(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has called on the Pakistani authorities to release two French journalists, reporter Marc Epstein and photographer Jean-Paul Guilloteau, who were arrested on 16 December 2003 in Karachi for violating regulations governing the “circulation of foreigners”. They had travelled to Quetta, near the western border with Afghanistan. The organisation also voiced concern that […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has called on the Pakistani authorities to release two French journalists, reporter Marc Epstein and photographer Jean-Paul Guilloteau, who were arrested on 16 December 2003 in Karachi for violating regulations governing the “circulation of foreigners”. They had travelled to Quetta, near the western border with Afghanistan.
The organisation also voiced concern that there is no word on the whereabouts of Khawar Mehdi Rizvi, a Pakistani journalist who accompanied the French journalists to Quetta as their fixer.
RSF noted that the imposition of visa and travel restrictions on foreign reporters is an obstruction to investigative journalism. The organisation urged the Pakistani government to review its rules regarding the provision of visas to foreign news media.
Epstein and Guilloteau, who work for the French news weekly “L’Express”, were taken to the headquarters of the Federal Intelligence Agency (FIA), in the southern city of Karachi, following their arrest by police. A French diplomat was allowed to visit with them there.
The journalists had previously obtained press visas for Pakistan, but because their investigative reporting required discretion, they had reportedly not requested the necessary special permits for their trip to Quetta, in the frontier province of Balochistan.
On 17 December, Epstein and Guilloteau were taken before a Karachi judge who will reportedly reach a decision on their case by 22 December. They face up to three years in prison. Their lawyer plans to request their release on bail on 18 December. Meanwhile, the immigration authorities have said they want to interrogate their fixer, Rizvi. They did not indicate, however, whether he had also been arrested.
A few days before their arrest, Epstein and Guilloteau were briefly detained by police on the road between Quetta and Karachi. Another person was also reportedly arrested for giving them an interview. Police confiscated a computer and notebook from Epstein, and digital camera memory cards and videotapes from Guilloteau.
Both journalists have previously worked extensively in Pakistan. In 2001, Epstein received the Diplomatic Press Prize for a report he and Rizvi produced on the situation in Pakistan’s tribal areas.
