Struggle will continue till media is independent: KUJ
KARACHI: With the end of first phase of the media struggle that started soon after promulgation of emergency in the country, Karachi Union of Journalists (KUJ) President Shamim-ur-Rahman said that journalists “Have to carry on a long drawn out battle with force and unity” and that “the struggle would continue till the media attained compete independence.”
He was speaking at a KUJ meeting that was convened against the backdrop of detention of journalists who were detained a day earlier and were later released. Wednesday’s meeting was specially called by senior journalists to moot further measures.
Javed Choudhry, moderator, said that the first phase of media struggle was completed and now the second one would be launched after PFUJ’s decision. The struggle of the media would continue till the withdrawal of the Pemra Ordinance and would not end merely with the restoration of the channels.
The Association of TV Journalists President requested the Jang Group management not to link media struggle with that of the restoration of Geo. He said it was a struggle till the independence of media, which included the withdrawal of the Pemra Ordinance.
Geo’s concert honours released journalists
KARACHI: Geo organised a musical concert Wednesday night to honour those journalists who were detained by law-enforcement agencies while protesting against curbs on media outside the Karachi Press Club on Tuesday.
Junaid Jamshed performed his famous song “Dil Dil Pakistan” without musical accompaniment to show his solidarity with journalists. He said he had returned to stage after gap of 20 years for the cause of the media.
Around 30 of the journalists, belonging to different print and electronic media, who faced executive high-handedness were called on stage one-by-one to share their experience in police captivity. They termed it the first stage of their struggle and vowed to continue their protest till the ban was lifted from TV channels, the end of the Pemra Ordinance, and an end to the assault on democratic freedoms.
Ghulam Mustafa who was among four journalists separated and booked revealed that a senior police officer at Sher Shah police station told them that he had orders from higher authorities to torture them. He said the the policeman also requested them to level allegations of torture against him when they are released, otherwise, the higher authorities would take action against him for not doing so. He said that a TV reporter was detained outside the KPC and severely beaten by LEAs who dumped him near the National Stadium late Tuesday night.
Tariq Moin said that the detained journalists observed the death anniversary of the great poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz at the police station by singing his poetry. Faisal Aziz said that this was the start of the sustained struggle against restrictions on the media.
Fahim Siddiqi, Qazi Asif, Abdul Jabbar Nasir, Nasim Rajput, Liaquat Mughal, Raja Kamran, Abdul Jabbar, Shams Imran and others also spoke. Shazad Mughal, Ali Haider, Rog and other singers enthralled the audience.
Geo has also installed projectors and plasmas at its building and wall so people on main I.I. Chundrigar Road could also enjoy it. Famous quotations of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah were also shown on the projector.
Many participants wore T-shirts inscribed with slogans against the emergency and curbs on media.
IFJ joins hands with FFUJ
LAHORE: International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) on Wednesday condemned the imposition of PCO, Pemra laws and detention of journalists and vowed to continue fight for press freedom and for right of the people to know.
In this connection, a pledge to never give up the fight for media freedom was made at a press conference called by IFJ and PUJ at Lahore Press Club here on Wednesday. Kanak Dixit of IFJ, PFUJ president Huma Ali Shah and PUJ president Arif Hameed Bhatti attended the moot.
IFJ also demanded the government to immediately revoke the amendments in media laws and withdraw charges against journalists who have been fighting for freedom after the imposition of emergency in the country.
Speakers at the press conference criticised government for its anti-media actions, they viewed it represented a coordinated policy to prevent the people of Pakistan from receiving independent news and analysis. The policy is also aimed at attacking the livelihoods of thousands of people associated with media organisations throughout the country.
In his address, Kanak Dixit said the liberty and safety of journalists and editorial independence are principles of press freedom, which are sacred and non-negotiable.
There, PUJ president Arif Hameed Bhatti said President Pervez Musharraf had crossed all boundaries to continue his autocratic rule by muzzling the voice of media.
He added, “We condemn all the actions against people of Pakistan and media carried out under PCO.” Detention of journalists, ban on satellite TV channels, pressure on independent press groups and amendment of Pemra laws are unacceptable, he maintained.
“We believe in reinstatement of independent judiciary as existed before November 3 and we demand the restoration of the Constitution,” he expressed.
The participants of the press conference also demanded the government to seek whereabouts of Riaz Mengal, reporter of an Urdu daily of Balochistan, and to arrest the killers of Hayatullah Khan and aid the family of the deceased journalists.
