Sino-Pak- Iranian alliance against freedom of press

Reporters without Borders’ report gives indication that countries with controlled feudal structure, monarchy or dictatorship have worst environment for journalists. Findings of this report suit best to describe the hostile environs for Pakistani journalists in the discharge of their duties

Pakistan has been ranked among lowest in the list of the countries as far as the freedom of press is concerned, with the government and its marauding and unbridled agencies using strong arm tactics to gauge free press and tame journalists, the Press Freedom Index 2010 reveals.

Compiled by Reporters without Borders with the help of data given by local researchers, journalists and correspondents, Pakistan has the potential to form a ‘union’ of 28 countries, counting from the bottom of index. The index measures violations of press freedom in the world. It reflects the degree of freedom that journalists and news organizations enjoy in each country, and the efforts made by authorities to respect and ensure respect for this freedom.

 Pakistan made her alliance with Saudi Arabia, China and Iran against war on media journalists . The Index 2010 reveals that Pakistan is still much better country than Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Sudan, Yemen, Burma, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Swaziland, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Somalia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tunisia, Vietnam , Cuba, Laos Rwanda , China Syria, Iran, Turkmenistan,, North Korea and Eritrea.

The report gives indication that countries with controlled feudal structure, monarchy or dictatorship have worst environment for journalists. All these findings suit best to describe the hostile environs for Pakistani journalists in the discharge of their duties. All these systems have one common organ of the state to ‘function’, which is the role of calendestine organizations which make the real difference.

In the case of Pakistani it is the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, which is state-within-the state and its every act is described to be aimed at protecting the much maligned ‘national interest’. ISI’s role in torturing and abusing Pakistani journalists is an open secret and its unscrupulous spies trample the rights of journalists with impunity. More often than not, even the governments find themselves helpless before these ‘protectors of the national interest’ as they can form or dismantle the elected governments. Pakistan’s history is replete with such cruel examples.

The so-called war on terror contributed a lot in endangering lives of the working journalists but Pakistan still has no excuse to stand lower than the neighboring Afghanistan in the index.

Sounds like a report from RAW as it shows that most of the Muslim majority countries lack basic human values and respect for human rights, on the contrary report has been compiled with the help of data gathered by local journalists, researchers and activists in their respective countries.

The current dispensation headed by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has set a trend to create suspicion about the validity of international surveys and credibility of international organizations, instead of taking such surveys as guideline or part of democracy and accountability process.

Numerous allegations were raised against Transparency International and Gallup polls. Pakistan could have easily lift his stature and could be placed much higher than current position of 151 in the list if government have had ever persuaded the cases like that of Omar Cheema – a correspondent of Daily The News- or those of the missing persons cases which are a stigma in the face of the elected government.

Omar Cheema case is recent example of manhandling by clandestine agencies and if government could have been able to provide relief in few reported cases in the past, Pakistan would have attained a respectable status in the list.

Reporters without Borders has taken account not only of abuses attributable to the state, but also those by armed militias, clandestine organizations and pressure groups.

A questionnaire was sent to Reporters without Borders’ partner organizations (15 freedom of expression groups in all five continents), to its network of 140 correspondents around the world, journalists, researchers, jurists and human rights activists. A scale devised by the organization was then used to give a country’s core to each questionnaire.

The index does not give any indication of the quality of the press in the countries concerned. The Index rank countries for the existence of physical violence in the country. In the questionnaire it was asked whether journalists were tortured or mistreated during detention, kidnapped, illegally detained (without an arrest warrant, for longer than the maximum period of police custody, without a court appearance, etc.)? Role of the armed militias or clandestine organizations in regularly targeting journalists is another factor to determine the state of human rights in the country.

Another question: Did representatives of the state carry out any or all of these acts of violence? Keeping in view the reported incidents only, what defence government can produce? Is this report again a pack of lies? May be Raw and Israeli networks lobbying to destablise democracy in Pakistan.

Restrictions on access to or coverage of any region(s) in the country including an outright ban or strict government controls was among the survey questions which establish control of state or agencies on reporting facts, which are definitely influenced if such control exists.

Follow up of sensual stories is not a trend in Pakistan and this has also been considered a serious threat to freedom of expression. Many subjects like missing persons case, steel mills, presence and anti-state activities of the Black Water agents in Pakistan, are hard to find in follow-up stories. It is not due to the lack of interest or training or illiteracy, rather it is due to pressure by state organs/intuitions which with the passage of time of time have become stronger than state itself.