weeks of his detention, and has consistently pleaded
not guilty ; he claimed he was a victim of vengeance by the anti-drug
agency, which is funded by the United States government. A few
weeks before his arrest, his newspaper had published an article
accusing Anti-Narcotics Force officers of involvement in drug
smuggling.
In 2000 and 2001, his trial was delayed several
times, and the Anti-Narcotics Force was unable to provide evidence
of his direct involvement in the drug case. Irregularities and
contradictions were also discovered during the investigation
and the trial. Some Anti-Narcotics Force agents recognised that
the first report was false. Moreover, defence lawyers claimed
that the drugs that supposedly belonged to Afridi had never been
analysed by the Anti-Narcotics Force, although an officer of
the agency said the contrary during the hearings. Lawyers also
pointed out that, in similar drug smuggling cases, the death
penalty had never handed down. Judge Karim Raza Shamsi replied
that, "the defendant is an educated man, and is more responsible
than an illiterate." The president of the Pakistani Jurists
Association told RSF the verdict was "biased" and a
"conspiracy against the newspaper". The Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan also condemned the sentence. Rehmat Shah
Afridi appealed to the High Court of Justice of Lahore, and the
appeal is pending. On 5 October, Olivier Ravanello and Jérôme
Marcantetti, reporter and cameraman with the French news channel
LCI, Muhammad Iqbal Afridi, correspondent with the daily Al-Akhbar,
Syed Karim, journalist with the national newspaper Khabrian,
and Rifatullah Orakzai, reporter with the newspaper Khyber Mail
based in Peshawar, were arrested by inhabitants of Tirah valley
(a tribal zone of Khyber Agency, off-limits to foreign journalists).
The French reporters and their Pakistani fixers
were attempting to approach new Afghan refugee camps that had
been set up by the Pakistanis in this border region. Tribal members
handed them over to local authorities after accusing them of
being "American spies". They were held in the building
of the Khyber Agency political authority in Peshawar. Olivier
Ravanello and Jérôme Marcantetti were released on
8 October, in part thanks to the intervention of the French embassy
in Pakistan. The three Pakistani journalists were again questioned
by the authorities who accused them of entering the valley illegally
and even of "attempting to kidnap French reporters".
Their families feared that they would be transferred to a detention
centre of the police's special department, where ill-treatment
is frequent. The local authorities announced that they considered
leaving their release or judgement up to a traditional assembly,
the jirga. The journalists could also receive serious sentences
for helping foreigners enter a tribal area. On 16 October, an
RSF representative visited the three journalists in jail. "We
are detained with criminals and we can go to the toilet only
twice a day," one of the journalists said. The authorities
had refused to allow their relatives to visit them for the first
ten days after their arrest. They said that this detention, which
they considered "illegal", could be revenge for their
writings. "We were made to understand that we could be released
if we promised not to write any articles critical of the administration,"
one of them said.
But, on the afternoon of 18 October, the three
tribal journalists were released after thirteen days in detention.
The brother of one of them said, "First the political authority
told us that they could only be released on bail. This meant
that charges against them would be upheld. That was not acceptable
to us. We refused, but the authorities gave in to national and
international pressure and they released them unconditionally."
One of the journalists, Iqbal Afridi, went on a hunger strike
for 72 hours to protest against his long detention. On 8 October,
Aziz Zemouri, reporter with the French weekly Figaro Magazine,
was arrested by tribal militia members in Ghulam Khan, in the
North Waziristan tribal zone. He was handed over to authorities
who transferred him to Peshawar, where he was detained and interrogated
by the immigration department and Pakistani secret police. He
was beaten when he refused to be chained. Aziz Zemouri was arrested
by the tribal militia while attempting to cross the Afghan border
in a bus. He had already tried to cross the border the previous
day by negotiating with Taliban border guards. On 16 October,
Pakistani authorities freed Aziz Zemouri after eight days of
detention. The journalist arrived in the capital the same day,
and in France a few days later. On 19 November, Marc Messier,
reporter with the French radio station Europe 1, was arrested
together with his Afghan chauffeur in the Khyber Agency tribal
zone. Local authorities accused him of entering this border zone
without authorisation. Marc Messier wanted to verify a rumour
that a group of Taliban had taken refuge in this border area.
Messier was freed after being held for 36 hours, following an
intervention by the French embassy. Marc Messier received no
explanation. His chauffeur was held for four days by Khyber Agency
authorities.
Five journalists arrested On 31 January 2001,
Kifayatullah, editor-in-chief of Maidan, the Urdu-language version
of the Frontier Post, and five other employees of the newspaper
were questioned for several hours by police. Five journalists
with the Frontier Post had been arrested two days earlier for
blasphemy. On 12 May, journalist Abdul Wahid Bhutto was arrested
by police in Deharki (Sindh province, south of the country) while
covering a demonstration calling for the indictment of police
officers suspected of murder. Police arrested him after roughing
him up, taking his camera and hitting him with a rifle butt.
Abdul Wahid Bhutto was released two hours later. On the night
of 9 November, Christina Lamb and Justin Sutcliffe, respectively
journalist and photographer with the British weekly Sunday Telegraph,
were arrested in their hotel in Quetta (west of the country)
by seven officers of the Pakistani secret police (ISI). Their
telephones were confiscated. Both reporters were questioned then
transferred to Islamabad. On 10 November, Christina Lamb and
Justin Sutcliffe were taken to the Islamabad Airport to be expelled.
According to Pakistani newspapers, Christina Lamb pulled down
her pants in the departure lounge to protest this decision. Security
agents tied her to a wheelchair and placed her in a plane for
London. The authorities accused the two reporters of "acting
in a manner detrimental to Pakistan's external affairs and national
security." The Pakistani police said that Christina Lamb
was "persona non grata" in Pakistan for attempting
to reserve an airplane ticket on a Pakistani airline, in October,
under the name "O. B. Laden".
Even though she was forbidden to enter the
country, she managed to return to Quetta. The Sunday Telegraph
formally rejected this accusation, saying that the reporters
were expelled after Christina Lamb investigated the involvement
of some members of the ISI in providing arms to the Taliban.
Christina Lamb, an experienced journalist and former correspondent
with the Financial Times in Pakistan, had previously been arrested,
questioned and threatened by ISI agents in 1990. At the time,
she had implicated the country's secret police in the delivery
of arms to Afghan fighters. On 10 November, Irfan Qureshi, Pakistani
guide of the French journalist Michel Peyrard, was arrested at
the Torkham (NWFP) border post after being released by the Taliban.
He was held in Landi Kotal (west of Peshawar), in a building
of the political authority of the Khyber Agency tribal zone.
Qureshi was interrogated by Pakistani secret police (ISI) agents,
and was allowed to return to Peshawar the following day.
Fourteen journalists attacked On 31 January
2001, young Islamists demonstrated in the streets of Peshawar.