CEC for even-handed coverage on TV
ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan on Wednesday asked the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) to monitor the election coverage of television channels to ensure impartiality and equal treatment to the stakeholders. According to a notification issued here, the commission has directed the authority to make arrangements for proper monitoring of the electronic media, including Pakistan Television. The Chief Election Commissioner, Justice (Retd) Qazi Muhammad Farooq, said that the measure would help ensure proper coverage on media of various political parties and candidates.
Countrywide media protests against curbs, torture
HYDERABAD: Journalists throughout Pakistan on Wednesday protested against the recent media curbs, the closure of television news channels and arrests and torture of journalists in Karachi, Hyderabad and other areas of the country and called for a free media.
In Hyderabad, the journalists registered their protest outside the Hyderabad Press Club, chanting slogans against the governmentís media policy and demanding the withdrawal of draconian media laws.
In Sukkur, print and electronic media journalists staged a big demonstration to protest against the Karachi police action against the journalists.
Addressing the rally, the press club and the SUJ office-bearers strongly condemned the police action in Karachi. They assured the PFUJ and other media organisations of the country of their full support in their struggle.
In Khairpur, journalists observed the World TV Day on Wednesday as a black day and wore black armbands.
Journalist Muhammad Abbas announced self immolation if the channels were not restored within seven days.
Quetta: Police arrested some 30 protesting media persons here on Wednesday while they were staging a demonstration against the curbs on media and the Pemra ordinance. However, on the special directives of the Balochistan caretaker chief minister, they were released after being kept in custody at the City Police Station for over five hours.
Earlier, large contingents of police and law-enforcement agencies were deployed outside the Press Club, but journalists did not pay any heed to the police despite warnings.
The journalists took out a protest rally from the Quetta Press Club (QPC), led by QPC President Shahzada Zulfiqar and others.
Peshawar: Media persons on Wednesday crossed all the barricades to reach for a sit-in in front of the Governor House.
Led by President of the Khyber Union of Journalists (KhUJ) Jan Afzal, General Secretary Nasir Hussain, Bureau Chief of Geo News (English) Behroz Khan, Abdullah Jan and others, the protesting journalists brought out a big rally from the Peshawar Press Club.
The media persons blocked the traffic from all sides in front of the Governor House and staged the sit-in. Addressing the protesters, the KhUJ president, general secretary and other senior journalists lashed out at the government for banning the transmission of Geo and ARY. The speakers also condemned the brutal baton-charge on the protesting journalists in Karachi.
The KhUJ has announced daily protest demonstration at 12 noon till the lifting of emergency and removal of restriction on TV channels.
Agencies add: Faisalabad: The police here on Wednesday baton-charged and tear-gassed journalists protesting against the emergency rule, leaving 10 injured, witnesses and officials said.
Two of them were seriously hurt and a number were arrested. Some 150 journalists wanted to rally outside the Press Club against the media curbs when the police took action.
"Police fired tear gas shells and mercilessly baton-charged journalists," Muhammad Yusuf, a senior member of the Faisalabad Union of Journalists, said.
He told the reporters a tear gas shell hit a woman on the back, while another journalist received multiple injuries because of the baton-charge.
A local police official said a few reporters were arrested. He did not give the figure, but Yusuf said 16 had been taken into custody.
London: Nawaz Sharif and PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif have condemned police action against protesting journalists in Karachi on Tuesday.
In statement released here on Wednesday, they expressed sympathy with the media and lauded their struggle saying the blocking of news channels should immediately come to an end.
Choking the channels
NEW YORK: Shahid Masood's voice cracked during his last live appearance on Geo News. Broadcasting from Dubai, the Pakistani pundit and talk show host was defiant over the news that his nation's most popular private news channel had been ordered off the air.
"We are proud of this moment," said a visibly-shaken Masood, as a clock counted down the minutes to shutdown. Blaming the Musharraf government for pressuring the "government of the friendly country that is hosting us" into evicting the news channel, Masood added, "We did not buckle.
We are going out fighting." Then, last Saturday at 1 a.m. Pakistan time, Geo News went black.
Geo TV Network is hardly the only Pakistani media outlet to fall foul of Musharraf, who blamed the media along with terrorists and the judiciary for his decision to impose a nationwide state of emergency on Nov. 3. But the shutdown of the network, part of one of Pakistan's oldest media empire, even though it was broadcasting from outside the country, lends a new dimension to Musharraf's media crackdown.
Once credited as the leader who had brought new freedom to local outlets, Musharraf's new regulations now prohibit private news outlets from "ridiculing" the "head of state, or members of the armed force, or executive, legislative or judicial organs of the state." Employees who disobey can face up to three years in prison or a fine of 10 million rupees (about $164,000).
