(RSF/IFEX) – Reporters Without Borders has condemned the decision of the Pakistan government to ban access to the Red Mosque to journalists from the US network CNN. While nearly 200 Pakistani and foreign journalists were on 12 July 2007 allowed inside the mosque complex in Islamabad, where fighting between the Army and the Islamic militants […]
(RSF/IFEX) – Reporters Without Borders has condemned the decision of the Pakistan government to ban access to the Red Mosque to journalists from the US network CNN. While nearly 200 Pakistani and foreign journalists were on 12 July 2007 allowed inside the mosque complex in Islamabad, where fighting between the Army and the Islamic militants inside left nearly 100 people dead, journalists from the Atlanta-based channel were kept away. The decision to discriminate against CNN staff followed a broadcast on the channel on 7 July of a documentary entitled “The threat within”, which dealt with the presence of the Taliban and al-Qaeda inside Pakistan. A crew from CNN was also refused access to a press conference given by the Pakistani prime minister on 10 July.
One of the network’s executives in Atlanta described this act as regrettable.
