(CPJ/IFEX) – In a 29 October 2001 letter to President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, CPJ expressed concern over his government’s apparent refusal to process visa applications from journalists of Indian descent. Indian journalists, as well as journalists of Indian origin holding citizenship from Western countries, have told CPJ that visa applications submitted in mid-September are still […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – In a 29 October 2001 letter to President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, CPJ expressed concern over his government’s apparent refusal to process visa applications from journalists of Indian descent.
Indian journalists, as well as journalists of Indian origin holding citizenship from Western countries, have told CPJ that visa applications submitted in mid-September are still awaiting approval. Officials at Pakistan’s High Commission in London have informed journalists of Indian origin that the Information Ministry office in Islamabad must clear their applications before they can be approved. Meanwhile, non-Indian journalists typically receive visas within days, if not hours, of submitting their applications.
The few journalists of Indian descent who have managed to acquire Pakistani visas run the risk of being deported. On 25 October, Aditya Sinha, a reporter for the “Hindustan Times”, was ordered by security officials to leave Pakistan immediately. Sinha, who had been reporting from Peshawar for more than a month, had obtained a 15-day visa extension from the Interior Ministry the previous week.
Before putting him on the first available flight out of the country, a security official told Sinha, who holds a U.S. passport, “You are a U.S. national, but on the inside you are an Indian,” according to Sinha’s account published in the 27 October “Hindustan Times”.
Pakistani officials have admitted privately that Indian journalists will not be allowed into the country, according to CPJ sources. As early as 25 September, the Pakistani daily “The News” reported that the “Pakistan government is not issuing visas to Indian journalists saying that they have nothing to report from here except anti-Pakistan stories.”
This restrictive policy has seriously impeded the Indian press, as well as international media companies including the BBC, which has a large South Asia bureau based in Delhi.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to the president:
– urging him to ensure that journalists are not barred from Pakistan on the basis of their nationality or ethnic background
– noting that because the current crisis is one of truly global proportions, it is crucial that journalists from around the world are granted unfettered access to countries currently on the “front lines,” such as Pakistan
– recalling that Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees the rights of all people “to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”
Appeals To
His Excellency Gen. Pervez Musharraf
President, Islamic Republic of Pakistan
Islamabad, Pakistan
Fax: +92 51 922 4206
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