On Tuesday police detained some 150 journalists staging a peaceful protest in Karachi against the regulations; they were released after several hours.
The silencing of Geo News and ARY One World, another private news channel broadcasting from Dubai, removes an important source of independent news for citizens in a country in turmoil.
The two channels had been shown via satellite from Dubai's Media City; they were shut down because Dubai authorities reportedly felt they were "interfering in the politics of another country."
Official sources told Newsweek that Musharraf had personally requested that Dubai leaders keep the channels "on a short leash." It is unclear if or when they will be allowed to resume operation.
While some private Pakistani news channels, including a channel owned by one of Musharraf's new ministers and another owned by his son's father-in-law, have been allowed back on the air during the emergency,
they had to agree first to stick to the government's new regulations.
The Musharraf government wants Geo and ARY to follow the same "code of conduct" and to sack "hostile" journalists before it will allow them to go back on the air.
Geo says it has no plans to concede to government demands. In a sign of protest, its satellite frequency is running a loop of its logo adrift on stormy seas.
On Saturday, when the Dubai broadcasts were stopped, journalists at Geo's Davis Road office in Lahore pulled their office furniture out to the roadside. Surrounded by dozens of supporters chanting anti-Musharraf songs and slogans, the staffers stood solemnly behind desks covered with candles and flowers given to them by civil rights activists and regular citizens. Passers-by flashed victory signs in solidarity.
"We are still refusing their demand to fire key anchors and journalists," says Mir Ibrahim Rahman, Geo's CEO, from Karachi. "We do not give in to threats and intimidation."
Rahman says his company is losing $500,000 per day and was not allowed to air the India-Pakistan cricket series, for which it paid $15 million in broadcasting rights. "They've closed all our channels worldwide, including our music, entertainment and sports channels, which have nothing to do with news," he says.
Rahman, like many other Pakistani journalists, says he is especially shocked that it is Musharraf who led the crackdown.
"The president was once all about tolerance," he says. "More than anything else, I can't believe the person [he] has become."
As protests by journalists spread this week, others expressed similar views.
"When Musharraf came to power, there was no free press, no independent media," says Khawar Naeem Hashmi, bureau chief at Geo's Lahore office. Hashmi spent five years in prison under Pakistan's previous military ruler, Gen. Mohammad Zia ul Haq, in the 1980s and was blacklisted from official functions by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1990s.
"In the last few weeks [Musharraf] has undone one of the greatest successes attributed to him," says Hashmi. “[He] will have to restore media freedom in days, not weeks."
Musharraf is unlikely to heed that plea anytime soon. Indeed, Geo was silenced shortly after the Islamabad arrival of U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, who called on the Pakistani government to lift its restrictions on the independent media.
Geo is still streaming some audio and video online and hopes to resume its transmissions from Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand or Afghanistan. But for now, Pakistanis will have to be satisfied with news from their privately owned channels that looks remarkably similar to that broadcast by state-owned Pakistan TV.
Joint meeting of APNS, CPNE, PFUJ and PBA
Emergency hurts free press,freedom of expression, say media bodies
KARACHI: A joint meeting of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS), the Council of Pakistan Newspapers Editors (CPNE), the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and the Pakistan Broadcasters Association (PBA) was held here to consider the present state of press freedom in the country.
The meeting was attended by President and Secretary-General APNS, Hameed Haroon and Muhammad Aslam Kazi, President and Secretary-General CPNE, Syed Fasieh Iqbal and Wamiq Zuberi, President and Secretary-General PBA, Salman Iqbal and Syed Sarfaraz Husain Shah and Shamim-ur-Rahman of the PFUJ. It adopted the following declaration:
“We, the All Pakistan Newspapers Society, the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors, the Pakistan Broadcasters Association and the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists believe that imposition of emergency on November 3, 2007, and the suspension of fundamental rights, consequent upon such imposition, have wreaked heavy damage on the existing structures for sustaining free press and of freedom of expression in Pakistan, freedoms, which are enshrined in Article 19 of the Constitution. Additionally, the suspension of writ jurisdiction and the denial of access to courts against coercive actions by the executive against the press have put the cause of free press back by two decades in Pakistan.
The State and President Pervez Musharraf’s administration have relied essentially on three policy tools to accomplish the gagging of press since the imposition of emergency.
1- All television channels were initially suspended and a vast number of them have been required to sign an undertaking and/or a modified Code of Ethics that renders them vulnerable to the most arbitrary and draconian forms of executive action without effective judicial recourse under the emergency laws.
