Foreign scribes covering Afghan crisis face tough time in Pak
ISLAMABAD, Nov 10 (UNI) Nearly 1300 foreign journalists covering Afghanistan from Islamabad, Peshawar and Quetta are passing through difficult times as the Pakistan government has impmsed some restrictions on their movement and the cost of staying has gone up considerably.
The presence of foreign media teams has proved a windfall for local journalists some of whom are making a killing by making at least 200 US dollars a day, a leading Pakistani weekly has reported.
All the hotels, guest houses in the three cities of Peshawar, Islamabad and Quetta have hiked room Chajges by 100 per cent.
One of the hotels in Peshawar has hiked the charges from 125 US dollars to 200 dollars.
The weekly "The Friday Times"said in its latest edition that a leading television network was spending about 25,000 US dollar -on the staying facilities of its journalists.
Many journalists who are not affiliated with big media organisations, have shifted from big hotels to less expensive ones.
A group of 30 foreign journalists was stranded in Asttana area in Panjshir valley in Afghanistan for three days when the pilot of the chartered helicopter demanded that each of them pay 3000 US dollars upfront.
The weekly said that in addition, Pakistani intelligence agencies were keeping a close watch on the movement of foreign journalists as they suspect them to be the agentsnof CIA and RAW, The Weekly said.
"We know there are some CIA people here in the disguise of journalists.
We even suspect that some of the journalists may be hired by RAW," it quoted a Pakistani intelligence officer as saying.
It said that while in the beginning the journalists roamed freely picking up and sensationalising news, some reports by major television networks forced the Pakistan information ministry to slap a ban on journalists visits to Afghan refugee camps and areas adjacent to the Afghan border.
Dozens had arrived in Pakistan even before the hostilities broke out.
They began arriving soon after the September 11 attacks.
"While they are doing their professional work, most of them do not know the area or the cultural, political and other dynamics of either Afghanistan or Pakistan.
The result is obviousmisreporting, even deliberate disinformattion in certain cases," an official said.
"We have taken this decision to avoid misreporting,"federal information secretary Anwar Mehmood said while defending the governments decision to keep journalists away from these areas.
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