New Delhi
24 March 2007
The Government of Pakistan headed by President General Pervez
Musharraf has unleashed a campaign against certain sections of the Pakistani media
and deployed "repressive, illegal and unethical practices" in its effort to subvert press
freedoms, a leading Pakistani media group has said.
The Dawn group of newspapers, which is Pakistan's largest independent English
language newspaper and magazines publishing house, has drawn world attention to the
the "rapidly worsening environment for the freedom of press in Pakistan".
"It has always been difficult for governments to coexist with a free and independent
press in Pakistan. Of late, however, the government headed by President Musharraf has
become increasingly intolerant towards criticism in the press and towards the publishing
of news that reflects poorly on the performance of his government on security matters,"
Mr Hameed Haroon, CEO and publisher of Dawn group of newspapers said.
"Since December 2006, the Dawn Group is facing massive advertising cuts equivalent to
two thirds of total government advertising. This has occurred primarily as a
consequence of a decision ostensibly taken by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz's
government, but in reality ordered by General Musharraf and engineered by several of
his advisors that constitute the government's inner cabinet," he said.
"Particularly sensitive for the agreement are the escalating developments in Pakistan's
western province of Balochistan, and in the tribal agencies of North and South Wazirstan
on the Afghan border. Also irksome have been the Dawn Group's related attempts to
monitor a recurring tendency toward covert militancy among responsible decision-
makers in government," he said.
Mr Hameed Haroon said that the government also appeared determined to continue the
domination of all news content on TV channels and on FM radio through harsh and
repressive regulatory directives from the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority
(PEMRA). "[This was] evidenced in the grant of temporary uplink permissions in place of
valid broadcasting licenses to selected channels of PEMRA's preference," he said.
"The recent spate of programmes banned on television by PEMRA and a physical attack
engineered by government on the offices of a prominent TV news channel-cum-
newspaper office, clearly demonstrate the prevalence of government's excesses in this
matter," he said.
He asked the Government of Pakistan to continue to submit its policies in Balochistan
and its agreements with the pro-Taliban tribesmen of North and South Waziristan to the
rigorous assessment of public and media scrutiny. The Government of Pakistan should
"desist from abducting and arresting journalists in the judicious performance of their
duties, and desist from physically attacking newspaper offices as has occurred last
week in Islamabad," he observed.
"Recent events in Pakistan indicate that attempts by the government to curtail the
autonomy of the judiciary have been on the increase. This may have facilitated a
temporary unintended pause in the government's relentless campaign to muzzle the
press [but] such pauses presage a return to more coercive methods by government
against the press, once the messy business of the executive -- judicial conflict is
brought to a successful halt," he added.
No comments:
Post a Comment