PAKISTAN: JOURNALISTS AT RISK

PAKISTAN: JOURNALISTS AT RISK IN BORDER REGIONS
Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF), the International Federation ofJournalists (IFJ) and other IFEX members have voiced great concern aboutthe deteriorating security situation in the border area of Pakistan. Last week, two journalists were shot and wounded in Peshawar, the capitalof Pakistan's restive North West Frontier Province, as they were returningfrom interviewing a Taliban commander in nearby Khyber. Sami Yousafzai, "Newsweek" magazine's special correspondent in the regionand a CBS News stringer, and Yatsukura Motoki, Islamabad bureau chief forthe Japanese daily "Asahi Shimbun", are in stable condition. Their driverwas also shot. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), it's unclearwhether the journalists were attacked for their work or were the targets ofa criminal gang seeking ransom. The North West Frontier Province, as well as the adjoining FederallyAdministered Tribal Areas (FATA), has been the scene of a number of attackson journalists, foreigners and government officials in recent weeks. On 11 November, Khadija Abdul Qahaar, a Canadian freelance journalist andpublisher of the website Jihad Unspun, and her Pakistani translator andguide were kidnapped while travelling in the region's Bannu district, sayCPJ, PPF and IFJ. PPF says tribal elders are negotiating for Qahaar's andher colleagues' release. "The Pakistan-Afghanistan border region has long been unstable, but itsviolence has been steadily spreading into other areas of Pakistan," saidCPJ. "Journalists in the region have long warned about the lack of securityand the threats they face from all sides - Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters,drug lords, gun runners, criminal gangs, and even the Pakistani government.For journalists, as for all others in Peshawar, this is a situation goingfrom bad to worse." In a separate incident, Royal TV and daily "Sahafat" reporter Abdul RazzaqJohara was killed in Mianwali, in the Punjab, on 3 November - the day afterhe did a report on drug trafficking, report PPF, IFJ and Reporters WithoutBorders (RSF). According to RSF, the local police said they arrestedseveral suspects, although five other suspects remain at large. In response to a call from IFJ affiliate the Pakistan Federal Union ofJournalists and the All Pakistan Newspaper Employees Confederation, journalists demonstrated throughout Pakistan on 12 November in protestagainst the latest killings of their colleagues and to urge the authoritiesto go after those responsible.

Visit these links:- PPF: http://www.pakistanpressfoundation.org- IFJ: http://tinyurl.com/5q3tue- CPJ: http://tinyurl.com/5ohryy- RSF: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=29285- IFEX Pakistan page: http://tinyurl.com/23z96j