While covering demonstrations by fundamentalists, called by Jamaat-e-Islami
(Islamist party), Haider Shah, with the newspaper The News, and
Shahzad, with the Urdu-language newspaper Al-Akhbar, were hit
with sticks. The demonstrators attacked a cinema in the centre
of Peshawar after burning the printing presses of the Frontier
Post and vandalising several buildings including the Press Club,
the previous day. On 28 March, Shakil Shaikh, chief reporter
for The News, was kidnapped, beaten and threatened with death
by five armed men in Islamabad. The attackers, in a jeep without
license plates, kidnapped the journalist near Islamabad's commercial
centre. They covered his face, bundled him into the car and started
to beat him with the butt of an AK-47 rifle. He was beaten and
under constant threat of death for more than three hours. One
of his attackers told him, "You write too much. Now you
will not write anymore." They also threatened to kidnap
his wife, children and parents. The reporter was finally released
in a remote village, then taken to an Islamabad hospital. The
journalist filed a complaint with police in Islamabad. According
to his colleagues, Shakil Shaikh had recently published the results
of an investigation on the involvement of soldiers in charge
of transportation in a smuggling ring. On the same day, officials
of the Ministry of Information visited the journalist in the
hospital and promised to investigate the attack.
On 14 May, Hadi Sanghi, photographer with
the Sindhi-language daily Kawish, was hit by police in Larkana,
in Sindh province (south of the country). While covering the
release from jail of Qadir Magsi, the leader of the nationalist
Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party, and eighteen other activists, Hadi
Sanghi was taking pictures of a prisoner being beaten by guards.
An officer attempted to confiscate his camera. The crowd that
had come to celebrate the release of the activists protected
Hadi Sanghi, but police used clubs and tear gas to break up the
crowd. After police caught Sanghi, they took his camera and motorcycle,
and beat him. Prison authorities filed charges against Hadi Sanghi
and 28 other people for "attacking the prison". On
26 July, Amjad Ali Shah, correspondent with the Urdu-language
daily Mashriq in Peshawar, in Dir district (north-west of the
country), was attacked by members of a local organised crime
group. The criminals, who came to question him about articles
he wrote about illegal logging in this district, kicked him in
the head, seriously wounding him. Nearby police officers did
not intervene to protect Amjad Ali Shah. The journalist was taken
to the hospital. After a group of journalists from Dir interceded,
four suspects, Muhammad Zaman, Riyat Khan, Afsar Khan and Kamil
Khan, were arrested for "attempted murder". Amjad Ali
Shah had already received threats from organized crime groups
telling him to "no longer write" about their activity.
On 5 August, Shoaib Bhutta, journalist with the weekly Capital,
was severely beaten by armed individuals in a street of Faisalabad
(centre of the country). The attackers were wearing security
guard uniforms. Shoaib Bhutta suffered a broken leg. He was one
of the rare journalists who had ignored the governmental directive
inciting journalists to actively cover the trial of Asif Ali
Zardari, husband of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. On
29 August, two journalists of the tribal zone, Sahibzada Bahuddin,
correspondent with the Urdu-language daily Khabrian published
in Islamabad, and Anwarullah Khan, correspondent with the English-language
daily Dawn, were beaten as they were leaving their offices in
Bajaur Agency (tribal zone). They were threatened with new reprisals
if they continued to write articles favourable to administrative
reforms concerning the status of tribal zones. They had already
been threatened by maliks (tribal chiefs) who refused that the
emergency laws in the area ("black laws") be ended,
and had received anonymous calls telling them to be "prepared
for all possibilities" if they did not obey the demands
of the tribal chiefs. On 9 October, Patrick Aventurier and Vincent
Laforêt, respectively photo reporters with the Gamma agency
and the US daily New York Times, were beaten by Pakistani policemen
near a madrassa in Quetta (west of the country). The two photographers
were following an ambulance carrying the body of a child killed
during a demonstration against the US air strikes in Afghanistan.
The child's family and fundamentalists had asked the police to
give back the body of this child, murdered the same day in a
village near Quetta. As the convoy was arriving at a religious
school, policemen in grey uniforms attacked the two photographers
and beat them with sticks and the butts of their Kalashnikovs.
According to Patrick Aventurier, "the policemen did not
accept that we were able to shoot pictures of the child's body
with a bullet wound in his head. I don't what they had to reproach
themselves for, but they brutally attacked us while the fundamentalists
were not aggressive."
The same day, the two photographers and the
French consul in Quetta filed a complaint with the police superintendent
of the town. As of 1 January 2002, this complaint has still not
been investigated. Since late September, Pakistani authorities
prohibited foreign journalists from leaving the hotel where they
were staying in Quetta. Because of the violent demonstrations
in and around the town, police and soldiers in this town, near
the Taliban headquarters in Kandahar, blocked the more than 200
reporters present to cover the conflict in Afghanistan. During
a recent demonstration, Taliban supporters threw stones at this
hotel and tried to burn it. In spite of these risks, some foreign
journalists signed a petition asking the authorities to let them
work freely in the town. They were willing to sign a release
discharging the Pakistani police of their security. On 8 December,
Robert Fisk, reporter with English newspaper The Independent
based in Beirut (Lebanon), was attacked and severely beaten by
Afghan refugees on the road between Quetta and the border town
of Chaman. The 55-year-old journalist was attempting to return
to Chaman when his vehicle broke down near Kila Abdullah, a village
of Afghan refugees. While he was getting out of the vehicle to
push it off the road, he was attacked and stoned by a group of
about 40 refugees, who unsuccessfully attempted to take his bag.
Fisk was wounded in the head, face and hands. Covered with blood,
his glasses lost, he was saved at the last minute by a religious
leader who forced the crowd to back away and took him to a police
vehicle. The next day, Robert Fisk, a specialist of Arab countries,
wrote in The Independent that he would "have done the same
if he was an Afghan refugee" and that he "understood".
On 15 December, three journalists with a German television channel
were attacked by members of a Pashtun tribe throwing stones in
Dir province (north of the country). Police officers had to fire
shots in the air to save the three reporters accused of supporting
the Americans against the Taliban.
Three journalists threatened On 5 August 2001,
Hayatullah Khan told RSF that he had received new threats and
was obliged to stay in hiding. He is the correspondent of the
Urdu-language daily Ausaf in Mir Ali, the divisional headquarters
of North Waziristan Agency (one of the tribal zones in the north-west
of the country). Local authorities had been harassing the journalist
since June. Threatened with arrest, Khan left Mir Ali. Chased
by guards of Muhammad Mushtaq Jadoon, he had to flee the town
of Bannu to find refuge in Peshawar. Hayatullah Khan told RSF
: "I have been so harassed and intimidated that I have left
my native town and am talking shelter in one place or another
to escape the administration's strong-arm tactics." The
local authorities criticised the Ausaf correspondent for writing
articles about the weakness of the North Waziristan administration
and the growing influence of the Taliban. Under orders of Mushtaq
Jadoon, men ransacked the journalist's house several times and
arrested one of his relatives to force the journalist to surrender.
Moreover, local authorities filed several complaints, all ungrounded
according to the journalist. On 30 July, members of the Tribal
Union of Journalists demonstrated in Peshawar, demanding the
removal of Political Agent Mushtaq Jadoon. Because of this pressure,
the governor of Northern Waziristan dropped all charges against
Hayatullah Khan. The governor of the NWFP was said to have intervened
in favour of the journalist. On 18 August, Hamid Mian Shaikh,
correspondent with the daily Roznama in Hyderabad (south of the
country), reported in the newspaper that police had seized a
large cache of weapons near the offices of the Mutahidda Qaumi
Movement, (MQM, party of Indian refugees fighting against Jamaat-e
Islami). Several hours later, he received a telephone threat
from Syed Afzal Ahmed Shah, a former MQM Member of Parliament
for the province, who ordered him to come to his office to "pay"
for publishing this article on the front page of the newspaper.
