(RSF/IFEX) – The following is a 26 February 2007 RSF press release: International Fact-Finding Mission Tells Government It Must Solve Security Crisis Confronting Journalists The Pakistani government was yesterday urged to solve the security crisis for journalists by an international fact-finding team, including Reporters Without Borders, when it ended a four-day visit with a press […]
(RSF/IFEX) – The following is a 26 February 2007 RSF press release:
International Fact-Finding Mission Tells Government It Must Solve Security Crisis Confronting Journalists
The Pakistani government was yesterday urged to solve the security crisis for journalists by an international fact-finding team, including Reporters Without Borders, when it ended a four-day visit with a press conference in Islamabad.
“The government must heed the urgent call from journalists’ and press freedom organisations to put an end to the violence to which the Pakistani media are exposed,” Reporters Without Borders said. “By talking to the team’s members, the authorities showed they were ready to listen to criticism. Now the words must be urgently translated into action, and energetic measures must be taken to put an end to impunity and extra judicial activity.”
The fact-finding team was in Pakistan from 22 February until yesterday at the initiative of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). The team, which included a Reporters Without Borders representative, met with journalists who have been the victims of violence, the families of journalists, federal and provincial officials, civil society representatives and politicians in Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar.
At yesterday’s news conference, IFJ president Christopher Warren appealed to the Pakistani government to honour its promises to guarantee the security and rights of journalists. The fact-finding team condemned the lack of results of police investigations into the murders of journalists. In some cases, the families of victims are themselves the target of violence if they complain about the lack of action by the authorities.
The Reporters Without Borders representative insisted on the need to put a stop to the wave of kidnapping and harassment of journalists by security services under the orders of President Pervez Musharraf. “Such practices violate the rule of law and are not justified by the fight against terrorism,” Reporters Without Borders said.
The IFJ stressed the problems for many journalists resulting from low levels of pay and the lack of independence of the public media.
Bharat Bushan, the editor of the Indian newspaper The Telegraph, Chris Moley, the president of Britain’s National Union of Journalists, and Sunanda Deshapriya of Sri Lanka’s Free Media Movement were also part of the fact-finding team.