2- The promulgation of two new black ordinances – the Press, Newspapers, News Agencies and Books Registration Amendment Ordinance 2007 and the PEMRA Amendment Ordinance 2007 – are designed to ensure that while the electronic media and the independent channels can be switched off at short notice or taken off air, the print media is in no position to offer support or even seek legal redress as a corrective action to such draconian measures. The continuing ban on the four channels of Geo along with one ARY channel have been utilised to serve as a chilling reminder to any newspaper or television channel that attempts to oppose the state of affairs.
3- Brutal doses of violence meted out to protesting journalists across the country, in Karachi on Tuesday, in Faisalabad on Wednesday, are ugly reminders of how far the government is prepared to go to maintain a repressive climate for the Pakistani media. The gory scenes of violence and physical intimidation that have been prohibited from broadcast by television licensees and in photographs, which have been prohibited for publication in newspapers in Pakistan under the two new black laws are instead finding their fullest expression in real life on the streets of Pakistan as the police and security forces go on rampage against them. The trend initiated with the attack by the security forces on Geo television in Islamabad in March 2007 has now become a frequent tool of state repression, a trend that needs to be curtailed immediately.
The present state of affairs is no longer tolerable. It appears that enlightened attempts to persuade this administration to change its course of persecution of press and substitute it instead with a policy of dialogue and persuasion now stand only a remote chance of success. If the number of suspended channels that have gone back on air has been considered a success story for constructive engagement, it is also true to say that a massive failure remains. Two of the most important news channels in Pakistan i.e. Geo news and ARY One World still remain off the air while three entertainment channels of the Geo group - Geo entertainment, Geo Super and Aag - have also not been restored on air by the government. It is also feared that consequent upon a total ban on government advertisements in Geo’s sister newspaper, Jang and the remaining publications in group, the newspapers of this group may be the next target of the government, if confrontation continues.
We, having deliberated the situation at length, have come up with the following program of action:
We urge President Musharraf and interim-Prime Minister Muhammadmian Soomro and the interim-Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Nisar Memon to act upon the unanimous demand of four bodies that together represent the whole media – both electronic and print – in Pakistan:
1- As a pre-requisite, we insist that ban on two channels belonging to Geo group i.e. Geo Entertainment and Aag may be lifted as a
Confidence-Building Measure (CBM) for the talks that will ensue between representatives of media bodies and government.
2- A second CBM before the talks requires the total lifting of ban on government advertisements placed in the publications of the Jang group of newspapers to allow a sense of confidence in media to be restored when negotiations ensue immediately
Hereafter the aim of such negotiations will be to lift the ban on Geo News, Geo Super and ARY One World channels, which are still off the air as of this meeting.
3- A withdrawal of black amendments to the two press laws imposed on the beginning of the Emergency to allow normalcy to prevail in the media.
4- An immediate review and withdrawal of all FIRs that have been instituted against journalists involved in recent agitation on the above mentioned matters.
Finally, in addition to the above agenda and plan of action to be tackled by the Government of Pakistan, the four press organisations expressed complete dismay at the delay by Dubai Media City in restoring the two Pakistani news channels in violation of all internationally accepted norms of business. They also urged the UAE government to reconsider the policy shift with respect to the functioning of Dubai Media City and intend to communicate to all important press right organisations and International Chamber of Commerce against the relinquishment of fair business and free media practices.”
Meanwhile, a delegation of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) and Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) visited Geo News office on Tuesday and expressed their unity and reaction on the closure of Geo Network channels.
President APNS Hameed Haroon, Secretary General Qazi Muhammad Aslam and Joint Secretary Syed Sarmad Ali were included in the delegation. President CPNE Fasih Iqbal, Senior Vice President Jabbar Khatak, Vice President Jawaid Hashmi, Secretary General Wamiq Zubairi met with CEO Geo Mir Ibrahim Rehman, President Imran Aslam and Ghazi Salahuddin.
Mir Ibrahim Rehman and Imran Aslam gave details about the shutting down of Geo network channels and also informed about the closure of Geo network entertainment channels “Geo TV”, “Geo Super” and “Aag” without any reason.
The delegation showed its concern over the situation and demanded that electronic and print media should be free and all channels should be restored as soon as possible.
APNS executive committee members Qazi Asad Abid, Anwer Farooqui, Inqilab Matri, executive director Dr Tanweer A Tahir, and Masood Hamid were also included in the APNS delegation.
The CPNE delegation also included Finance Secretary Mushtaq Qureshi and Aamir Mehmood. The delegation also condemned the torture by police on peaceful journalists and their arrest. Later, APNS and CPNE delegation also visited ARY One World office. |