The journalist received anonymous phone calls in the following
days warning him of "reprisals". After several other
journalists in Hyderabad intervened, MQM officials said they
would no longer apply any pressure to Hamid Mian Shaikh. On 4
October, Akhtar Hussain Jaffri, correspondent with the Daily
Express Karachi (Urdu-language daily) in Khairpour (in the region
of Sukkur, in the heart of Sindh province), was threatened by
police while investigating a recent ban of bullhorns in public
places and religious buildings. Jaffri protested to the superintendent
of police who threatened to arrest him.
Pressure and obstruction On 1 February 2001,
police searched the Peshawar offices of the Urdu-language newspaper
Jasarat, close to Jammat-e-Islami. The newspaper had just published
excerpts of a letter considered "blasphemous", which
led to the arrest of five journalists and the closing of the
Frontier Post. The newspaper recognised publishing these excerpts
to stir up Islamist demonstrations against the Frontier Post.
On 22 February, the cabinet of General Pervez Musharraf sent
a circular to ministries and regional administrations forbidding
government employees from passing on information from official
documents to journalists or employees of other government departments.
Violators cold face sanctions that included prison terms. The
distribution of this circular, classified "Secret",
followed a "leak" which called into question the independence
of the courts. The press had passed on the recording of a conversation
between a former Minister of Justice and a judge of the High
Court in Lahore. In this conversation, the minister asked the
judge to indict former Prime Minister in exile Benazir Bhutto.
In April, seven journalists from Hyderabad, Shakeel Ahmed Soomro
of the newspaper Kewish, Ali Hassan Bhutto of the newspaper Koshish,
Sikandar Bhutto of the Daily Mirror, Ramzan Pirzada of the newspaper
Awami Aawaz, Lala Qadir of the newspaper Daily Sindhu, Habib
Ullah of the newspaper Tameer-e-Sindh, and Shams Bhutto of the
newspaper Riasat, were named as "suspects" by police
in Deharki (Sindh province). The journalists and more than 100
other people were accused of inciting the inhabitants of a village
to organise a demonstration, and to "rebel against the power
of the state". The journalists were actually covering a
demonstration of villagers against the local government. A week
after they were named, the journalists were removed from the
list of suspects following orders from the superintendent of
police in the region. On 20 July, Masood Malik, chief reporter
of the right-wing Urdu daily Nawa-i-Waqt, was sanctioned by the
newspaper's editors only a few hours after asking the Pakistani
President a question during a press conference. The journalist
asked General Musharraf, who had just returned from the Indo-Pakistani
summit in Agra (India), if it wouldn't have been easier for a
democratically elected head of state to obtain an agreement with
the Indian president. General Musharraf replied by asking the
journalist if "he was joking". A few hours later, Masood
Malik learned that he had been removed from the newspaper's investigation
desk. According to the private newspaper Dawn, this sanction
could be due to pressure from the authorities, especially the
Press Information Department in charge of regulating the Pakistani
press. The Department denied putting pressure on the editors
of Nawa-i-Waqt. On 27 July, the government renewed the publishing
license of the weekly K2 published in Gilgit in Baltistan (north
of the country).
The newspaper's licence had been suspended
in October 2000 by a judge who said they were publishing "contestable"
information and promoting "anti-Pakistani sentiment".
In the editorial of the first issue published after the nine-month
ban, the managing editor thanked the national and international
organisations that supported K2. On 31 July, a fundamentalist
group from the Waziristan tribal zone (north-west of the country)
burned television sets to "clean society of non-Islamic
influences". Three television sets and one VCR were burnt
in public. On 13 August, about 40 activists of a religious party
set fire to the offices of the Ashfaq press agency in Sarai Naurang
(Lakki Marwat district, NWFP), to protest against the publication,
in an Islamabad newspaper, of an article critical to Maulana
Fazlur Rehman, leader of the fundamentalist party Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam
(JUI). Demonstrators attacked the press agency and burned hundreds
of copies of different Urdu-language newspapers : Khabrian, which
had published the article, Kainat, Mashriq and Aaj. Finally,
they roughed up and insulted the managing editor of the press
agency. On 14 August, the government amended the antiterrorist
law by adding two radical religious organisations to it : Lashkar-i-Jhangvi
and Sipah-i-Muhammad. One of the amendments calls for prison
sentences of up to six months for the publication, printing or
circulation of images or texts relative to people suspected of
belonging to these terrorist organisations.
The government of Punjab province (centre
of the country) said that it would use this new legislation if
the media published articles about these organisations. On 1
September, an article on blasphemy to be published in the 3 September
edition of the American weekly Newsweek was censored by the Press
Information Department (PID) of the Information minister, who
said that that "the article's subject matter is objectionable
and may spark violence". The PID added that, "the decision
was made in the public interest" and "the magazine
itself has not been banned". A letter was sent on 1 September
to the Customs Department, instructing them to seize the copies
of the magazine. The Press Information Department of Karachi
(Sindh province, south of the country) had earlier ordered Liberty
Books Private Limited, Newsweek's distributor for Pakistan, to
tear out the controversial article. This article related in detail
the death sentence of Dr. Younus Sheikh, accused of blasphemy
for teaching his students that the prophet Muhammad was not a
Muslim until he was 40 years old. Starting on 11 September, when
the first foreign journalists arrived in Peshawar, Pakistani
security forces restricted access to some areas, especially tribal
zones and Afghan refugee camps. Groups of reporters who attempted
to circumvent these rules were arrested and sent back to the
centre of Peshawar. On 18 September, Jon Ingemundsew, photographer
with the Norwegian newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad, one of his
Norwegian colleagues, and photographer Ghafar Baig of Pakistani
news agency Online were interrogated by members of the secret
police, after being briefly arrested by Pakistani security forces
while near Peshawar airport and a military base. According to
Ghafar Baig, the agents wanted to know if the journalists had
taken pictures or films of the military base. Shortly after this,
a Japanese television team was arrested near the same base.
The journalists were roughed up and sent back
to their hotels. The same day, Pakistani soldiers prevented foreign
journalists from going to the border town Torkham, located 54
kilometres west of Peshawar. According to a British reporter,
the group was blocked about 10 kilometres from the border. The
previous day, foreign reporters had been manhandled by Pakistani
soldiers and prevented from talking to Afghan refugees. Journalists,
who had Federal Information Ministry authorizations, were threatened
by officers and taken back to their vehicles. On 18 September,
the NWFP government announced that journalists would need official
authorisation to enter the Afghan refugee camps along the border.
