Af Marianna Tzabiras
De pakistanske medier er på det seneste kommet under mere og mere pres fra Taliban, der bl.a. beskylder medierne for at støtte de ”vantro” mod muslimerne. Nu har gruppen udstedt en såkaldt fatwa mod medierne.
On 17 January 2014, four gunmen riding on motorcycles opened fire on the Digital Satellite News Gathering van of the Express News TV channel, which was stationed in the suburb of Nazimabad in Karachi.
Technician Waqas Aziz Khan, driver Muhammad Khalid, and security guard Muhammad Ashraf were seated in the front of the van. The young men, all aged less than 30, were shot multiple times at close range and rushed to hospital where they were pronounced dead. A cameraman who had been seated in the back survived the attack.
In response to the incident, the government created a two-member committee, consisting of the Minister for Information and Broadcasting and the Interior Minister, and tasked it with consulting media houses and journalists’ bodies on how to devise a security strategy for journalists.
The president of the Karachi Union of Journalists (KUJ) lamented that the media continues to be targeted “while those in power are playing the role of a silent spectator”.
The day after the lethal (dødbringende) attack, protest demonstrations by journalists, photographers, camera operators, politicians and civil society activists were held in Karachi and other cities.
While speaking to the demonstrators, Amin Youssuf, secretary general of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), announced a 10-day mourning period during which black flags would be hoisted outside press clubs throughout the country.
A few days later, the group called for a hunger strike for 23 January, to protest the fact that the killers have not been arrested and proper compensation has not been given to the families of the assassinated journalists. The PFUJ asked unions throughout the country to participate.
The Taliban claim responsibility
Kamal Siddiqi, editor of the Express Tribune, told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) he could not point to any specific reports that could have led to this latest attack.
The outlets that form part of the Express News media group report critically on politics, crime, and international affairs, and have periodically received threats, CPJ reports.
Soon after the attack, Ehsanullah Ehsan, former spokesman for Tahreek e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the killings. According to the Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF), Ehsan accused the Pakistani media of having “assumed the role of the opposition” by spreading “venomous propaganda against the TTP”.
The spokesman warned the media that they must side with the TTP in this war of ideologies or face more attacks.
An attack on the whole media
Læs resten af artiklen: https://www.ifex.org/pakistan/2014/01/23/threats_fatwa/
Marianna Tzabiras er tilknyttet IFEX – “the global network defending and promoting free expression”
