Re: Muslims are MORE free to speak their mind in Pakistan then they are in US
Actually I watched GEO on the web at the time.
Do you really think the anchors felt free to express their full opinions? Why are so many pakistani news sources located OUTSIDE of Pakistan? Hmm?
Read on:
The Government arrested, harassed, and intimidated journalists during the year. For example, on January 29, the mayor of Mansehra in NWFP killed Sajid Tanoli, a reporter for the Urdu-language daily Shumaal (North) following a report in which Tanoli accused the mayor of alcohol smuggling. The mayor’s brother and son were arrested as accomplices, but he remained at large. On April 21, Pakistani security forces detained and secretly held Afghan national Sami Yousafzai, a Newsweek stringer, who accompanied a western journalist to FATA. Yousafzai was released on June 2. Several local journalists were denied entry to the FATA during the year. On September 9, police in Okara district Punjab detained Sarwar Mujahid, a journalist with the Urdu-language daily Nawa-i-Waqt, following a series of articles he wrote on the ongoing Okara Farms land dispute.
On January 28, authorities brought to court on sedition and conspiracy charges carrying a possible life sentence freelance journalist Khawar Mehdi Rizvi, who was detained along with two western journalists in December 2003 and subsequently held incommunicado for over a month. After reviewing the charges, an anti-terrorism court in Quetta ordered him released on bail on March 29, and he remained free pending trial. In August, the Government dropped the original charges but filed new ones carrying a maximum sentence of 21 years. Trial on these charges was ongoing. Rizvi left the country in December.
Several individual journalists were threatened and intimidated by government agencies for reports that called into question the Government’s commitment to fight terrorism. Amir Mir, who was seriously harassed by the Government in 2003 for an article alleging that the Government condoned the presence of a terrorist suspect in Karachi, was able to republish the story in a book without incident.
Extremist groups also harassed and physically assaulted journalists. For example, on February 24, a bomb exploded without causing personal injuries at the Quetta office of the daily Urdu-language newspaper Jang. The separatist Baluchistan Liberation Army claimed responsibility. On February 29, Shi’a protesters ransacked the Karachi Press Club, injuring a guard, in retaliation for disparaging remarks made during a debate aired on the private television station Geo. Police blocked protesters from proceeding to Geo’s Karachi studios. There were no developments in the 2003 killing of journalist Ameer Bux Brohi.
The Government directly and indirectly censored the media during the year. For example, on May 9, satellite broadcaster ARY cancelled an interview with opposition politician Shahbaz Sharif due to what its executives termed “huge government pressure.” On October 12, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid publicly castigated satellite broadcasters for airing programs “glorifying terrorists” and threatened unspecified action. In response, ARY suspended its popular news program “News and Views,” which had aired a sympathetic report on deceased terrorist Amjad Farooqi. The program was restored on October 25. Media outlets also practiced self-censorship.
On August 31, the Government shut down a new Urdu-language paper, the Islamabad Times, before it could bring out its first issue.
Constitutional prohibitions on ridiculing Islam, the armed forces, and the judiciary and blasphemy laws have been used in the past to censor journalists, although there were no reports of the use of these provisions during the year. On November 11, the Peshawar High Court overturned the 2003 blasphemy conviction of Frontier Post copy editor Munnawar Mohsin Ali, and he was released. Many private media organizations were dependent on government advertising revenue, and two major anti-government newspapers were denied government advertising for several months.