But almost no reporters had received such authorisation. An Irish
TV crew was briefly detained on 25 September after filming footage
of a refugee camp near Peshawar. According to the Pakistani journalist
who accompanied them, police only confiscated some pages of their
notebooks. The same day, members of a crew with the American
TV channel CNN, lead by Asian correspondent Mike Chinoy, were
briefly interrogated by an officer of the paramilitary Frontier
Corps. The American journalists were coming from the border region
of Mohmand Agency. In addition, a French TV crew from TF1 was
refused access to Darra Adamkhel, a town 25 kilometres from Peshawar
known for its arms factories. Authorities severely restricted
access to this zone. Finally, police briefly arrested a Japanese
TV crew while they tried to reach the border. According to Eric
Albert, a foreign correspondent for the French daily France Soir,
a member of the security forces forbade him from parking on a
road next to a refugee camp. "He pushed me in my car while
I was just watching the camp," he said. A foreign correspondent
working in Peshawar told RSF that it had become "very hard
to work, because the authorities refuse to grant authorisations.
It is now impossible to get access to places where we can find
news. We are not here to visit the city." Finally, on 24
September, students of the Quranic school of Nowshera (near Peshawar)
threatened to destroy the video cameras of foreign journalists
visiting the madrassa. According to the daily Dawn, students
of Jamia Darul Uloom Haqqania complained to the administration
about the "presence of female reporters". It was not
until 2 October that the Pakistani government finally lifted
the ban preventing foreign journalists from visiting the Afghan
border areas of the country. The authorities also announced that
they would organise trips to the new Afghan refugee camps. The
following day, a CNN crew was allowed to go to the Torkham border
post. According to the Federal Information Secretary who announced
these decisions, the restrictions were taken to protect the journalists
and avoid misreporting about the situation in the country. "We
are ready to facilitate your coverage of events in this part
of the world," he said to foreign journalists gathered in
Islamabad. On 13 October, the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs announced that his government would take sanctions against
journalists attempting to enter Afghanistan illegally through
Pakistan. "Tell your colleagues not to try it," he
said during a press conference. On 25 October, Aditya Sinha,
journalist with the Indian daily Hindustan Times, was expelled
by Pakistani authorities. This North-American journalist of Indian
origin was arrested while covering an assembly of religious officials
and Afghan leaders in Peshawar (north-west of the country). Three
men of the Peshawar secret police (Special Branch) took Aditya
Sinha to a police station, where he was questioned by an officer,
Khalid Massod, who asked him to leave the country to "avoid
problems". "They refused to tell me why I had to leave
the country," said Sinha in an article published in the
Hindustan Times.
"I recommend for your own good to not
delay your departure. Who knows what could happen if you stayed
one day longer ?" said the Pakistani officer. After being
taken back to his hotel to pick up his baggage, he was again
questioned about his contacts with an Afghan women's association,
RAWA. He was then held for more than nine hours by security forces
before being taken to the airport where he flew to the United
Arab Emirates. Aditya Sinha said that he was not mistreated.
Reporters without Borders confirmed that the order to expel the
journalist came from the Interior Ministry in Islamabad. His
arrest occurred just after he renewed his press visa just for
two weeks. He had entered Pakistan on 23 September 2001. After
11 September, no Indian journalists working for Indian or foreign
media were able to obtain press visas from the Pakistani authorities.
Reporters with British passports working for the BBC were refused
because of their Indian origins. Some reporters who were denied
visas included Satinder Bindra, a Canadian bureau chief for CNN
in India, Moni Basu, a journalist living in the United States
and working for an Atlanta magazine, and Raja Mishra, a reporter
with the Boston Globe newspaper, born in Nebraska (United States).
On 20 October, a Reporters without Borders representative was
received by Noor Saghir Khan, General Director of the Ministry
of Information's Department of International Relations. RSF asked
Mr Khan for explanations on the systematic refusal to issue press
visas to Indian journalists. He replied that this policy was
adopted because of the "propaganda and biased reporting"
against Pakistan which was common in the Indian press. He also
said that Indian journalists had publicly insulted the Pakistani
Head of State and in no way deserved to benefit from the facilities
provided to the foreign press by Islamabad. On 23 October, a
journalist with the main Urdu-language daily Jang, based in Karachi,
opened an envelope containing white powder.
A laboratory confirmed several days later
that this powder contained anthrax. On 2 November, the staff
of the newspaper was evacuated and the journalist was taken to
hospital. The Pakistani government expressed its doubts about
the possibility of anthrax being in letters sent to the newspaper.
On 6 November, the Foreign Affairs Ministry called on Mullah
Abdul Salam Zaef, the Taliban ambassador in Islamabad, to stop
his "propaganda" against the United States during his
regular press conferences in the garden of the Embassy. According
to Pakistani authorities, the Taliban diplomat, in his press
conferences attended by hundreds of Pakistani and foreign journalists,
allegedly violated "diplomatic norms" by speaking violently
against a third country, in this case the United States. According
to several sources, Mullah Zaef was not banned from speaking
to the press, but this was a serious warning. In any case, after
6 November, the ambassador did not hold any press conferences.
But on 7 November he received the most important editors of the
Pakistani newspapers at a dinner. Many journalists expressed
their concern, after this decision that could prevent them from
getting official information from the Taliban when most of their
leaders, especially Mullah Omar, very rarely spoke to the press.
At the same time, the United States was planning
to open an "information centre" in Islamabad, especially
to counter "lies" made by the Taliban. Pakistani newspapers
regularly published declarations by Ambassador Zaef about Afghans
killed by American bombings on their front pages. On 16 November,
the authorities in the North-West Frontier Province prevented
a convoy of Pakistani and international reporters from leaving
Peshawar for the Afghan border (Torkham). The previous day, more
than one hundred reporters crossed the border with a convoy of
thousands of armed men organised by the anti-Taliban commander
Zaman. The security forces did not ban the journalists from entering
Afghanistan, but the authorities later announced that reporters
who tried to return to Pakistan would be controlled. According
to several sources, the Interior and Tribal Affairs department
of the NWFP in Peshawar was responsible for this refusal given
to the media. Even reporters from the radio station BBC and US
television channel CNN were banned from crossing the border,
even though they had received "transit permits" from
Federal authorities in Islamabad. On 30 November, the daily Kawish,
based in Hyderabad (south of Pakistan), was the victim of intimidation
by the Sindh National Front (SNF, independentist party led by
Mumtaz Bhutto). Ayoub Shar, one of the party leaders, accused
Niaz Panhwar, editor-in-chief of the newspaper, of not publishing
an entire SNF communiqué on the visit of former Prime
Minister Benazir Bhutto to India. Shar threatened to boycott
the newspaper and organise demonstrations against it. After this
call, the newspaper's staff feared reprisals. The Kawish publishing
group had already suffered a campaign of intimidation and violence
by the SNF, in 1997 ; parts of its offices were burned. On 7
December, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, special correspondent with the
American daily The Washington Post, was expelled from Pakistan.
The authorities accused him of continuing to work after his visa
had expired.
The Associated Press quoted the reporter saying
he had requested a renewal of his visa from Pakistani authorities,
but it had been was refused. On 2 December, Rajiv Chandrasekaran,
Washington Post bureau chief in Jakarta (Indonesia), was arrested
at his hotel in Chaman (western Pakistan) where he had been covering
the war for more than a month. Pakistani secret police agents
questioned him and took him to the airport. This American journalist
of Indian origin had stayed in Islamabad for several days while
his newspaper negotiated with the Pakistani authorities for a
renewal of his visa. On 8 December, about ten armed individuals
burst into the offices of the conservative daily Ummat in Hyderabad
(south of the country) and stormed into the office of its managing
editor, Abdul Hafeez Abid, who was not present at the time. The
attackers hit some members of the newspaper's staff and destroyed
equipment (computers, faxes, televisions, telephones). After
the attack, Abdul Hafeez Abid said he had asked police to protect
the offices of Ummat after receiving telephone threats, but they
did not react. Abdul Hafeez Abid, known for his vitriolic articles
against the MQM party, had already been attacked in the past.
