Articles by Pakistan Press Foundation
Transmission of leading television news channels blocked
(PPF/IFEX) – Transmission of three leading private television news channels has been intermittently blocked in many parts of Pakistan since 1 June 2007, apparently in an attempt by the government to control the media coverage of the crisis that has engulfed the country since President Pervez Musharraf suspended Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry […]
Government prohibits television coverage of presidential reference on judicial controversy
(PPF/IFEX) – The Pakistan government has prohibited independent television channels from televising programmes, including live talk shows and discussions, on the issue of the presidential reference against the suspended Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. The presidential reference is a legal indictment against the Chief Justice, that was sent to a court comprised of […]
Bullets found in cars of three journalists in Karachi; journalists whose names appear on MRC “hit list” consider themselves under threat
(PPF/IFEX) – In what is being described as a death threat, on 29 May 2007, bullets were found planted on cars belonging to three journalists in Karachi, the capital of Pakistan’s southern Sindh province. Identical envelopes, each containing a bullet for a 30-bore TT pistol, were taped on the windscreens of cars belonging to Mazhar […]
Journalist’s house attacked with hand grenades
(PPF/IFEX) – Unidentified persons lobbed two hand grenades at the house of journalist Nasrullah Afridi on 26 May 2007, damaging the boundary wall and veranda. Afridi, the correspondent for the daily “Mashriq” in the tribal Khyber Agency, was publicly threatened the previous week by a leader of Lashkar-i-Islam, a militant Islamic organisation. Fortunately no one […]
Ethnic political group allied with ruling party releases journalist “hit list”
(PPF/IFEX) – The Mohajir Rabita Council (MRC), an ethnic political group in Pakistan’s southern province of Sindh, has issued a list of twelve Pakistani journalists it denounced as being “chauvinists”, and criticized their alleged role in the violence during protest rallies held in Karachi on 12 May 2007, during the visit of the suspended Supreme […]
Journalist receives death threat
(PPF/IFEX) – A leader of an Islamic militant organisation, Lashkar-i-Islam, in the Khyber Agency of Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), issued a death threat to a local journalist on 22 May 2007. Mangal Bagh declared that Nasrullah Afridi, a correspondent with “Daily Mashriq” and “The News”, was to be “killed with missiles”, and announced […]
Editor brutally beaten over coverage of judicial crisis
(PPF/IFEX) – On 18 May 2007, unidentified individuals assaulted and injured Shakeel Ahmad Turabi, editor-in-chief of the SANA news agency, in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad. In a complaint filed with the local police, Turabi said two men intercepted his car, dragged him a few yards off the road and then beat him. The assailants […]
Armed activists attack private television channel
(PPF/IFEX) – Aaj TV, a leading television channel in Pakistan, came under gunfire attack for almost six hours on 12 May 2007 during clashes between government supporters and opposition activists that took the lives of 36 persons in Karachi, the country’s largest city. The attackers also set ablaze vehicles in the parking lot of the […]