Pakistan Press Foundation

In a letter to Pakistan’s top civil and military leaders, Jang/Geo media group explains that incidents of intimidation of its staff have increased to an alarming level since the 19 April attack on television anchor Hamid Mir.

In the aftermath of allegations and counter allegations following the attempted murder of popular anchor Hamid Mir, the Pakistan government sought to ban Geo Television, the country’s largest TV channel, following a complaint initiated by the Inter Services Intelligence agency.

Senior journalist and anchorman Hamid Mir was shot by unknown assailants. He had previously warned his colleagues and officials of an alleged Inter Service Intelligence plan to “eliminate” him.

Imtiaz Alam, a journalist and television anchor for Express News, received death threats while the house of Bureau Chief Jamshed Baghwan was attacked for the second time since March.

Unidentified men opened fire on the vehicle of Pakistani journalist Raza Rumi, killing his driver and wounding a security guard. This was the fifth attack on the Express media group in the last year.

After a series of increasingly violent events, IFEX members and supporters call on Chief Executive Leung Chun-Ying to take clear and deliberate steps to defend press freedom.

Two employees of a media house were injured when two unknown men hurled hand-grenades at the main gates of the Business Recorder Group and Nawa-i-Waqt, in Karachi, Pakistan. Another bomb was discovered in the parking lot of ARY television network.

The Pakistani militant group Jundallah claimed responsibility for an earlier attack in February, in retaliation for the screening of a film which was considered “anti-Shariah”.