According to local journalists, this attack occurred after the
publication of article, on the same day, incorrectly stating
that Shagufta Jumani and Mazhar Memon (two leaders of the PPP
opposition party) were husband and wife ; they were actually
brother and sister. Another version said that the attackers were
followers of the Anjuman-e-Sarfroshan-e-Islam religious group,
often denounced by Ummat as being "contrary to Islam".
On 11 December, the government dropped at the last minute a bill
on freedom of information from a series of press laws being examined.
This unexpected decision angered associations of editors and
journalists who had already made recommendations about this law.
They claimed that the authorities were "refusing to provide
information on government activity to the private press".
However, one of the laws passed called for
the creation of a press council. The next day, a government spokesman
told the press that the law on freedom of information had not
been completely dropped. He also said that two laws were being
examined : the first would allow the creation of private television
and radio stations, the second would allow public audiovisual
media to hire professionals from the private sector. On 29 December,
the Pakistani government ordered cable television operators to
stop broadcasting Indian programmes received by satellite. Islamabad
authorities said that Indian channels, such as Zee TV and Star
News, were relaying "anti-Pakistani propaganda". If
they did not
respect this order, these operators could
lose their licences. An official also underscored that Indian
authorities have already adopted a similar measure in some provinces.
Source: Reporters Without Fronters Annual
Report on Media Freedom.
|
India annual media freedom report 2002
Tehelka sets investigative reporting
standards in Indian media.
On 6 May, police in New
Delhi arrested six armed men suspected of plotting to assassinate
Tarun Tejpal and Aniruddha Behl, respectively editor-in-chief
and investigative reporter for the online news site tehelka.com.
With some forty thousand publications,
a hundred private television channels on cable, and hundreds
of FM radio stations, India is one of the world's leading countries
in terms of pluralist press and is a promising market.
One hundred and sixty journalists
arrested
Journalists working in states where guerrilla
movements are active are often arrested or are victims of violence.
In the rest of the country, tens of thousands of publications
guarantee truly pluralist information. In addition, the emergence
of dozens of private radio and television stations has marked
the end of the state audiovisual monopoly. The mobilisation of
Indian journalists, jealous of their freedom, has led local and
national governments to withdraw some of their actions, especially
the controversial antiterrorist law.
The resignation, in March 2001, of the Minister
of Defence and the president of the party in power, following
a momentous investigation by the online publication tehelka.com,
is a fine example of how the Indian press fulfils its role in
the balance of power in the country. With some forty thousand
publications, a hundred private television channels on cable,
and hundreds of FM radio stations, India is one of the world's
leading countries in terms of pluralist press and is a promising
market. But several problems remain. In Kashmir, and in the north-eastern
states, where separatist or Marxist guerrillas are rife, journalists
are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Rebels threaten to
retaliate against them if they do not publish their press releases.
Security forces and local authorities accuse them of supporting
the rebels and do not hesitate to arrest journalists or search
press offices. Pradip Phanjoubam, a publisher in Manipur State
(north-east), says that, "in an insurrectional situation
such as ours, the press is always the institution that has to
walk the straightest line."
Relations between local government and the
media can also be contentious. The return to power of the populist
Jayaram Jayalalitha in Tamil Nadu State (south of the country)
has led to heightened tensions. A journalist was arrested, more
than a hundred and fifty were taken in for questioning, and local
authorities have accused the press of "biased" coverage.
The strength of the Indian press lies in its
capacity to mobilise journalists. In December, the government
withdrew part of its new antiterrorist law. This would have required
journalists to provide authorities with any information they
have on "terrorist activity", with prison sentences
for those who refuse. In Tamil Nadu State, journalists' demonstrations
helped lead to the release of a reporter who had been imprisoned
by local authorities. Finally, in January 2001, the press of
Manipur State created a protection committee. This committee
called for boycott of the coverage of activities of local authorities
until police officers who had attacked reporters were tried.
The country's television boom, and especially
that of its cable operators, continued in 2001. With seventy
million homes equipped with televisions and more than thirty
million cable subscribers, India is a promising market. Indians
have access to more than eighty-five television channels offered
by more than forty thousand cable operators.
One journalist killed
One journalist was killed in 2001. But, as
of 1 January 2002, it is impossible to say whether this murder
was related to the victim's activities as a reporter.
On 30 July 2001, Mool Chand Yadav, a journalist
with the daily Punjab Kesari, was shot by two unknown people
in a street of Jhansi (Uttar Pradesh State, north of the country).
According to his colleagues, Mool Chand Yadav, fifty-three years
old, was murdered because of his investigations into organised
crime. Yadav was also in charge of a local journalists' association.
Two journalists jailed
On 20 August 2001, a police officer arrested
Rajesh Bhattarai, editor of the Nepalese-language daily Aajo
Bholi, at the newspaper's offices in Gangtok (Sikkim State, north-east
of the country). Bhattarai was arrested according to article
153 (a) of the penal code, which allows for a prison sentence
of up to three years for anyone, "provoking tensions among
communities by their writings or speeches". The newspaper
had been in conflict with local authorities for more than a year
over the publication of an article claiming that the Prime Minister
of Sikkim had "insulted" a movement representing the
Nepalese minority. One week later, Rajesh Bhattarai was released
on bail for medical reasons, but the charges against him were
not dropped.
On 20 November, Sivasubramanian, a journalist
with the Tamil language magazine Nakkeeran, was kidnapped in
Salem, a town located in Tamil Nadu State (in southern India).
After the chief editor of Nakkeeran, R. Gopal, filed a request
of habeas corpus to obtain the release of his reporter, police
from Karnataka State announced that the journalist had been arrested
for "suspicious trips" and possession of "electronic
gadgets" in this south-western state of Karnataka. He was
first detained in compliance with articles 212 and 34 of the
Indian penal code, two charges that allow defendants to be released
on bail. Following additional interventions by the editor of
Nakkeeran, Sivasubramanian was charged in accordance with the
Arms Act and can no longer be released on bail. He is being held
by the Special Task Force of Karnataka State, and no one has
been authorised to see him since his arrest. Sivasubramanian
has been accused of "supporting" the bandit Veerappan
and of "possessing illegal arms and explosives". The
Special Task Force allegedly seized, on 22 November, arms, munitions,
explosives and electronic material following confessions made
by the journalist. According to R. Gopal, Sivasubramanian was
probably tortured into providing information on which the police
based its new charges. Sivasubramaniam is known for having been
the first journalist to interview the notorious Indian bandit
Veerappan, who has managed to evade the police for 15 years.
He also played a major role in the negotiations for the release
of hostages held captive by the bandit, among them the actor
Rajkumar. However, according to R. Gopal, his arrest may be tied
to a series of articles about acts of violence, especially against
women, committed by the Special Task Force in the pursuit of
Veerappan.
One hundred and sixty journalists
arrested
On 24 June 2001, Karin Steinberger, a German
journalist with the daily Suddeutsche Zeitung published in Munich,
and Steve McCurry, an American photographer, were arrested in
Digboi, in the easternmost part of Assam State (north-east of
India). Both reporters were on assignment for the German magazine
Geo. They were accused of meeting separatist leaders of the United
Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA, a banned movement) in camps
in Bhutan. They were released two days later after questioning.
Police ordered them to leave the State of Assam.
On 27 June, Suresh, a reporter with the private
television channel Sun TV, was arrested in Tamil Nadu State (south
of the country) while covering a demonstration of the former
Prime Minister of this state. The politician, together with a
group of partisans and a dozen reporters, entered a public grain
warehouse without authorisation to verify grain quality. Suresh
was accused of "trespassing on public property". According
to his colleagues, he was the only person arrested because the
state government was in conflict with Sun TV, which is owned
by someone close to the opposition. The next day, some fifty
journalists skirmished with police who prevented them from going
to the government seat in Chennai (formerly Madras) to deliver
a petition calling for Suresh's release. On 29 June, more than
two hundred journalists marched in the streets of Chennai, their
mouths gagged to protest the arrest of their colleague. As they
approached an official building, police surrounded them and forced
them into trucks. One hundred and fifty-seven journalists were
held for more than six hours. They were accused of "disturbing
public order". The same day, police released Suresh on bail.
Forty-one journalists attacked
On 10 January 2001, police officers attacked
correspondents with the magazines Imphal Free Press and Poknapham
in Jiribam (Manipur State), who had written articles on security
problems in this remote region in the northeast of the country.
On 19 January, Surinder Oberoi, a journalist
with Agence France-Presse and RSF correspondent in the Jammu
and Kashmir province (northwest of the country), was beaten and
threatened with death by a Kashmir police officer in a street
of Srinagar. The journalist went to a street near his office
where a bomb had exploded in order to help injured people and
cover the event. A few minutes later, policemen arrived and asked
the people to leave, fearing a second blast. G. M. Dar, an officer
with the police special forces (Task force), who was present
on the scene, ordered journalists to leave. He attacked Surinder
Oberoi : after insulting him and pointing his AK 47 rifle at
him, he hit him several times. Following the intervention of
other journalists, the police officer stopped. A few minutes
later, Surinder Oberoi complained to a senior officer about this
attack. This complaint angered police officer Dar who, with other
policemen, beat the journalist again with their rifles. According
to the reporter, the officer shouted at him, "This is the
last normal day of your life." Surinder Oberoi complained
to the Kashmir police chief who promised an inquiry and sanctions
against the authors of the attack. One year after the attack,
no sanctions had been taken against officer Dar.
On 25 April, journalist Vaibhav Purandare,
a correspondent with the daily Asian Age, was violently pulled
from his car and beaten by some forty members of the Shiv Sena
Party (Army of Shiva) on Elphinstone Bridge in the centre of
Bombay (west of the country), while he was covering a religious
ceremony. He showed the Shiv sainiks his identification, but
they replied that only reporters from Saama, the Shiv Sena newspaper,
were allowed to cover the event. Vaibhav Purandare was taken
to hospital in the city of Parel where he was treated for bruises
on his body and face.
On 10 May, seventeen journalists, cameramen
and photographers were beaten and threatened with death by members
of the 194th battalion of Border Security Forces (BSF) in Magam
(30 kilometres north of Srinagar, the summer capital of Kashmir).
The victims were : Kumaramanglam and Sanam Anjum, cameramen with
the channel Enadu TV, Syed Muzaffar, photographer with the daily
Srinagar Times, Sheikh Mushtaq, journalist with the Reuters press
agency, Faya Kabuli, photographer with Reuters, Fayaz Ahmed,
photographer with Daily Aftab, Nassir Ahmed, cameraman with the
channel Zee TV, Bilal Bhat, photographer with Asian News International,
Ajaz Rahi, photographer with the Associated Press, Mehraj-u-din,
cameraman with Associated Press Television, Shujat Bhukhar, journalist
with the daily The Hindu, Tauseef Mustafa, photographer with
Agence France-Presse, and Missar Ahmed, photographer with the
daily The Hindu. BSF members, led by officer M. Mallik, assaulted
the media professionals who had come from Srinagar. The officer
asked his men to drive the journalists out of the town and beat
them with their rifle butts. The Enadu TV cameraman was taken
to hospital with a serious head injury. At least six cameras
and video cameras were broken during the attack. The BSF accused
the journalists of "exacerbating tension" in the city.
The previous night, a bomb exploded killing eight people. Shooting
followed between Kashmiri separatist groups and security forces
and led to the death of a BSF officer. The BSF officers later
patrolled the streets, shooting and destroying shops. Two days
later, the director of the BSF announced that an investigation
was being opened concerning this incident. As of 1 January 2002,
no sanctions had been taken against those responsible for the
attacks.
On 15 July, Hindi demonstrators attacked journalists
covering the Indo-Pakistani summit in Agra (near Taj Mahal, north
of the country). Rana Jawad, reporter with the newspaper Uttura
Choudhury, was wounded when his press vehicle was attacked. A
group of correspondents from Agence France-Presse was also attacked
by young Hindus who shouted, "Death to Pakistan, death to
Musharraf."
On 11 August, Border Security Force (BSF)
members brutally attacked four employees, including the publisher,
of the Urdu weekly Chattan published in Srinagar. A few minutes
after a grenade was thrown at a BSF position in Srinagar centre,
soldiers entered the Chattan office looking for the perpetrators
of the terrorist attack. BSF men beat three newspaper employees
with their rifle butts and arrested one of them, accusing him
of having thrown the grenade. Tahir Mohiudin, publisher of this
weekly that is very critical of Indian presence in Kashmir, was
also beaten and insulted by soldiers. The employee arrested was
released the following day, but the two others remained at hospital
for almost a week. BSF officers apologised to the Chattan editor
but no sanctions were taken against the soldiers. "Raids
in newspaper offices are quite frequent, especially during crackdowns,
but this is the first time we suffered such a violent attack,"
Tahir Mohiudin told RSF.
On 13 August, thirteen journalists were roughed
up by police during a demonstration of the Dravada Munnetra Kazhagam
alliance (DMK, opposition party) in Chennai (formerly Madras,
Tamil Nadu State). Police officers charged the journalists, including
a team from the television channel Zee TV, who were taking pictures
of and filming a Jeep on fire near a police building. One of
them suffered head wounds, the others suffered contusions from
being beaten with sticks.
Pressure and obstruction
In early 2001, the separatist group Revolutionary
People's Front launched a campaign in Manipur State against the
"Hindi cultural invasion". They threatened to retaliate
against the owners of two local cable television networks, which
broadcast films in Hindi. Out of fear of being attacked, both
companies ceased broadcasting films and other programmes in Hindi.
But under pressure from security forces and authorities, they
had to reinstate their Hindi programming. "If Hindi programmes
are stopped, the two operators may be closed down," threatened
one official. The next day, activists of the Revolutionary People's
Front burst into the offices of these companies and threatened
their managers with death.
On 23 January, Bal Thackeray, leader of the
Hindu nationalist party Shiv Sena, filed charges for "slander"
against the news magazine Indian Weekly. He asked for more than
twenty-seven million euros in damages. This monthly revealed
the links between Thackeray and a member of the mafia, Bharat
Shah, arrested earlier that month.
On 1 February, grenades were thrown at the
headquarters of the governmental television station in Kashmir.
Indian authorities claimed that this attack, which caused no
damages, was the work of Kashmiri separatists.
On 13 February, the Indian government announced
its decision to ban the French television channel Fashion TV,
broadcast on cable. Sushma Swaraj, Minister of Information, justified
this decision because of the "vulgarity" of its programs.
On 20 February, the Indian government reversed their decision
after coming to a compromise with executives of Fashion TV who
promised to offer programming "more in touch with Indian
sensibilities". In early March, the Minister of Information
ordered public television channels to remove two commercials
considered "obscene". She said that these television
channels were promoting "nudity" and "anti-Indian"
values. It seems that the Minister has transformed the country's
Central Monitoring Service (created in 1980s to oversee "anti-Indian
propaganda") into an administration responsible for controlling
television content considered too sexually explicit. She is not
afraid of being "compared to an Indian Mullah Omar"
and states that she is defending the "dignity of Indian
women".
On 19 March, the High Court of Madhya Pradesh
(centre of the country) sentenced Rajendra Purohit and Vinay
Panshikar, editors of the English-language daily The Hitvada,
and two other journalists of the same newspaper, to six months
in prison for "contempt of court". The newspaper published
on 4 July 2000 a petition entitled, "The court's verdict
in the Niyogi murder case is nonsense," in which the High
Court of Madhya Pradesh was strongly criticised for acquitting
suspects in a murder case. The journalists appealed this decision
before the Supreme Court. They were not arrested.
On 20 April, police seized copies of the American
magazine Time in newsagents in the main cities of the State of
Kashmir. Several hours earlier, students had demonstrated against
this weekly that published, in its edition of 16 April, a cartoon
showing the prophet Mahomet. The next day, more than five thousand
Muslim students demonstrated in the streets of Srinagar accusing
Time of "blasphemy". Police broke up the crowd after
cars had been burned. The editor of the Asian edition of Time
apologised for offending Muslim "feelings".
On 26 April, the High Court of New Delhi summoned
the managing editor and four journalists of the satirical magazine
Wah India for "contempt of court", following a complaint
filed by an association of magistrates. At the same time, police
searched the offices of Wah India and seized several hundred
copies of the magazine. The April issue of Wah India was also
removed from sale at newsstands in the city. The magazine had
published a list of judges of the High Court of New Delhi rated
according to their level of integrity. On 2 May, Madhu Trehan,
managing editor of Wah India, presented his apologies to the
judges after the first hearing. On 28 May, the judges handed
down a verdict : they accepted the apologies of the magazine
and dropped the charges. During the trial, managing editors of
six of the country's most important publications had contested
the decision of the High Court to limit the coverage of the Wah
India journalists' trial. On 3 May, judges decided to remove
this ban.
On 6 May, police in New Delhi arrested six
armed men suspected of plotting to assassinate Tarun Tejpal and
Aniruddha Behl, respectively editor-in-chief and investigative
reporter for the online news site tehelka.com. Police claimed
that Pakistani secret service agents had recruited the suspects
to assassinate the two journalists who had revealed a bribery
affair involving Indian ministers and generals. According to
police, Pakistan was attempting to discredit the Indian government.
The revelations made by tehelka.com led to the resignation in
March of George Fernandes, Minister of Defence, and of Bangaru
Laxman, president of the Hindu Nationalist Party (BJP, the party
in power). But some media, including tehelka.com, expressed their
doubts on the truth of this conspiracy. An Indian journalist
questioned by RSF said that it could be a "manipulation"
to cover up the scandal and especially to allow police to reinforce
their surveillance of those in charge of the online newspaper.
Several days later, police announced that Tarun Tejpal would
benefit from "reinforced protection Z", reserved for
the most important personalities. At the same time, the journalist
said that he had not received any threats. Pakistan, for its
part, denies any involvement in this conspiracy. In August, the
Indian government threatened to file charges against the director
of tehelka.com after a daily newspaper revealed that reporters
working for the site had used prostitutes to entrap politicians
and military officers. Members of Parliament belonging to the
party in power, who were implicated in this scandal, called for
the immediate arrest of the journalists. Tarun Tejpal replied
that, "an extraordinary investigation calls for extraordinary
means."
In July, the Parliament definitively adopted
a law on freedom of information, which provides limited access
to State information. Article 8 forbids access to information
which could "affect the sovereignty, integrity, security,
economic interests, international relations, and internal relations"
of India.
On 4 August, twelve police officers from the
State of Jammu and Kashmir went to the offices of the magazine
Kalchakra, in New Delhi, to arrest its managing editor, Vineet
Narain. The journalist was out of the city and avoided arrest.
He decided to go underground. An arrest warrant was issued against
him in December 2000, for "contempt of court" by judicial
authorities of the province. Vineet Narain had published in 2000
a series of articles implicating high officials of Jammu and
Kashmir in an influence-peddling scandal. He also wrote about
the illegal funding of Kashmir separatist groups. Narain refused
to be judged in this Himalayan province where he feared for his
life. Since his articles were published, Vineet Narain received
many threats. In January 2001, he was attacked and threatened
with death during a conference on corruption, by individuals
close to the government of Jammu and Kashmir. On 9 August, the
court of Jammu and Kashmir again summoned Vineet Narain. But
the court suspended the trial sine die on the very day of the
hearing because of a wave of violence in the province. Vineet
Narain is known for having revealed a scandal implicating Indian
ministers in 1996.
During the month of September, the United
National Liberation Front (UNLF, a group fighting for independence
of the State of Manipur, in north-eastern India) ordered the
press to publish an article on the kidnapping of a student leader,
while the People's Liberation Army (PLA, a rival independence
armed group) threatened editors with "terrible consequences"
if this affair was made public. An unlimited strike was called
by the All Manipur Working Journalists Union (AMWJU) to protest
against separatists' attempts to "control the press"
in the State of Manipur.
On 19 November, the government presented Parliament
with the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO). This "antiterrorist"
law calls for prison sentences, in articles 3(8) and 14, to anyone,
including journalists, who does not pass on to the authorities
information they have concerning "terrorist activities".
The law allows for temporary detention of thirty days and sentences
of up to five years in jail for any violations. These two articles
allow courts to sentence journalists to three years in jail if
they do not reveal their sources concerning "terrorist activity"
and especially the names of "terrorists" or sympathisers
that they interview or meet. The law also allows the government
to monitor all types of communication, such as e-mails and telephone
conversations, without any administrative oversight. Many Indian
journalists and human rights organisations have mobilised against
this law. They are especially afraid that this law will lead
to greater self-censorship of information about separatist movements
considered by New Delhi to be terrorists. But on 6 December,
the Indian government announced the removal from POTO of the
article stating that journalists could face prison sentences
for refusing to reveal information on terrorist activities.
On 17 December, the Hindu extremist organisation
Bajrang Dal demanded that cable operators stop broadcasting the
Pakistani channel PTV, accused of "anti-Indian propaganda".
Launched from Bombay, this call followed the attack of the Indian
Parliament by terrorists.
Asia Pacific- The World's
Largest Prison for Journalists - Annual report Asia 2002
In 2001, the Asia-Pacific region had the worst
results in the world for press freedom violations : the largest
number of journalists killed, imprisoned, threatened and attacked,
and the largest number of countries where the right to pluralist
information is not guaranteed.
The coverage of the war in Afghanistan, the
largest assembly of international media since the Gulf War, cost
the lives of eight reporters. But beyond that, Asia has two of
the world's largest prisons for journalists : China, where at
least 14 journalists and 22 cyber-dissidents are jailed, and
Burma, where 18 opposition journalists are waiting for possible
release in insalubrious prisons. In Bangladesh, more than 150
journalists were attacked or threatened with death by political
activists, local organised crime syndicates and police. Finally,
in six Asian countries, including Laos and Vietnam, single party
governments refuse pluralist information.
Covering a war is a very dangerous activity
for journalists. In Afghanistan, eight war reporters lost their
lives. In the southern Philippines, two reporters died at the
hands of security forces or Islamist guerrillas who have been
fighting each other for several decades. But some journalists
also pay for the news they report. The Chinese journalist Feng
Zhaoxia, found with his throat slit, did not commit suicide as
the authorities suggest. He was undoubtedly killed for the stories
he wrote about local organised crime. This case, unique in China,
raises the question of impunity. In Asia, as in the rest of the
world, police and the courts show little motivation to investigate
the murders of journalists. In Sri Lanka, political authorities
have made no effort to find the murderer of the Tamil journalist
Nimalarajan. In Indonesia, those in power have blocked the trial
of the murderers of Dutch reporter Sander Thoenes, who was killed
in East Timor in 1999. Finally, in the Philippines, police investigations
are botched and the enquiry into the murder of Candelario "Jun"
Cayona, on Mindanao Island, suggests police or army complicity
in this affair.
The good news of 2001 was the fall of the
Taliban regime, a predator of press freedom, after American bombings
and attacks by anti-Taliban forces. Yet, before collapsing, the
government led by Mullah Omar arrested six foreign reporters
suspected of spying, banned the Internet and the BBC, and imprisoned
two journalists working with an official magazine. Declarations
favourable to freedom of expression made by interim President
Hamid Karzai, in power since December, stand out in sharp contrast
to the totalitarian conception the Taliban had of the right to
information. With support from the international community, an
independent Afghan press may finally see the light after decades
of oppression.
In some Asian countries, the press fulfils
its role in the balance of power. In India, the investigative
web site tehelka.com revealed a bribery affair which caused the
Minister of Defence and the president of the party in power to
resign. Nevertheless, the press faces many hurdles in Asian democracies.
In Japan, kisha clubs, a system that favours journalists with
the country's dominant media, block pluralist information. Authorities
and the media do not seem ready to abolish this archaic system.
In Taiwan, some important media are still controlled by political
groups, especially by the nationalist Kuomintang Party. The same
is true in South Korea, where the three largest newspapers are
controlled by families with close ties to the opposition conservative
party. This year, the upcoming general elections, which will
be hotly disputed, have incited the government of President Kim
Dae Jung to audit these media that are too critical of him.
Journalists also have their share of responsibility
for the bad image of the press in Asia. The practice of "envelopes",
blackmail and self-censorship are unfortunately very common in
many countries. But even more serious, jihadist publications
in Pakistan and Indonesia openly support radical movements which
are fighting an armed struggle against the "unfaithful".
Some governments still see the foreign press
as a danger, and close off entire regions to reporters. The few
journalists who were able to travel to North Korea in 2001 were
constantly accompanied by guides whose task was to prevent them
from straying from their official programme. In many countries,
authorities impose drastic restrictions which make it impossible
for journalists to investigate when travelling with a press visa.
In Vietnam, Burma, and in the Indonesian provinces of Aceh or
Western Papua, reporters have to travel with tourist visas and
be wary of the omnipresent security forces. And in China, this
year again, international correspondents were prevented from
freely covering the AIDS epidemic in Henan, activities of the
Falungong spiritual movement, dissidence, accidents in mines,
and the situation in Xinjiang and Tibet. This war of attrition
between foreign journalists and Chinese authorities also affects
some Chinese journalists doing their best to cover subjects forbidden
by the Party.
In South Asia, press freedom has been tragically
affected by the conflicts in Afghanistan and Nepal and the political
violence in Bangladesh. In Nepal, the government, fighting against
the Maoist Party, arrested some 40 reporters. Those working for
publications favourable to the Maoist movement are imprisoned
according to the country's antiterrorist law. In Bangladesh,
activists with the new coalition in power (the conservative Bangladesh
Nationalist Party and fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami) have taken
over from the followers of the Awami League, defeated in the
October elections, to lash out against journalists in their turn.
In January, a young reporter had both legs and both arms broken
in an attack ordered by a Member of Parliament. In April, a correspondent
with one of the country's leading newspapers had a leg amputated
after surviving a murder attempt.
In South-East Asia, in the three countries
where press freedom is truly respected, Thailand, the Philippines
and Indonesia, the situation deteriorated in 2001. In Thailand,
the new Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, and those close to
power, renewed state interventionism in the media. Journalists
of both the private and public press have been under direct and
indirect pressure from the government of this "Asian Berlusconi",
known for not accepting criticism. As in the Philippines, two
Thai journalists were killed. In Indonesia, journalists were
targeted by radical political activists, separatist movements
and the army. The government's tolerance could diminish with
the arrival of Megawati Sukarnoputri as President. She has already
recreated the Ministry of Information, which orchestrated the
repression of the press during the Suharto regime. Some people
close to power declare that the press has too much freedom and
that it would be a good thing to limit it. 2002 could be a very
dangerous year in this country.
Nevertheless, the situation for journalists
in those three countries is far from being as serious as it is
in the rest of ASEAN countries. In Burma, Laos and Vietnam, there
is no pluralism. In the two Communist dictatorships of Hanoi
and Vientiane, all media belong to the state. In 2001, these
two regimes even reinforced their laws to better repress the
press. In Burma, while there are some 100 private publications,
they are closely watched by the censorship office. Newspapers,
radio and television are owned by the military. Finally, in Malaysia,
Singapore and Brunei, the authoritarian regimes and restrictive
press laws prevent the emergence of independent media. All this
in the name of "Asian values".
In East Asia, the Chinese regime, its prestige
restored by its membership in the World Trade Organisation and
the granting of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, reinforced its
control over the media, especially regional publications. Just
before a decisive Communist Party Congress, during which Jiang
Zemin is expected to retire, the country's propaganda departments
sanctioned publications considered to be too liberal or too Marxist.
The Pyongyang regime, a protégé of Beijing, has
not given any encouraging signs toward freedom of expression
either.
In the Pacific zone, press continues its development
with certain constraints. The authorities have trouble accepting
criticism from the private press or foreign reporters. Michael
Field of Agence France-Presse was banned from covering the 16-nation
South Pacific Summit by the government of Nauru. He had investigated
money laundering in this tiny Pacific state.
Fortunately, the Internet allows independent
information to circulate freely. Even though repression against
cyber-dissidents in China has been severe (16 of them were arrested
in 2001), the rest of Asia has benefited from the development
of the Internet.
In India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore,
web sites run by independent journalists break down the wall
of censorship and rehabilitate investigative journalism.
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